Abstract
For the Ifugao of Northern Luzon, the Philippines, life, health and well-being depend on the containment of the life force called lennawa within the body. The life sustaining lennawa-body relation is, however, inherently unstable. Hence, there is a need to engage in practices that sustain the lennawa-body relation. While, as also previous studies have shown, exchange and sharing are ways in which this is achieved, I argue that the containment of the life force within and its eventual release from the body depend on the sensorially enacted relations with other humans and spirits. I describe how the Ifugao use olfactory, auditory and tactile techniques to manage relations with other humans and spirits and how performing these sensorial techniques properly stabilizes the lennawa-body relation. When this relation is weakened, the Ifugao I worked with engaged in elaborate therapeutic rituals, the purpose of which was to retrieve the lennawa and ensure that it was rejoined with the body. The rituals took the form of exchange of lennawa between humans and spirits, and this exchange too was brought about by various multi-sensorial means. In sum, I discuss how Ifugao techniques of containing life must be understood within a framework that acknowledges the sensorial enactment of relations.
Acknowledgements
An initial version of this article was read at the panel “Notions of health and personhood in transition, and the containment of life” at the Southeast Asia Studies Symposium, Oxford, March 2014. I thank Elisabeth Hsu for organizing the panel and for her relentless efforts, encouragements and critique. I also thank the other participants in the panel, Isabell Hermanns, Junko Iida, Claudia Merli, and Marina Roseman as well as the two anonymous reviewers whose comments were very helpful. Research for this article was funded by the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo.
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Nachruf – Obituary – Nécrologie
- Nachruf auf Sadik Jalal al-Azm
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- Auf der Suche nach einer verlorenen Zeit? – Visuelle Perspektiven der Kindheit in Mittelasien vor 1917
- Übersetzungen – Translations – Traductions
- Über die Idee und das Wirkliche (1890)Sō jitsu ron 想実論
- Josef van Ess Unfertige Studien II
- Unfertige Studien II: Bemerkungen zum Korankommentar des Aṣamm
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- Se servir de la fiction comme guide: l’exemple des « romans de carrière » chinois contemporains
- Le commentaire de Tankuang sur l’Eveil à la Foi dans le Grand Véhicule: la probable influence de Wonhyo
- Le « film d’exploration » dans les textes de la critique de cinéma en République populaire de Chine
- The Ṣaḍakṣara-vidyā: A translation and study of the Tibetan version of the six-syllables spell
- Special Section: “The convergence of soul substances in Southeast Asia, and the spillage of blood: notions of personhood and health in transition” Edited by Elisabeth Hsu
- Introduction
- Permeable Personhood and Techniques for Negotiating Boundaries of the Self among the Luangans of Indonesian Borneo
- Condensing Life Substances within the House: The Rice-Boiling Shuhi of Southwest China
- Tying the Hand: Life Sustaining Technique in Northern Thailand
- The Dynamics of lennawa: Exchange, Sharing and Sensorial Techniques for Managing Life Substances in Ifugao
- The Shuhi House between Reformist China and Revivalist Tibet
- Sondersektion: Myanmarforschung im deutschsprachigen Raum Hrsg. von Georg Winterberger
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- Myanmar-Studien: Ein Überblick
- Vom sanktionierten Pariastaat zum Joint-Venture der Welt. Aspekte der ökonomischen Dynamik Myanmars
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Nachruf – Obituary – Nécrologie
- Nachruf auf Sadik Jalal al-Azm
- Aufsätze – Articles – Articles
- “You Don’t Wear a Fur in Summer”: Kang Youwei’s Impartial Words on Republicanism (1917) and the Fate of Chinese Democracy
- Ein Fischlein mit Lästermaul Ibrāhīm al-Miʿmārs liebster Feind, Aḥmad b. Ismāʿīl as-Sumayka
- Auf der Suche nach einer verlorenen Zeit? – Visuelle Perspektiven der Kindheit in Mittelasien vor 1917
- Übersetzungen – Translations – Traductions
- Über die Idee und das Wirkliche (1890)Sō jitsu ron 想実論
- Josef van Ess Unfertige Studien II
- Unfertige Studien II: Bemerkungen zum Korankommentar des Aṣamm
- Beiträge zur 8. Nachwuchstagung der Schweizerischen Asiengesellschaft, Crêt-Bérard Puidoux, 27.–29. April 2016 Contributions aux 8èmes journées de la relève de la Société Suisse-Asie à Crêt-Bérard Puidoux, 27–29 avril 2016
- L’assujettissement des textes: quelques réflexions sur le classement par catégories dans les « encyclopédies » (leishu 類書) en Chine ancienne
- Se servir de la fiction comme guide: l’exemple des « romans de carrière » chinois contemporains
- Le commentaire de Tankuang sur l’Eveil à la Foi dans le Grand Véhicule: la probable influence de Wonhyo
- Le « film d’exploration » dans les textes de la critique de cinéma en République populaire de Chine
- The Ṣaḍakṣara-vidyā: A translation and study of the Tibetan version of the six-syllables spell
- Special Section: “The convergence of soul substances in Southeast Asia, and the spillage of blood: notions of personhood and health in transition” Edited by Elisabeth Hsu
- Introduction
- Permeable Personhood and Techniques for Negotiating Boundaries of the Self among the Luangans of Indonesian Borneo
- Condensing Life Substances within the House: The Rice-Boiling Shuhi of Southwest China
- Tying the Hand: Life Sustaining Technique in Northern Thailand
- The Dynamics of lennawa: Exchange, Sharing and Sensorial Techniques for Managing Life Substances in Ifugao
- The Shuhi House between Reformist China and Revivalist Tibet
- Sondersektion: Myanmarforschung im deutschsprachigen Raum Hrsg. von Georg Winterberger
- Einleitung
- Myanmar-Studien: Ein Überblick
- Vom sanktionierten Pariastaat zum Joint-Venture der Welt. Aspekte der ökonomischen Dynamik Myanmars
- How Society Shapes Language: Personal Pronouns in the Greater Burma Zone
- The Point of View Makes the Difference. Explaining the Position of Women in Myanmar