Turbulent Beings: Curses and systems of healing cooperation in post-Soviet Tuva, Siberia

Curses and systems of healing cooperation in post-Soviet Tuva, Siberia

Abstract

In this article, I engage with the notions of illness and healing in Kyzyl, the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Tuva in Siberia. In so doing, I show how a variety of medical conditions, such as strokes, comas, and tuberculosis, are often conceptualized through a prism of curses. In these instances, illnesses are considered as a symp- tom and a consequence of wider sociocosmic politics which involve spirits and humans alike. Consequently, while suffering from curse inflictions, the victims often find themselves in a state of overall physical and emotional dis- turbance, described as being ‘in turbulenceʼ. Given this, in the presence of a medical condition, diagnosis, cure, and recovery are often concurrently sought from medical doctors, lamas, and shamans, and the clients undergo simul- taneous treatments from all three practitioners. In this article, therefore, I show how illnesses triggered by curses bring together different actors, such as medical doctors, lamas, and shamans, and how in the context of post-Soviet Tuva, these actors, with their distinct epistemologies and engagements with the world, produce a platform of coop- eration rather than that of antagonistic possibilities.