Priestesses, Yuta, and Ogami People

Abstract

Abstract The priestesses of Henza are not the only ritual experts on the scene. A variety of categories of religious specialists accomplish in Henza what in many other cultures is accomplished by one category-or by an ordered hierarchy-of experts. Aside from religious leaders who identify themselves as associated with an other religious tradition (for example, the Buddhist priests who come to the village from the main island in order to officiate at funerals), Henza is home to at least twenty different ritual-specialist roles. Many of these roles are limited: A particular person or family is responsible for a shrine or for bringing a certain type of food to rituals. Together with the priestesses, the ritual experts most salient in the lives of villagers are yuta and ogami [prayerJ people-almost all of whom are women. In previous chapters, in order to discourage readers from assuming that the content of these roles is the same as that of shamans in other better-known societies, I have chosen to translate both of these words ambiguously as “shaman-type practition ers”; in this chapter I shall explain how these roles are understood in Henza.