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Stranger in the Village of the Sick: A Memoir of Cancer, Sorcery, and Healing
After more than fifty years of good health, anthropologist Paul Stoller suddenly found himself diagnosed with lymphoma. The only thing more transformative than his fear and dread of cancer was the place it ultimately took twenty-five years back in time to his days as an apprentice to a West African sorcerer, Adamu Jenitongo.
Stranger in the Village of the Sick follows Stoller down this unexpected path toward personal discovery, growth, and healing. The stories here are about life in the village of the healthy and the village of the sick, and they highlight differences in how illness is culturally perceived. In America and the West, illness is war; we strive to eradicate it from our bodies and lives. In West Africa, however, illness is an ever-present companion, and sorcerers learn to master illnesses like cancer through a combination of acceptance, pragmatism, and patience.
Stoller provides a view into the ancient practices of sorcery, revealing that as an apprentice he learned to read divining shells, mix potions, and recite incantations. But it wasn't until he got cancer that he realized that sorcery embodied a more profound meaning, one that every person could "Sorcery is a body of knowledge and practice that enables one to see things clearly and to walk with confidence on the path of fear."
Stranger in the Village of the Sick follows Stoller down this unexpected path toward personal discovery, growth, and healing. The stories here are about life in the village of the healthy and the village of the sick, and they highlight differences in how illness is culturally perceived. In America and the West, illness is war; we strive to eradicate it from our bodies and lives. In West Africa, however, illness is an ever-present companion, and sorcerers learn to master illnesses like cancer through a combination of acceptance, pragmatism, and patience.
Stoller provides a view into the ancient practices of sorcery, revealing that as an apprentice he learned to read divining shells, mix potions, and recite incantations. But it wasn't until he got cancer that he realized that sorcery embodied a more profound meaning, one that every person could "Sorcery is a body of knowledge and practice that enables one to see things clearly and to walk with confidence on the path of fear."
240 pages, Paperback
Published April 15, 2005
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About the author
Paul Stoller
30 books43 followersPaul Stoller is an anthropologist and novelist who teaches anthropology at West Chester University. He has conducted ethnographic research in the Republic of Niger in West Africa and among West African immigrants in New York City. His books, novels and memoirs are attempts to convey the wisdom of African systems of thought. He is currently doing research on family life among West African immigrants in New York City and is at work on a new novel, The Sorcerer's Burden and a new work of non-fiction, The Business of Social Relations: Global Resilience Among West Africans in the World. His most recent book, The Power of the Bertween: An Anthropological Odyssey was published in December 2008 by The University of Chicago Press. Paul has a new website, paulstoller.com which up and running.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 21, 2009
It's the "sorcery" part of this book that drew me to it - the author is an anthropologist who spent many years in apprenticeship to a Songhay sorcerer. He alternated bits of his life in sorcery - which was fascinating - with narration of his cancer diagnosis and treatment, and showed how the worldview of sorcery gave him another way to understand himself as a cancer patient, along with tools - rituals - to strengthen and protect himself. I thought reading so much about cancer might just make me feel worried and anxious, but in the end I felt fortified.
May 3, 2013
A nice follow-up to those who read Stoller's "In Sorcery's Shadow," and who are interested in the idea of medical pluralism but are not up for something with a strong academic style.
Stoller's writing is clear and interesting. He does a wonderful job of situating the reader in his own experiences and in doing so, helps readers understand how he makes the decisions he makes during treatment, where he finds solace and meaning in his illness, and how past experiences become rethought or recruited to help him recover. The Sorcerer's wisdom comes in dreams and sudden memories and tends to bring up more questions than answers. One of the final chapters, rather disappointingly, equates cancer with the liminality of a Rite of Passage, which is far from unique in the world of anthropology. There is much more to his story than liminality, and much more space for reflexivity. His writing this memoir in itself is a way of placing illness within a narrative (within a narrative), and this is perhaps even more telling.
Enjoyable to read, and appropriate for undergraduate classes, but too limited in scope to get more than 3 stars from me.
Stoller's writing is clear and interesting. He does a wonderful job of situating the reader in his own experiences and in doing so, helps readers understand how he makes the decisions he makes during treatment, where he finds solace and meaning in his illness, and how past experiences become rethought or recruited to help him recover. The Sorcerer's wisdom comes in dreams and sudden memories and tends to bring up more questions than answers. One of the final chapters, rather disappointingly, equates cancer with the liminality of a Rite of Passage, which is far from unique in the world of anthropology. There is much more to his story than liminality, and much more space for reflexivity. His writing this memoir in itself is a way of placing illness within a narrative (within a narrative), and this is perhaps even more telling.
Enjoyable to read, and appropriate for undergraduate classes, but too limited in scope to get more than 3 stars from me.
June 18, 2010
I didn't really read the whole book--just skimmed and sampled the parts that looked interesting. There is surprisingly little reflection on the connection between Stoller's experiences as a cancer patient and his experiences learning witchcraft in Niger. His conclusions are very simple and could have been reached within many fewer pages.
Additionally, the way Stoller tells the story, his recovery was clearly the work of modern medicine, and only supplemented or assisted in some vague way by his sorcerous practices. The benefits of witchcraft thus seem about the same as any other religious belief/practice--an increased sense of peace, a feeling that one is doing something positive to effect the outcome of one's illness. You can call it placebo effect, or holistic treatment, or whatever you want, but it's nothing new.
It probably would have been better instead just to read the book Stoller wrote on sorecery in Niger. If I find a copy of it, I will certainly pick it up.
Additionally, the way Stoller tells the story, his recovery was clearly the work of modern medicine, and only supplemented or assisted in some vague way by his sorcerous practices. The benefits of witchcraft thus seem about the same as any other religious belief/practice--an increased sense of peace, a feeling that one is doing something positive to effect the outcome of one's illness. You can call it placebo effect, or holistic treatment, or whatever you want, but it's nothing new.
It probably would have been better instead just to read the book Stoller wrote on sorecery in Niger. If I find a copy of it, I will certainly pick it up.
March 5, 2008
This book was a weird analysis of african sorcery and what's wrong with western medicine. The anthropolgist in me really enjoyed the parts pertaining to the author's experience with Songhai sorcerers. The connections that he made between being sick in America and the Songhai worldview were also super thought provoking even moreso for me at the moment because I was trying to find a doctor who wasn't full of it. I could have done with less of his description of all the medical junk he went through. I think he was trying to give us a frame of reference for his explanation but it got kind of tedious. I really think I would enjoy the other book he wrote about the Songhai much more.
March 16, 2016
Fascinating journey into the experience of sickness, of liminal (on the threshold between sick and ill) states of being, of living through illness, and how it marks you as different from then on. I've spent some time on that threshold, and it's scary, but you can learn much. Illness does open up your perspectives, revealing previously unknown bits of reality. If you're interested in healing, sickness, and sorcery (vaguely shamanistic), check this out.
March 9, 2009
I taught this book alone and as a companion to In Sorcery's Shadow and it worked well both times. The students were genuinely moved by reading it, and one even took a copy to her family in Little Rock to help them understand their grandfather's own experience with cancer. A very excellent text and an enjoyable reading experience.
October 16, 2008
Read in a class called Cultural Construction of the Body, this was a very interesting story about a man who has cancer (very healthy, lived in Africa, etc) and uses "sorcery" to help heal himself.
September 17, 2013
Required reading.
November 25, 2013
This book deals specifically with cancer and not mental illness, but I connected to the feelings of isolation and questions of identity one faces when dealing with a life changing diagnosis.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews