William S. Sax's latest book, his third on the people and culture of the Garhwal, exhibits the same rich ethnography and lively, argument-driven prose that characterized his earlier work. There is much to admire here, and Sax's compelling portrait of healing rituals performed mainly (though not exclusively) by Harijans will be of interest to scholars working on spirit possession, religions of the oppressed, religion and gender, religion and healing, and religion and caste. Sax is particularly adept at succinctly relating his own arguments and ethnographic content to larger debates and conversations in the fields of anthropology and religious studies, making this text ideal for teaching. More generally, readers who are interested in human responses to the universal experiences of suffering, displacement, fear, and helplessness will find Sax's description of his interactions with these Garhwali healers and their patients impressive and informative.
Following an opening chapter in which Sax describes the challenges of his subject matter and offers a defense of reflexivity in ethnographic writing, chapters 2, 3, and 4 address issues of agency and power, particularly in the context of caste and gender-based oppression. In chapter 2, Sax documents the cult of Kachiya Bhairav, a deity strongly associated with Harijans whose local stories and associated ritual practices differ from Sanskrit-language descriptions of the deity Bhairav. The chapter relates several fascinating origin stories of this Kachiya Bhairav and describes his puja and his possession of oracles and devotees. It concludes with a lucid discussion of performativity, drawing on the work of Austin, Connerton, and Butler to assert that Kachiya Bhairav's songs, appearance, and mode of possession embody the collective memory of Harijans, and particularly their ongoing experience of oppression and desire for justice.
Chapter 3 explores the ways in which issues of justice and agency are related to place, in particular explaining how the cult of Kachiya Bhairav spreads and describing pujas performed to remove the influence of malevolent minor spirits and villages' own manifestations of Kachiya Bhairav. Of particular interest here is the widely held belief that Kachiya Bhairav travels with daughters of his village when they are married into other villages: these out-married daughters may then call on him should they experience oppression in their new homes.
Chapter 4 further examines the issue of agency through a discussion of the differences between the practices of gurus and oracles: while both are healers, gurus are never possessed by spirits, whereas oracles must become possessed in order to be effective. The distinction between types of healers provides Sax with a vantage point from which to address the thorny issue of the “reality” of possessing spirits. Sax cites many examples of recent anthropological treatments of distributed agency before offering his own: because the entire healing system would collapse without its nonhuman agents, it is accurate to regard them as authentic social agents. Here, Sax's argument differs somewhat from many theories on the nature of possessing spirits, most of which posit that the spirits are symbols of power relations or social structures rather than individuals. In other words, Sax suggests that the spirits are real because people act as though they are.
The oft-debated question of the relationship between group and individual identity in South Asian culture is explored in chapters 5, 6, and 7. These chapters offer compelling descriptions of ritual practices—particularly those designed to deal with ghosts—and clients' afflictions. As is the case throughout the book, these chapters feature extended quotations from healers and clients. Sax shows that healing is primarily conceptualized in terms of social integration, particularly with one's family. Thus, many of the rituals documented in these chapters address issues of familial discord. Often, the stated goal of these rituals is family unity; in some cases, however, the client may deem family unity an impossible goal, and instead sponsor a taboo ritual that enables the client to return a ghost to the family member understood to have sent it. Sax's analysis of these family-oriented rituals examines various perspectives on agency in ritual contexts, ultimately following Bourdieu in suggesting that those involved in the rituals may effect personal and social change through them, but only through misrecognition of their actions.
The book concludes with a discussion of modernity and ritual healing that is grounded in Sax's well-established ability to succinctly place his argument in the context of larger debates in the field. In particular, Sax argues that ritual healing is effective insofar as its ritual acts—pujas, oracular consultations, possessions—constitute, embody, and therefore “make real” healed social relationships, and by extension, a recovered individual.
On the whole, the book offers a wealth of ethnographic description and direct quotation, and it successfully places this content in relation to larger debates in the field and Sax's own arguments about ritual, modernity, and personhood in South Asia. As such, it is an excellent book for the classroom as well as a significant contribution to the literature on healing, caste, gender, and the culture and religion of Garhwal.
