Book
Burmese supernaturalism
Institute for the Study of Human Issues • Philadelphia • Published In 1978 • Pages:
By: Spiro, Melford E..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This book is concerned with Burmese religious beliefs, rituals and practioners as observed by the author in 1961-1962. The focus is on a variety of supernatural beliefs - ghosts, demons, witches and spirits whom villagers in the upper Burma call nats. Of these four types of beings, the author argues that the nats loom most important in Burmese thought and behavior. Although substantively distinct, the author argues that these four types of beings are functionally similar. They are all 'supernatural' in that their power is greater than man's. They are also believed to use this power to either harm or potentially harm humans. For the Burmese, thus, the causes of human suffering can be attributed mostly to interventions by these powers.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Spirits and gods
- Shamans and psychotherapists
- Revelation and divination
- Magic
- Theory of disease
- Sorcery
- General character of religion
- Cosmology
- Animism
- Eschatology
- Cult of the dead
- Religious intolerance and martyrs
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Burmans
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2012
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Asia
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southeast Asia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Anthropologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Teferi A. Adem; 2011
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1961-1962
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1961-1967
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Upper Burma (central and northern Burma)
- NotesAdditional notes
- Melford E. Spiro
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-289) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 77017280
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Animism
- Supernatural
- Burma--Religious life and customs