IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v27y1988i8p779-787.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Healing texts and healing techniques in indigenous Balinese medicine

Author

Listed:
  • McCauley, Ann P.

Abstract

Case histories of three prominent Balinese healers illustrate various ways that indigenous medical texts are used in healing. Most healers employ mantras, spells and inscriptions from the texts because they believe them to have innate power which can heal. A smaller group of healers are literate in the archaic language used in the palm-leaf medical manuscripts. However, their use of these manuscripts often differs from the literal and unambiguous way that Westerners read medical documents. An examination of Balinese medical manuscripts, in the context of the conventions of Balinese literature, demonstrates the use of these texts to align the body with the macrocosm and to reaffirm the beliefs of the ancestors.

Suggested Citation

  • McCauley, Ann P., 1988. "Healing texts and healing techniques in indigenous Balinese medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 27(8), pages 779-787, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:27:y:1988:i:8:p:779-787
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(88)90230-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:27:y:1988:i:8:p:779-787. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.