ABSTRACT

Modern medicine has elements of ritual within it. But cultural beliefs surrounding our medical rituals often focus solely on the mechanistic aspects of treatment, often in the language of neurochemistry or biology. It is clear that in the case of medical treatment, the ritual surrounding the giving of a medical treatment complements the medication. Ritual objects such as sacred poles, hats, arrows, wheels, pipes, and so on, appearing in the dreams are often sacralized by various taboos. New rituals can easily emerge if a few people agree on the existence of certain counterpart connections, include the infusion of magical agency and embed it as the instrumental cause in an event frame. On the hunting end of the spectrum, even when all members are considered to have access to the divine realms, ritual experts exist who are simply viewed as superlative members when it comes to magic or religious knowledge.