Creating medicine on a swing: the effectiveness of mirroring, mimetic sensoriality, and embodiment to facilitate childbirth among the Sakais of Riau (Sumatra)

Porath, Nathan (2011) Creating medicine on a swing: the effectiveness of mirroring, mimetic sensoriality, and embodiment to facilitate childbirth among the Sakais of Riau (Sumatra). Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 17 (4), 811-828.

Record type: Article

Abstract

This article focuses on a healing technique to facilitate childbirth performed by the Orang Sakai, a Malayan-speaking indigenous people of Sumatra (Indonesia). It explores the sensoriality of mimesis, mirroring, and embodiment through the works of Taussig, Girard, and others. It further makes a comparison between recent mimetic phantom-limb somatic therapy and shamanic ritual, focusing on the idea of mirroring and mimetic touching without making direct physical contact. It concludes that the process of mirroring-mimesis and embodiment is a universal in therapy and endorses the argument that clinical therapy and clinical experiments are also mimesis-inducing rituals.

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