We see it everyday in horror films, in books, maybe even in our nightmares. It’s something that our culture is truly terrified of. The dead, but not just the dead around us, the dead taking over a living person and speaking through them. In United States culture this idea is truly horrific and the kind of thing that makes up nightmares; we are not fans of the idea of the dead coming back at all let alone possessing someone. Now if you go to India and visit the Sora, there is any entirely different view on this. In Sora culture, the dead are part of the world we live in and they do possess the living, but this is celebrated. For them it’s an honor to have the dead speak through them the whole event is a spiritual experience and all of the village listens and honors what is said. The two reactions are polar opposite which may make it seem in …show more content…
Sonums and possession play a key role in this as well. In lecture we discussed that that sonums are trusted as much as living people, meaning that their testimonies mean just as much. It’s not uncommon for sonums to tell secrets about the living and let the societal justice take place afterwards. This can be anything from the one time someone lied to murder. Obviously, sonums are not actually taking over these people, so the secrets they know have to be secrets the shaman already knows and they technically could just tell everyone themselves. The problem with this, is that there are always repercussions of being a whistleblower, but if a dead person tells the truth, what is anyone going to do? Testimony from the sonums both helps inflict punishment on people who have actually done wrong, but it also protects the real witness. Doesn’t that sound a little like our criminal justice system? It’s not an exact match, but they’re not that dissimilar