Supernatural Role in Healing & Causing Illness

This study will compare two articles on the role of the supernatural both in healing and in causing illness and even death: Walter B. Cannon's "'Voodoo' Death" and Curt Nimiendaju's "Soul-Loss and Magical Cure (Apinaye of Eastern Brazil)." The study will argue that the beliefs about reality held by a culture (whether that culture is "primitive" or "advanced") create a powerful force for affecting the psychological, emotional, and finally physiological state of individuals in that culture.

Cannon's article explores the process whereby fear induced by a voodoo practitioner in an individual can lead to death. The process begins with the cultural belief that the voodoo practitioner is indeed capable of performing supernatural feats which can make a person sick or even kill him. The individual is made aware of a curse put upon him by a "black magic" man and responds to the curse with fear, as to an emergency. Even though the body has no literal emergency to fight against, the body continues to experience powerful changes which eventually wear it down and can even kill it. Cannon examines the specifics of these processes of witchcraft, fear and "voodoo death" in primitive cultures.

Cannon determines that the implementation of voodoo practices is successful because the individual believes that voodoo is a genuine threat to him, because his body reacts with great changes in response to that danger, and these changes, when prolonged, cause great stress, shock and breakdown. The effe

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can suffer serious setbacks after the operation, or even die instead of experiencing recovery. In Nimiendaju, the child is old enough to have been inculcated into the healing beliefs of the culture, so the shadow-soul work of Ka'ta'm would have an effect on her sickness and her healing. The fact that her mother and all those around her also believed strongly in this healing process and the magic behind it certainly added to the likelihood of the little girl's recovery. In fact, Cannon himself, though he primarily focuses on the negative impact of supernatural belief, does nevertheless note that healing can also take place as a result of cultural faith in such healing. Cannon writes that "The implicit faith which a native cherishes in the magical powers of his tribal magician is said to result in cures which exceed anything recorded by the faith-healing disciples of more cultured communities" (Cannon 369). Cannon overreaches himself in making such a statement. Certainly religious communities in "more cultured communities" have produced remarkable instances of faith-healing which would match healing in "less cultured communities." Cannon shows a bias toward the "less cultured community" in such a statement. Certainly if he had

Category: Psychology - S