| Abstract |
The objective of this paper is describing and analyzing "kuphendula" (derived from a Duruma verb meaning 'to turn around, to reverse, to turn upside down') treatment, which aims to 'cure' illness and ...other misfortunes caused by witchcraft (utsai) among the Duruma of the Coast Province of Kenya. Witches (atsai (pl. of mutsai)) are thought to cause a wide range of misfortunes by means of special 'medicines (mihaso (pl. of muhaso))'. In order to cure them, 'doctors (aganga (pl. of muganga)' use the very same medicine as witches use to cause harms. It is shown the medicines are 'programmable agent,' neither good nor evil in themselves, and both witches and doctors have control over them. In kuphendula doctors try to 'overwrite' the programs that his opponent set in. In so doing doctors are imitating what witches are believed to do when they bewitch their victims. If witches are only imagined beings, with their bewitching activities being unobservable in principle, doctors are actually imitating the imaginary, thus making the imaginary the observable facts, i.e., reality. The practices based on, and caused by, the imagined existence and activities of witches, ironically turn the imaginary into the real.show more
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