Parasites, Worms, and the Human Body in Religion and Culture

Description

The fear of parasites – with their power to invade, infest, and transform the self – writhes and wriggles through cultures and religions across the globe, reflecting a very human revulsion of being invaded and consumed by both internal and external forces. However, in ancient China, the parasitic wasp and the worm illuminate the relationship between the sage and his pupil. On the Indian sub-continent, Hindu cultures worship Nagas, entities who protect sources of drinking water from parasitic contamination, and the reciprocal relationship between parasite and host is a recurring theme in Vedic literature and ayurvedic texts. In medieval Europe, worms are symbols of both corruption through sin and redemption through Christ. In traditional African American culture, disease is attributed to infestation by supernatural spiders, bugs, and worms, while in the rainforests of southern Argentina, parasitologists fight against very real parasitic invaders. The worm represents our Jungian shadow, and we fear their bodies for they are our own – soft and vulnerable, powerfully destructive, mindlessly living off the corpses of others, and feeding on the corpse of the world. This book gathers together scholarly research from diverse disciplines, including anthropology, the health sciences, history, literature, the medical humanities, parasitology, sociology, and religious studies. CONTENTS The Power of Parasites and Worms Misha Tadd ix Serpents and Sanitation: A Biocultural Survey of Snake Worship, Cultural Adaptation, and Parasitic Disease in Ancient and Modern India Lesley Jo Weaver and Amber R. Campbell Hibbs 1 Worms and the Corporal Body in India: An Examination of Hindu Literary Traditions Levanya Vemsani 17 The Wasp and the Worm: Getting Inside the Body of the Sage Mark G. Pitner 41 A Snake in a Basin and a Worm in the Flesh: External Serpents, Internal Worms, and Authority over the Body in the Legenda Aurea of Jacob de Voragine Brenda S. Gardenour 65 Reading the Wormy Corpus: Ambiguity and Discernment in the Lives of Medieval Saints Alison More 81 Some Considerations Regarding the Origin and Functions of Parasites among Two Mbya Communities in Misiones, Argentina Marta Crivos, et al. 95 Parasites and the Postcolonial: Williams Sassine’s Saint Monsieur Baly Charlotte Baker 123 Worms Politic: Parasitism, Textual Decay and Conjure Truth in Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day Amy M. Thomas 135 Invasion as Affliction: Worms and Bodily Infestation in African American Hoodoo Practices Yvonne Chireau 155 We Are What We Don’t Eat: Worms, Bacteria, and the Soil Around Us Todd LeVasseur 171 Inside/Out: The Body Under Attack in American Popular Culture Julien R. Fielding 189 List of Contributors 215