Beschreibung
Despite living in a state that honours science and debases
`superstition’, and despite making substantial use of the
multiple medical resources available to them, Akha villagers
in Yunnan still put their greatest trust for health and
wellbeing into healing rituals, especially when it comes to
their children. The book delves into these apparent
contradictions. What is this Akha way of childcare that
continues in twenty-first-century China?
It is generally believed that children fall sick from soul
loss or attack by spirits. Accordingly, parents frequently
invite ritual experts to perform sacrificial rituals for the
diagnosis and healing of their children. Relatives (kin and
affines), big men, ancestors and spirits all play
indispensable roles in these protective rituals. As the
process of a healing ritual unfolds, a network of social
organisation, kinship, and cosmology is woven.
Ruijing Wang received her PhD from the Martin
Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in 2016. She is currently
Assistant Professor in Anthropology at the Institute for
Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences,
Chongqing University.
