Oral Tradition Journal

The Sources of Authority for Shamanic Speech: Examples from the Kham-Magar of Nepal

Issue: Volume 30, Number 2
Author(s): Anne de Sales
Article: View PDF | Download PDF
Citation: http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/30ii/de_sales

Abstract

This article tries to identify the sources of authority that allow the ritual specialists of the Kham-Magar community to act as its spokespersons with invisible partners and say the truth. The author partly challenges Bourdieu’s vision that ritual techniques such as ritual language are mainly techniques of domination. She explores, rather, the truth conditions of shamanic speech and the pragmatic effects of the ritual use of language, including a complex definition of the performer.

eCompanion

Fig. 1. A Kham-Magar shaman in full gear. April 2006.

Photo: Anne de Sales.

Fig. 2. The blessing of the shamans by their main master. April 2006.

Photo: Anne de Sales.

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The Sources of Authority for Shamanic Speech: Examples from the Kham-Magar of Nepal

Abstract

eCompanion

Fig. 1. A Kham-Magar shaman in full gear. April 2006.

Fig. 2. The blessing of the shamans by their main master. April 2006.

1/2: Fig. 1. A Kham-Magar shaman in full gear. The shaman is singing during the consecration of a neophyte. He wears a crown of female pheasant feathers on the head, and skins of animals are attached to his costume in the back. April 2006.

2/2: Fig. 2. The blessing of the shamans by their main master. The master shaman put a protective soot mark on the forehead of his disciples before singing. April 2006.