Masters of psalmody (bimo) : : scriptural shamanism in Southwestern China / / by Aurélie Névot.

• Superior document: Religion in Chinese Societies; volume15
• VerfasserIn: Névot, Aurélie,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden Boston : : BRILL,, 2019.
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Religion in Chinese Societies; volume15.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (286 pages).

In Masters of Psalmody ( bimo ) Aurélie Névot analyses the religious, political and theoretical issues of a scriptural shamanism observed in southwestern China among the Yi-Sani. Her focus is on blood sacrifices and chants based on a secret and labile writing handled only by ritualists called bimo . Through ethnographic data, the author presents the still little known bimo metaphysics and unravels the complexity of the local text-based ritual system in which the continuity of each bimo lineage relies on the transmission of manuscripts whose writing relates to lineage blood. While illuminating the usages of this shamanistic tradition that is characterized by scriptural variability between patrilineages, Aurélie Névot highlights the radical changes it is undergoing by becoming a Chinese state tradition.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Frontispiece -- Copyright page -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Illustrations and Tables -- Notes to the Reader -- Introduction -- Countercurrent Writing: Myths and Blood Lineages in Question -- The Textual Chants of Bimo: Voicing the Written Space -- The Physicality of Bimo Books: the Manuscript as a Psalmodic Mask -- The Bimo’s Bookish Journey: to Walk through Chanted Lines of Writing -- Bimo Ritual, nyi: Sacrificial Transsubstantiality -- Achema: the Yi-Sani Apologue for the Art of Speaking -- Bimo Religion as Intangible Cultural Heritage: the Process of Standardizing Writings and Chants -- Conclusion -- Back Matter -- Bibliography -- Index.