essay

The healing gift

For the sake of our future: sacrificing in eastern Indonesia42Published In 1996 • Pages: 318-336

By: Platenkamp, Jos. D. M..

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This study discusses the centrality of gift exchanges between health practitioners and patients. The Tobelo perceive illness as manifestation of a broken relationship between a patient and certain supernatural entities, including the spirits of deceased ancestors. Medical practitioners seek to heal patients by mending the rupture through gift transactions. The author notes the implications of such transactions for understanding sacredness and part-whole relationships.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Pharmaceuticals
Exchange transactions
Theory of disease
Medical therapy
Cosmology
Revelation and divination
Magic
Ethnopsychology
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Tobelo
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
essay
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 Abate Adem; 2021
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1979-1980, 1982
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1979-1982
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
northern Halmahera Island, North Maluku, Indonesia
NotesAdditional notes
Jos. D. M. Platenkamp
Includes bibliographical references (p. 335-336)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
98104836
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Tobelo (Indonesian people)