Magico-religious Beliefs Research Articles

Magico-Religious beliefs among primary care takers of manic patients

Introduction: Mania is one of the commonest psychiatric disorders that require immediate interventions. There is a wide held belief that co-occurrence of mental disorders and underlying religious or spiritual problems is found. Local and community belief in such phenomena appeared to be a factor in influencing the decision to seek Magico-Religious treatment. The study was done with the objective to determine the attitudes of the primary care taker with respect to Magico-Religious beliefs which can have impact on treatment seeking behavior and timely consultation to the psychiatrist for underlying condition. Materials and Method: Consecutive fifty primary care takers who accompanied the patient and gave consent were included in the study. The supernatural Attitude questionnaire developed to study the magico religious beliefs was applied to the primary care taker. Both parametric and non parametric statistical tools were applied to analyze the variables. Results: About 48% believed that performing magico-religious rituals could improve the behavior of the patients and 76% of the primary caretakers visited faith healer for this purpose. Association between Magico-religious treatment group and non-magico-religious treatment group with different variables like Age, Sex, Religion, Socio-Economic Status, Education and Occupation, were compared, which shows that, all the variables were comparable and the P-value was not significant. Conclusion: There is a common belief among the primary care takers about the relationship between supernatural’s influences and mental illness. The study concluded that there exists no significant relationship between socio demographic characteristics of a primary care takers and traditional practices and beliefs and hence are independent of each other. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jpan.v2i1.8568 J Psychiatrists’ Association of Nepal Vol .2, No.1, 2013 7-13

Bound Blood: Paiela `Conception‘ Theory Interpreted

While aboriginal populations have been widely reported to entertain magico-religious beliefs concerning conception, the Paiela of the Papua New Guinea Highlands apparently do not. Semen, it is thought, must wrap around menstrual blood many times to keep it from ‘coming outside’ if the woman is to conceive. Bound blood forms the foetus. This seemingly naturalistic view is herein examined for its symbolic content. Uaiela ‘conception’ theory, it is argued, reflects not natural but social structural processes. It constitutes a complex statement, in a metaphoric mode, about the logically prior social arrangements in which conception is embedded and through which sexual reproduction becomes organized. Paiela ‘conception’ theory is revealed to be much broader in its range of competence than Western conception theory; and its relationship to Lévi-Strauss' Elementary Structures of Kinship is explored at the close.

On the Antiquity of Shamanism and its Role in Human Religiosity

AbstractDrawing upon ethnographic data on the thriving and dynamic shamanistic tradition in Nepal (gathered between 1999 and 2008), this paper addresses the problematic nature of many of the central assumptions concerning shamanism and its place in the development of human religiosity. These include beliefs that shamanism was the universal religion of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers and that it represents a neurotheology, the expressions of which have been preserved in ancient cave art and in the magico-religious beliefs and practices of extant or recently extant hunting-gathering cultures on the peripheries of the “civilized world.” The paucity of any concrete testable and falsifiable evidence for any of these assumptions raises the compelling question of why so many anthropologists, archaeologists, and scholars in other fields subscribe to these views. The answer does not lead to some ancient grotto or an undisputable assemblage of Paleolithic shamanic paraphernalia, but to the imagination of Mircea Eliade, whose vision of shamanism is rooted in the musings of nineteenth century anthropologists.

Folk medicine in southern Appalachia

In the first comprehensive exploration of the history and practice of folk medicine in the Appalachian region, Anthony Cavender melds folklore, medical anthropology, and Appalachian history and draws extensively on oral histories and archival sources from the nineteenth century to the present. He provides a complete tour of ailments and folk treatments organized by body systems, as well as information on medicinal plants, patent medicines, and magico-religious beliefs and practices. He investigates folk healers and their methods, profiling three living practitioners: an herbalist, a faith healer, and a Native American healer. The book also includes an appendix of botanicals and a glossary of folk medical terms.Demonstrating the ongoing interplay between mainstream scientific medicine and folk medicine, Cavender challenges the conventional view of southern Appalachia as an exceptional region isolated from outside contact. His thorough and accessible study reveals how Appalachian folk medicine encompasses such diverse and important influences as European and Native American culture and America's changing medical and health-care environment. In doing so, he offers a compelling representation of the cultural history of the region as seen through its health practices.

There are Many Kongo Worlds: Particularities of Magico-Religious Beliefs Among the Vili and Yombe of Congo-Brazzaville

ABSTRACTThe article analyses the distinctiveness of magico-religious practices in the north-western sector of the vast Kongo cultural complex, namely among the peoples who refer to themselves as Vili and Yombe. On the basis of fieldwork and a critical examination of the sources, the article points out that such widely distributed terms of proto-Bantu origin asnkisicannot be covered by a single or even a multi-stranded definition; the variants, ranging from spirit to object, express local and time-specific beliefs. An approach that seeks a single Kongo universe is an ethnographic, historical and linguistic misreading that obscures existing regional concepts while possibly overlooking the importance of other notions. The article focuses on sorting out the basic ethnographic data relating to the beliefs current in the region and reveals not only long-standing aspects, some of them common to the wider Kongo world, but also those that have developed more recently in this particular coastal zone where different peoples trade and interact.

There Are Many Kongo Worlds: Particularities of Magico-Religious Beliefs among the Vili and Yombe of Congo-Brazzaville

There Are Many Kongo Worlds: Particularities of Magico-Religious Beliefs among the Vili and Yombe of Congo-Brazzaville

Magico-Religious Beliefs in Schizophrenia: A Study from North India

Psychiatric disorders in India are often attributed to influence of supernatural phenomena, and many patients are subjected to various kinds of ‘magico-religious’ treatments. We studied 40 cases of schizophrenia and ascertained magico-religious beliefs held by their key relatives. The effects of such magico-religious beliefs on psychopathology and treatment-seeking behaviour were explored. The sample were schizophrenia patients diagnosed according to ICD-10 of the World Health Organisation. Psychopathology was assessed on the 9th version of the Present State Examination (PSE-9). Supernatural Attitude Questionnaire was administered to the key relatives of the patients to ascertain their beliefs about various supernatural phenomena and magico-religious treatments. It was observed that the majority of the patients had undergone magico-religious treatment (n = 23). Nearly 74% of the patients who had symptoms coloured by cultural influences such as delusional explanation in terms of paranormal phenomena had undergone magico-religious treatment. It was also seen that though many relatives denied personal conviction in such magico-religious beliefs, yet they sought some kind of magico-religious treatment for the patients. The prevalence of culturally influenced delusions as defined by the PSE-9 was very low. Belief in supernatural influences is common in patients’ relatives from urban background and with adequate education, and treatment based upon such beliefs is sought to a considerable extent in such cases. Local and community belief in such phenomena appeared to be a factor in influencing the decision to seek magico-religious treatment.

Generational Change, Folk Medicine, and Medical Self-Care in a Rural Appalachian Community

This paper reports on a study of the potential impact of folk medicine on health care delivery in a rural community in southwestern Virginia. The intent of the investigation was to examine some commonly held stereotypical notions within and outside the medical community about rural Appalachians and medical self-care. Interviews were completed with 102 respondents aged 60 and over who were asked what they would do today and what their parents did when they were growing up to treat 65 symptoms of illness. Responses were grouped into 11 treatment categories, including botanical, non-processed natural substances, foods, home articles, proprietary medicines, other commercial medicines, magico-religious, and formal medical care and then analyzed in terms of generational change. Our findings indicate that dependence on folk medicine has declined considerably from one generation to the next, particularly with regard to the application of traditional home remedies and magico-religious beliefs and practices. Contra...

African Sculpture Speaks

Historian and collector Ladislas Segy approaches African art from several different but interrelated perspectives, considering sculptures first as products of a distinct African culture, then as high-quality works of art. Seeking to bring the African carver's work within the scope of the Western observer, Segy stresses the need for appraising African art within its own context, suspending established procedures for art appreciation and viewing the object as it actually is, not as we think it is or should be. Bringing to bear the disciplines of aesthetics, anthropology, psychology, and phenomenology, Segy shows how the deep-seated magico-religious beliefs of the tribal carver creates such a powerful emotional tension in the work that the viewer can recapture that emotion and identify it as part of his own experience. Originally published in 1952revised and enlarged over the yearsAfrican Sculpture Speaks is now in its fourth edition. A systematic style guide analyzes the characteristic features of the different styles of tribal sculpture, and a special chapter for the collector tells how to buy and care for African art. Segy also discusses the styles of the main sculpture-producing tribes in East and South Africa. Included are maps, a bibliography, a list of illustrations, and an index.

: The Middle Ground: Social Change in an Arctic Community, 1967-1971 . Joel S. Savishinsky, Susan B. Frimmer. ; Inkonze: Magico-Religious Beliefs of Contact-Traditional Chipewan Trading at Fort Resolution, NWT, Canada . David Merrill Smith. ; Leadership among the Southwestern Ojibwa . James G. E. Smith.

American AnthropologistVolume 77, Issue 2 p. 407-408 Free Access Ethnology: Inkonze: Magico-Religious Beliefs of Contact-Traditional Chipewan Trading at Fort Resolution, NWT, Canada. DAVID MERRILL SMITH First published: June 1975 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1975.77.2.02a00650AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Abstract Book reviewed in this article: Ethnology: The Middle Ground: Social Change in an Arctic Community, 1967–1971. JOEL S. SAVISHINSKY and SUSAN B. FRIMMER. Ethnology: Leadership Among the Southwestern Ojibwa. JAMES G. E. SMITH. Volume77, Issue2June 1975Pages 407-408 RelatedInformation

The Winged Solar Disk or Ibo Itεi Facial Scarification

Opening ParagraphThis article is based on researches, undertaken in 1930-1 at the request of the Nigerian Government, into the magico-religious beliefs of the Umundri group of Ibo in the Awka Division, Onitsha Province, Southern Nigeria. Umundri means ‘children of Ndri’ (a ‘Sky-Being’).

The Transition to Christianity in the South Pacific

Though the operations of the Christian missionary societies in the nineteenth century are in a general way well known, very rarely do we find a satisfying account of the transition among the native peoples of the mission fields from their old magico-religious beliefs to Christianity. The histories of the missionary societies are full and well documented, but they take too much for granted. The anthropologists give us ideas for which we must be grateful, but we cannot expect them to do the historian's work for him. And surely this subject is of general historical interest.