The Sinhalese exorcism rituals are perhaps the most complex and the most magnificent in performance still extant. For this second edition, the author has written a new preface and introduction in which he argues that the techniques of healing in Sri Lanka and the aesthetics of this healing cannot be reduced to Western psychoanalytic or psychotherapeutic terms, and develops new and original approaches to ritual and the aesthetic in general.

Bruce Kapferer, University of Bergen

1 Introduction 2 Exorcism, Class and Change in Urban Sri Lanka 3 Exorcists 4 Demonic Illness: Diagnosis and Social Context 5 Exorcisms and the Symbolic Identity of Women 6 The Demonic Illusion: Demons and the Cosmic Hierarchy 7 The Exorcism of the Great Cemetery Demon: Event and Structure in Major Exorcisms 8 Music, Dance and Trance 9 The Comedy of Gods and Demons 10 Epilogue: A Celebration of Demons