Experiencing ritual
Book Description
In the heart of Zambia, an anthropologist's worldview transforms when she witnesses something that challenges Western academic assumptions about reality. Edith Turner takes readers into the profound depths of Ndembu healing ceremonies, where spiritual forces become tangible and the boundaries between seen and unseen dissolve.
When Turner returns to the Ndembu people in 1985, decades after her initial fieldwork with her renowned husband Victor Turner, she discovers what their earlier research had missed. This time, she approaches the Ihamba ritual not as an outside observer analyzing social functions, but as a participant willing to embrace the Ndembu understanding of spiritual reality. Her account centers on a dramatic healing ceremony where a patient suffers from the invasive spirit of a deceased hunter's tooth, requiring the community's collective ritual power to extract.
Through vivid storytelling, Turner describes the mounting intensity of drumming and singing that culminates in her startling vision of a gray, plasma-like form emerging from the patient's body. This moment becomes the catalyst for a deeper exploration of how indigenous peoples understand ritual as a direct engagement with spiritual forces rather than mere symbolic activity.
Turner's willingness to validate African spiritual perspectives offers readers a rare glimpse into worldviews where healing transcends the physical realm. Her work invites anyone interested in consciousness, healing practices, and cross-cultural spirituality to reconsider the nature of reality itself.
Who Is This For?
📖 Reading Level: Medium (200-400 pages) (~7 hours)
📄 Length: 239 pages
What You'll Discover
- ✓ Explore SOCIAL SCIENCE
- ✓ Explore General
- ✓ Explore Médecine
- ✓ Explore shamanic practices
- ✓ Explore Guérison
- ✓ Explore Sjamanisme
- ✓ Explore Aspect religieux
- ✓ Explore Medicine
