It is important to bring out the good parts of human beings

──What does “soul awakening” mean?

 

　The custom of having festivals after harvesting crops still remains around the world. The farmers work hard from morning till sunset; but during the festival, they are allowed to consume alcohol from morning and sing and dance in a rude manner. “It was hard work to produce food, but I’m glad I was able to harvest so much. It’s fun to live. I’m happy.” That sense is felt among the farmers through the festival.

 

　Cultural anthropologist Victor Turner calls these festive times “Comnitas.” Turner says that it is a moment when the conflict with others disappears even temporarily and it is filled with the consciousness that “We are alive. We are all friends,” and he emphasizes that comnitas is absolutely necessary for human beings to live.

 

　Sri Lanka’s demon exorcism is also one of the rituals that create a kind of comnitas-like state when someone gets sick. The ritual of demon exorcism in Sri Lanka is that villagers hold a village festival to cure people who have sickness which cannot be cured even if he went to the hospital. Some may think, “People of Sri Lanka have to rely on such a ritual because the hospital isn’t properly maintained. Sri Lanka is underdeveloped,” but that’s not the case. Sri Lanka has been colonized by the United Kingdom for about 150 years, has a proper hospital, and has no medical expenses. Everyone goes to the hospital. Even so, when a father, for example, loses his motivation to work and drinks only alcohol, or when a person has a skin disease due to some kind of stress, this demon exorcism ritual is performed.

 

　In his book, “The Process of Rite,” Turner said in the words of the Asante priests of Ghana, “Everyone has a sumsum (soul), which is hurt, beaten, sick, and ill. As is often the case, there are other causes, such as witchcraft, but unhealthiness is caused by the malicious intent and hatred of others in your mind. “He states that he needs Comnitas to calm his sumsum.

 

　In the words of the Asante priests, both those who made plenty of money and those who are jealous of others making money have tainted sumsum. Therefore, those who made money and those who monopolize wealth are required to take the opportunity to distribute it to everyone. In fact, to prevent sumsum from being tainted, by setting up the redistribution of wealth, it has helped us to avoid conflicts, wars, and terrorism in the past.

 

　In other words, humans have both the altruism that prevailed in hunter-gatherer societies and the selfishness that became predominant after the agrarian society. Humans have suppressed selfishness with altruism. However, neoliberalism and results oriented approach, which are sweeping the world, continue to draw out only human selfishness by fueling free competition. However, what we should aim for is to have a strong will to bring out the goodness of human beings. For that purpose, we need a modern version of Comnitas to recover and awaken the injured or sick sumsum.