ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 deals with an agricultural ritual called kambuḷa and the annual nēma ritual in Perar. In this chapter, I examine the transactional network formed performatively between the villagers and deities, focusing on their interactions within ritual processes. More specifically, I mainly examine the following topics: the characteristics of the network formed through the interactions between devotees and būtas incarnated in mediums, the relationship between deities and villagers who participate in reciprocal transactions, and the circulation of forces and substances in the transactional network. Referring to previous studies on gift-exchange, substance-code, and personhood, I investigate the ritual transactions between people and deities. In addition, referring to previous studies on purity, pollution, and śakti, I consider the features of the wild śakti circulating between deities and humans.
