Folded Persons: Shamans, Witchcraft and Wayward Souls among the Rmeet in Laos

Guido Sprenger

《台灣東南亞學刊》 16卷2期 (2021/10) Pp. 49-78

摘要

Religious phenomena in Laos contain numerous examples of decentered and relational concepts of personhood, manifest in shamanic trance, wandering witchcraft spirits and soul loss. Possession in particular represents a connection between non-Buddhist uplands and Buddhist lowlands. The Rmeet, Mon-Khmer-speaking uplanders, provide examples of folded personhood-persons whose various aspects sometimes represent a coherent whole and sometimes split off, forming separate person-like entities. Folded persons can be positively valued, like in shamans' relationships with their helping spirits, or negatively, as in witchcraft spirits. Both forms are associated with other phenomena, like soul journeys and dangerous shapeshifters. These forms all relate to the manipulation of processes that recreate life, particularly marriage. This also links them to lowland Theravada Buddhist forms of witchcraft, that equally derive from an abusive form of a central exchange relationship.

關鍵字

Personhood ； Magic ； Sorcery ； Zomia

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