The Coronavirus Came with the (One of the) World
April 2019. In an indigenous community in the Nepalese Himalayas, a ritual is performed for Sansari, “the One of the World,” to ward off coronavirus. Why respond to an epidemic with a ritual? On what basis do we associate a virus with a spiritual entity? How do we articulate anchoring in tradition a...
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Published in | South Asia multidisciplinary academic journal |
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Main Author | |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Association pour la recherche sur l'Asie du Sud (ARAS)
2022
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | April 2019. In an indigenous community in the Nepalese Himalayas, a ritual is performed for Sansari, “the One of the World,” to ward off coronavirus. Why respond to an epidemic with a ritual? On what basis do we associate a virus with a spiritual entity? How do we articulate anchoring in tradition and innovation? What does all this tell us about the relationship of this population to the world? In addition to a film on this ritual, this article proposes avenues of analysis and reflection on procedures of interpretation, of integration of the new and the foreign into a local system of knowledge and defense. |
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ISSN: | 1960-6060 |