TY  - BOOK
AU  - Courtens,Ien
TI  - Restoring the balance: performing healing in West Papua 
T2  - Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde
SN  - 9789004253902
AV  - DU744.35.M42 C687 2008
U1  - 306.09951 22
CY  - Leiden
PB  - KITLV Press.
KW  - Catholic Church
KW  - Missions
KW  - Indonesia
KW  - Papua
KW  - Mejprat (New Guinean people)
KW  - Medical care
KW  - Catholic hospitals
KW  - Traditional medicine
KW  - Healing
KW  - Folklore
KW  - Performance
N1  - Rev. version of the author's doctoral thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen; Includes bibliographical references (p. [237]-246) and index; Preliminary Material -- Chapter I: Performing healing. An Introduction -- Chapter II: Mama Raja. The case -- Chapter III: Spirits of the living -- Chapter IV: Spirits of the underworld -- Chapter V: Performing indigenous healing -- Chapter VI: The missionary hospital -- Chapter VII: Mama Raja. The case continues -- Chapter VIII: Knowing God’s mysteries -- Chapter IX: Walking together -- Chapter X: Performing healing Conclusion -- Epilogue -- Appendix: Healing plants -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index; Available to subscribing member institutions only
N2  - Who made Mama Raja ill? This question, buzzing around the village, starts off this anthropological study on healing performances in the context of religious change. The fascinating case is presented of a seriously ill woman of high standing in northwest Ayfat, located in the interior of the Bird’s Head in West Papua. By unravelling the various explanations of the cause of the illness, and the path Mama Raja followed in search of healing, the author documents how, why, and when Papuan people make their choices in their search for healing. The study offers an ethnographically rich journey through the variety of healing methods in current Ayfat society: indigenous (obtained during female and male initiation rites), biomedical (the missionary hospital), and Christian (created by ritual healers since the coming of the missionaries). Likewise, the causes ascribed to illness range from sorcery, witchcraft, violation of ancestral or biblical rules, to biomedical conditions, a multiplicity of ways of understanding illness and healing that emerged in the context of religious change. Making choices among the variety of healing performances, and the creation of new performances, are shown to be dynamic processes. At the core are the innovative contributions of local healers, particularly women, who chose to create new performances in the face of religious change. Restoring the Balance looks at indigenous and Christian religious practices, and how people in northwest Ayfat have found a way to integrate the two and bring both sides into balance. This book will be hightly useful to anthropologists and others interested in Melanesian and eastern Indonesian cultures, healing, spiritual healing, or religious change. It would make an attractive case study for university courses at any level
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004253902
ER  -