善霊と悪霊のはざま

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書誌事項

タイトル別名
  • Between Benevolent Spirits and Evil Spirits: An Anthropological Study on Guardian Spirits in Northeastern Thailand
  • 善霊と悪霊のはざま--タイ東北部の村落守護霊をめぐって
  • ゼンレイ ト アクリョウ ノ ハザマ タイ トウホクブ ノ ソンラク シュゴレイ オ メグッテ
  • ──タイ東北部の村落守護霊をめぐって──

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<p>This article focuses on spirit belief in northeastern Thailand from an anthropological viewpoint. The studies on phi belief were conducted through three aspects: classification, structural functionalism, and historical sociology. However, these aspects consider the concept of phi as being stable and the historical changes are difficult to identify or they depict the contrast between Buddhism and phi belief cursorily. I attempt to investigate the multi-layered knowledge concerning phi within village life by introducing various views of the villagers and analyze the diverse meanings of phi belief, especially focusing on the boundary dividing benevolent and evil spirits. </p><p>People in northeastern Thailand believe in various spirits called phi, which are usually categorized into benevolent and bad spirits. Benevolent spirits include ancestral spirits, natural spirits, such as water and forest spirits, and village guardian spirits, while evil spirits include ghosts of unusual deaths and spirits with special names ─ phi pop, phi phrai, etc. Benevolent spirits are believed to protect villagers if they are treated appropriately. Although ancestral spirits sometimes bring diseases to their descendants, they are appeased and asked what they want. On the other hand, evil spirits also bring diseases to the villagers, and sometimes, villagers are possessed by them. At such times, the evil spirits are caught, expelled, or killed by religious specialists. </p><p>The villagers react differently toward benevolent and evil spirits, but the concepts of benevolent and evil spirits cannot be isolated from each other easily. In my research, one guardian spirit was regarded as evil. It was said to bring misfortune to the village and therefore expelled by religious specialists. Another guardian spirit was ignored by villagers recently, and they placed a Buddha statue into the shrine instead of the symbol of the guardian spirit. Some of the benevolent spirits could be looked upon as evil. </p><p>In this situation, religious specialists called mo tham deal with the evil spirits. Mo tham are expert exorcists of evil spirits. Their magical power is derived from Buddhist dharma. Mo tham consider phi as evil even if they are benevolent spirits, including village guardian spirits. However, other religious specialists called cham deal with the village guardian spirit. Cham are a medium between the villagers and guardian spirits, helping villagers seek the spirits’ help. Cham consider the guardian spirit to be benevolent. </p><p>By comparing the opinions of the two religious specialists regarding village guardian spirits, I attempt to extract the two incompatible logics behind phi belief: the mo tham’s Buddhist logic, which always considers phi as evil or foes of Buddha and the village community’s ethic, which has been shared since the establishment of the village and emphasizes mutual aid among villagers. The former is concerned with the history of nation building since the twentieth century, and the latter is related to the moral economy of the barren frontier land of northeastern Thailand. The concepts of the benevolent and evil spirits appear to waver between these two logics.</p>

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