--- Valmiki Faleiro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hey, wouldn't Goanetters be interested in those > delightfully delicious Goan tales > of ghosts, evil eye and exorcists? If some netters > could launch three new threads > on each of those subjects and everyone would share > their experiences, I'm sure > Cecil Pinto and Frederick Noronha would only be glad > to publish them in > book form (with a foreword by Dr. Santosh Helekar, > of couse!) Just a thought. >
Dear Valmikibab, Like Venantius, I would be delighted to contribute to such a book. Indeed, I think a good comprehensive book on Goan ethnography is long overdue, and I firmly believe that you are the right person to write it. Contrary to what you might be thinking, my interest in this matter, as with most other things, is not that of a skeptic but that of a naturalist. I think these practices have to be studied as natural phenomena. They have much to teach us about ourselves, and from my particular vantage point, about how our brains work. I have often told my friends here that the little place I hail from is a microcosm of mental and sociocultural phenomena preserved in their original pristine state. The confluence of two mutually contradictory religions mixed with a rich assortment of folk traditions in Goa has produced more rites, rituals and beliefs per square kilometer than in any other place in the world. The need to document them in excruciating detail is paramount and urgent. Please tell me how I can help you in this endeavor. Cheers, Santosh P.S. I am aware that Paul Axelrod, M. N. Pearson and others, and our own amateur anthropologists such as Anant Dhume (to whom you refer), Nandakumar Kamat and Prajal Sakhardande, have written on this subject in recent times. Perhaps, Nandakumar and Prajal can help you develop a more focused, thorough and comprehensive exposition of this subject in your book.
