The eccentric structure of shamanism: An ethnography of Taiwanese Ki-Thong, with reference to the philosophical anthropology of Helmuth Plessner.

摘要

This thesis serves a two-fold purpose. It is an ethnographic study of a charismatic healer in a spirit shrine in Taipei, Taiwan; it aims to describe and probe the rationale for the therapeutic activities undertaken there. At the same time, it applies the concepts and insights of Helmuth Plessner towards understanding the world of the shaman and her clients; to do so, it must first introduce and elaborate the theoretical direction of his philosophical anthropology. When this is done, and Plessner's contributions integrated with contemporary theories, the resulting orientation, combining neostructuralist and phenomenological thought, proves to be useful in demonstrating eccentricities in the symbolism of Taiwanese shamanism as it accomplishes its healing mission.;Following the introductory theoretical exposition of Plessner's ideas in view of contemporary approaches, the remainder of the thesis is based on fieldwork observations conducted in the mid-eighties. Through these chapters, which describe shrine healing from its most general contexts in Taiwanese religion and society to its particular form in a specific site, the reader gains a layered and detailed perspective on the life and operation of a shrine, its shaman, staff, and clients. Then nosology and logics of illness attribution are examined. As more specific cases are reported, one develops a sense of the horizons of identification opened to clients by the possessed shaman in trance, and sees that the targeted selfhood of the client shifts according to a fixed algorithm of treatment when the problems are complex and require extended intervention. Finally, I discuss the rhetorical structure of individual consultations involving diagnosis of attack by ghosts, and consider the implications of glossolalia and the high frequency of performative statements in the shaman's pronouncements.;In each of these topics an eccentric quality emerges. The penultimate chapter analyzes the symbolisms which organize the forms of spatiotemporal experience in Chinese culture and in the shrine; there are similarly eccentric aspects of spacing and timing involved in the deployment of images, such as the opposition of fire and water. The conclusion considers modes of historicity evident in shrine activities, and infers the way eccentricities of reflexive imagination traced in the thesis are brought to bear on the realization of the therapeutic goals of the staff and shaman.