Tsiange
Mekeo · numen · Mekeo traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The tsiange (also isange) are the ghosts or spirits of the human dead. In Mekeo belief the dead do not simply vanish but persist as spirit-beings who may aid or, more often, afflict their living kin, and who are the object of mortuary observance and of the sorcerer's and healer's dealings. Their existence as a permanent order of spirits is a direct consequence of A'aisa's release of death into the world. They form a collective class rather than a single named individual.
Domains
- afterlife and the dead
Powers
- afflicts and haunts the living
- departs to the land of the dead
Sources
- The tsiange are the named class of ghosts or spirits of the human dead in Mekeo belief, capable of afflicting the living.: Stephen, Michele. A'aisa's Gifts: A Study of Magic and the Self. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. (secondary); Hau'ofa, Epeli. Mekeo: Inequality and Ambivalence in a Village Society. Canberra: ANU Press, 1981. (secondary)