Ritual Psychotherapy and Somatic Healing: The Psychopharmacology of the Sanni Yakuma

Abstract

The 18 Sanni ritual of southern Sri Lanka is traditionally viewed through an ethnographic lens. However, our medical anthropological analysis reveals a sophisticated system of cognitive restructuring, sensory saturation, and psychodrama combined with aromatic herbal fumigation (dummala). We demonstrate how the traditional practitioner functioned as both physician and psychoanalyst to relieve somatic distress and stress-induced physical ailments.