Evil Spirit Sickness, the Christian disease: the innovation of a new syndrome of mental derangement and redemption in Papua New Guinea.
This essay analyses the cultural and historical processes involved in the emergence of Evil Spirit Sickness, a form of mental or behavioral derangement that appeared among the Bosavi people of Papua New Guinea during a period of intense Christian evangelization and religious excitement. It explores the emergence of the disorder both as a form of psychological breakdown under the burden of intolerable life stress and a socially innovated, ritually structured, and performatively achieved mode of seeking redemption in a Papuan Christian context.
Schieffelin
E L
EL
Department of Anthropology, University of College London.
D002835:Christianity / Q000266:history*; D003469:Culture; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000266:history; D005260:Female; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history*; D008602:Mental Healing / Q000266:history; D010219:Papua New Guinea; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D013577:Syndrome