Anthropology of ConsciousnessAbstractVolume 13, Number 1, March-June 2002, pages 60-67 Embodying the Spirits Among The Iu-Mien Jeffery
L. MacDonald This paper explores Taoist rituals among lu-Mien refugees in the United States and the ways in which lu-Mien spirit masters provide means of embodiment for the spirits and gods. The lu-Mien practice over two hundred separate rituals to provide healing, pay the spirits for benefits received, purchase good health, life, children, and wealth from the spirits, provide spirit guardians, and assist souls in their transitions through the lu-Mien universe. This paper examines the ways in which the gods are embodied during specific rituals in sacred spirit paintings (mienvfang), which in themselves are literal bodies of the gods, complete with bones, flesh, and clothing. In other rituals, the Mien spirit masters themselves embody the gods in trance. The relationship of these embodiments to lu-Mien cosmology as well as to communication with the spirit world via divination, ritual, and Chinese literacy is discussed. |
copyright 2004 American Anthropological Association |