Abstract
The paper examines kesambet, a common cause of child mortality and adult sickness in North Bali, by placing it in the context of cultural conceptions of body, person and spirit, as well as interpersonal praxis. Emotions, virtue, and the covert intentions of others are salient preoccupations in the construction of kesambet. The analysis thus serves to question Geertz's classical account of Balinese personhood, which interprets the Balinese concern with grace and composure as aesthetically motivated. Kesambet is also analysed in comparative perspective, especially in relation to susto; and Good and Good's distinction between etiological and descriptive criteria is utilized.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
References
Boon, James 1984 Folly, Bali and Anthropology, or Satire Across Cultures. In E.B. Bruner & S. Plattner (eds.): Text, Play and Story: The Construction and Reconstruction of Self and Society. Washington, D.C.: American Ethnological Society.
Cannon, Walter B. 1942 Voodoo Death. American Anthropologist 44: 169. 181.
Fabrega, Horacio Jr. 1970 On the Specificity of Folk Illness. Southwest Journal of Anthropology 26: 305–314.
Geertz, Clifford 1973 The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
Geertz, Hildred 1959 The Vocabulary of Emotion A Study of Japanese Socialization Processes. Psychiatry 22: 225–237.
Geertz, Hildred 1968 Latah in Java: A Theoretical Paradox. Indonesia 3: 93–104.
Gillin, John 1948 Magical Fright. Psychiatry 11: 387–400.
Good, Byron J. and Mary-Jo Del Vecchio Good 1982 Toward a Meaning-Centered Analysis of Popular Illness Categories: “Fright Illness” and “Heart Distress” in Iran. In A.J. Marsella and G.M. White (eds.). Cultural Conceptions of Mental Health and Therapy. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Hart, Donn V., 1969 Bisayan Filipino and Malayan Humoral Pathologies: Folk Medicine and Ethnohistory in Southeast Asia. Ithaca: Southeast Asia Data Paper.
Hochschild, Arlie Russell 1979 Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure. American Journal of Sociology 85: 551–75.
Keeler, Ward 1983 Shame and Stage Fright in Java. Ethos vol. 11, no. 3: 152–165.
Kenny, Michael G. 1978 Latah: The Symbolism of a Putative Mental Disease. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 2: 209–231.
Klein, Janice 1972 Susto: The Anthropological Study of Diseases of Adaptation. Social Science and Medicine, 12: 23–28.
Kleinman, Arthur 1980 Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Kleinman, Arthur & Leon Eisenberg & Byron Good 1978 Culture, Illness and Care. Clinical Lessons from Anthropologic and CrossCultural Research. Annals of Internal Medicine 88: 251–258.
Lex, Barbara W. 1977 Voodoo Death: New Thoughts on an Old Phenomenon. In D. Landy (ed.): Culture, Disease and Healing. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.
Mead, M. 1942 Introduction. In: Gregory Batesona and Margaret Mead: Balinese Character. A Photographic Analysis. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.
O'Nell, Carl W. 1975 An Investigation of Reported “Fright” as a Factor in the Etiology of Susto, “Magical Fright”. Ethos 3: 268–283.
O'Nell, C.W. and H.A. Selby 1968 Sex Differences in the Incidence of Susto in Two Zapotek Pueblos: An Analysis of the Relationship between Sex Role Expectations and a Folk Illness. Ethnology 7: 95–105.
Rubel, Arthur J. 1964 The Epidemiology of a Folk Illness: Susto in Hispanic America. Ethnology 3: 368–283.
Rubel, Arthur J. and Carl W. O'Nell and Rolando Collado-Ardor 1984 Susto — A Folk Illness. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Scheff, Thomas J. 1979 Catharsis in Healing. Ritual and Drama. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Simons, Ronald C. 1980 The Resolution of the Latah Paradox. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 168, No. 4: 195–206.
Solomon, Robert C. 1978 Emotions and Anthropology: The Logic of Emotional World Views. Inquiry 21: 181–99.
Solomon, Robert C. 1980 Emotions and Choice. In A.O. Rorty (ed.): Explaining Emotions. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Solomon, Robert C. 1984 Getting Angry: The Jamesian Theory of Emotion in Anthropology. In R.A. Shweder & R.A. Levine (eds.): Culture Theory.
Uzzell, D. 1974 Susto Revisited: Illness as a Strategic Role. American Ethnologist 1. 369.
Wikan, Unni 1980 Life Among the Poor in Cairo. London: Tavistock Publications.
Wikan, Unni 1982 Behind the Veil in Arabia — Women in Oman. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Wikan, Unni 1987 Public Grace and Private Fears: Gaiety, Offense and Sorcery in North Bali. Ethos 15(4): 337–365.
Forthcoming Managing the Heart to Brighten Face and Soul — Culture and Experience among the Balinese.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wikan, U. Illness from fright or soul loss: A North Balinese culture-bound syndrome?. Cult Med Psych 13, 25–50 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00052681
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00052681
Keywords
- Child Mortality
- Comparative Perspective
- Classical Account
- Cultural Conception
- Descriptive Criterion