An Octopus Headache? A Lamprey Boil? Multisensory Perception of "Habitual Illness" and World View of the Ainu

Abstract

"Habitual (natural) illnesses," with an implicit assumption of their insignificance, both for the people and the anthropologists, have received little attention in anthropological literature. An analysis of headaches and boils of a group of Sakhalin Ainu now resettled in Japan suggests that the classification of these minor illnesses is intimately related to their world view and that the Ainu view of these illnesses reflects their multisensory perception of their universe.