Nathan Porath
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Southeast Asian Studies, Faculty Member
- the History and Theory of Liberal Arts Education, Development Studies, Indigenous Studies, Political Violence and Terrorism, Indonesia, Medical Anthropology, and 13 moreCritical Medical Anthrpology Transcultural Psychiatry Anthrpology of Consciousness, Indigenous Peoples, Philosophy of Mind, Anthropology, Religion, Folklore, Shamanism, Magic, Altered States of Consciousness, Anthropology of Consciousness, Trance, ASEAN, and Educational Reform In Thailandedit
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How do shamans therapeutically heal? This monograph explores the processes and techniques of the Orang Sakai of the Upstream Mandau area of Riau (Sumatra). The focus is on some of the therapeutic techniques that shamans employ to... more
How do shamans therapeutically heal? This monograph explores the processes and techniques of the Orang Sakai of the Upstream Mandau area of Riau (Sumatra). The focus is on some of the therapeutic techniques that shamans employ to reconstruct and affect individual and group identity in relation to indigenous concepts of consciousness and selfhood. The therapeutic techniques this book focuses on are; the aesthetics of healing expressed through language -song, the semantics of tropes, quatrains, phonological icons and ribaldry - and kinaesthetics. Through the use of these aesthetic techniques, local healers creatively generate a series of imageries relating to the patient's illness. In a similar vein, healers also provide meanings for threatened group-identity. They meaningfully relate their healing techniques to the social-conditions that affect the local group. In the Malay-kingdom's political-cultural reality, the Orang Sakai of Riau did not have a consciously ethnic frame of reference for their identity. Shamanic therapeutic-techniques help people create novel meanings within a universal-cosmic frame of orientation. Finally, the book explores the contradictory effects that modern concepts such as "ethnicity" and "culture" have on these healing practices.
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How do shamans therapeutically heal? This monograph explores the processes and techniques of the Orang Sakai of the Upstream Mandau area of Riau (Sumatra). The focus is on some of the therapeutic techniques that shamans employ to... more
How do shamans therapeutically heal? This monograph explores the processes and techniques of the Orang Sakai of the Upstream Mandau area of Riau (Sumatra). The focus is on some of the therapeutic techniques that shamans employ to reconstruct and affect individual and group identity in relation to indigenous concepts of consciousness and selfhood. The therapeutic techniques this book focuses on are; the aesthetics of healing expressed through language -song, the semantics of tropes, quatrains, phonological icons and ribaldry - and kinaesthetics. Through the use of these aesthetic techniques, local healers creatively generate a series of imageries relating to the patient's illness. In a similar vein, healers also provide meanings for threatened group-identity. They meaningfully relate their healing techniques to the social-conditions that affect the local group. In the Malay-kingdom's political-cultural reality, the Orang Sakai of Riau did not have a consciously ethnic frame of reference for their identity. Shamanic therapeutic-techniques help people create novel meanings within a universal-cosmic frame of orientation. Finally, the book explores the contradictory effects that modern concepts such as "ethnicity" and "culture" have on these healing practices.
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The paper problematises the context of tribal people’s struggle for environmental justice related to development model in a trajectory of community’s perception; government’s approach to development and attitude to industrial-induced... more
The paper problematises the context of tribal people’s struggle for environmental justice related to development model in a trajectory of community’s perception; government’s approach to development and attitude to industrial-induced health problems; and intervention of civil society. It describes community awareness and demand for health rights by the Karen people of Klity Creek in Thailand with the support of NGOs. Precisely, the paper reports suffering of the Karen people of Klity Creek from industrial lead pollution during the last two decades of the twentieth century and the protest the people have launched, with the help of NGOs, against the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) demanding that their illness be recognised as related to lead pollution. They also demanded chelation therapy which the MOPH was not willing to provide. With public support, they also took the Lead Company and the Department of Pollution Control to court. This paper discusses the events within the context of NGO support.
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ABSTRACT This short article introduces the special issue “Chasing Beauty: Cosmetic Surgery and Skin Lightening in East Asia”. It highlights the scale of and interest in the current boom in these procedures across Northeast and Southeast... more
ABSTRACT This short article introduces the special issue “Chasing Beauty: Cosmetic Surgery and Skin Lightening in East Asia”. It highlights the scale of and interest in the current boom in these procedures across Northeast and Southeast Asia, and outlines some questions of causality and interpretation arising from that boom. It then summarises the contents of the other five contributions to the collection, and identifies a number of common themes and conclusions arising from them. These are: (1) the ongoing eclipse of Western by Northeast Asian beauty ideals; (2) the continuing prevalence of uncritically inegalitarian assumptions about the relationship between physical appearance (especially skin colour) and social status; (3) the widespread framing of physical self-improvement as an ethically as well as economically desirable pursuit; (4) the weakness of cultural impediments to body modification in most countries of East Asia; and (5) the persistence, despite permissive attitudes to body modification as such, of a concern with authenticity and naturalness in ultimate appearance.
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This article focuses on the influence of David Hume's writings and particular the Natural History of Religion on Edward B. Tylor's "Primitive Culture" highlighting the Hume/ Tylor genealogy in the foundation of the discipline. It further... more
This article focuses on the influence of David Hume's writings and particular the Natural History of Religion on Edward B. Tylor's "Primitive Culture" highlighting the Hume/ Tylor genealogy in the foundation of the discipline. It further argues that Tylor developed his argument through three interrelated meanings of the word animism (primitive animism, animism as religion, and animism as ontology/philosophy). Andrew Lang launched his critique against Tylor's first and third meanings of the term "animism" and in the process revealed the influence of David Hume on Tylor. Lang also raised certain phenomenologi-cal issues that are relevant today for the problem of religious experience in the field. [religion, theism, polytheism, animism, spiritual dualism]
In Thailand there is a Buddhist movement called Santi Asok. In recent years one of its lay communities has developed a five-day bodily detoxification course for the good of the