Page 198 - Encyclopedia Of World History

548 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

The Epidemic Ghost

Throughout history humans have always turned to the eases of epidemic proportions are caused only by Epi-
spiritual world to explain and to gain assistance in demic Ghost, among all the S-s [subjects] found in the
preventing and combating disease. The following culture. If a person is stricken by a disease which, at
account tells the tale of a ghost who was thought to be the time, is endemic rather than epidemic or nearly
responsible for epidemics in Thailand. so, then the diagnosis will invariably be rendered in
terms of some S other than Epidemic Ghost.
Until the Twentieth Century,Thailand was visited by
Although there are no standardized notions as to
terrifying epidemics of cholera, smallpox, and other
the derivation of Epidemic Ghost, it is not surprising
devastating diseases. The physiological and psycho-
that idiosyncratic notions tend to define this S as
logical consequences of these sudden epidemics were
deriving from an out-group.Thus, Monk Doctor Mar-
shattering, and it is not at all surprising that the cul-
vin told me that Epidemic Ghost derives from a dead
ture has evolved a specialized ghost which is consid-
Muslim or Lao—explaining that those ethnic groups
ered peculiarly responsible for these visitations. Since
like to eat fresh raw meat.The Laos do in fact like raw
buffaloes and other farm animals are also of vital
meat prepared in certain ways. Nai Sin, on the other
importance in the livelihood of the Bang Chan
hand, believes that this S derives from a Muslim who,
farmer, this same ghost is considered responsible for
before death, specialized in slaughtering buffaloes and
epidemics of rinderpest and other economically dis-
chickens, and who now, as a ghost, continued to
astrous animal diseases.
indulge in killing those animals. Muslims around
One frequently hears the word haa (epidemic) in
Bang Chan do in fact engage disproportionately in
everyday speech, usually of a rough sort. Taaj haa
slaughtering, a service which they render commer-
means to die of an epidemic disease. Aaj haa is an
cially to their Buddhist neighbors, whose Merit-Moral
insulting term implying that the person spoken about
System includes a firm prohibition against the taking
derives from, or is associated with, the hated and
of animal life.
feared haa ghosts.
Source: Textor, R. B. (1973). Roster of the gods: An ethnography of the supernatural in a
The sole effect of Epidemic Ghost is to inflict sick- Thai village (pp. 391–392). New Haven, CT: Human Relations Area Files.
ness in the form of epidemic diseases. Conversely, dis-

World peoples, and found themselves correspondingly were therefore able to supplant the older inhabitants, cre-
vulnerable when crossing the oceans became routine ating the mixture of peoples we know today.
and a new, global, disease regime began to emerge. Native Americans were the largest population exposed
to destruction by the new disease regime.The native pop-
The Global Disease Regime ulation of Hispaniola, where Columbus set up his head-
The first and overwhelming effect of oceanic navigation quarters, disappeared entirely within a few decades, and
was to spread a large array of lethal infections among within the first fifty years of their exposure to new infec-
inexperienced human populations. This process contin- tions, the much larger populations of Mexico and Peru
ues in remote Amazon jungles and Arctic shores even diminished to about a tenth of what they had been in
today, but by now almost every human population has 1500. Millions died of smallpox and innumerable other
been at least partially exposed, and the initial shattering infections until immunities accumulating in survivors’
effect is past. But when it was new whole peoples disap- bloodstreams checked the die-off. In Mexico and Peru the
peared, and vast landscapes in the Americas and Aus- worst was over by 1650. Gradually population growth
tralia were severely depopulated. Immigrants from began again, though in more isolated parts of the Amer-
Europe and Africa—and subsequently also from Asia— icas local die-offs continued.Warfare and less organized