Siri the Healing Mother: Relational Dynamics Between Mother and Child in a Matrilineal Society

Title

Siri the Healing Mother: Relational Dynamics Between Mother and Child in a Matrilineal Society

Creator

Gopal, Baiju; Thomas, Tissy Mariam; Chauhan, Aanchal

Description

The Siri cult revolves around an oral tradition from Tulunadu in Dakshina Kannada (South Canara), India, featuring a story that unfolds over 15,683 lines. It tells the myth of Siri, a remarkable woman, and her lineage. During the famous Siri Jatre (which means festival), women are possessed by the spirits of Siri and her descendants, such as Abbaga and Daraga. This article explores the ritual space of the Siri cult as a transformative arena for women, where the boundaries between myth and reality blur, allowing for collective healing and psychic reintegration. The ritual performances, particularly during the Siri festival, facilitate a trance-like state in which women embody Siri and her struggles, experiencing emotional release. Through communal participation and embodied identification with Siri, women reclaim their repressed emotions, anxieties, and desires, forging new alternative narratives of motherhood, femininity, and divine womanhood. Importantly, Siris divine presence offers women a symbolic anchora figure who legitimises their grief and challenges male-dominated ideals for women to be obedient, nurturing, and submissive. Taking a psychoanalytical lens, this article examines the ritual space of the Siri cult through the framework of object relations theory to explore the psychic processes. The rituals allow women to externalise their inner conflicts and repressed desires, processing their grief and trauma through symbolic enactment. By situating the Siri cult within a psychoanalytical framework, the study reveals how the myth of Siri functions as a transformative object, allowing women to bridge their individual suffering with communal strength, ultimately achieving a sense of psychic integration and empowerment. 2025 Department of Psychology, University of Allahabad

Source

Psychology and Developing Societies;Volume;37;Issue;1 Special Issue: Beliefs, Practices and Well-being;pp.118-130

Date

01-01-2025

Publisher

Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd

Subject

integration; object relations; Siri cult; South Canara; transformative object

Coverage

Gopal B., CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Karnataka, Bangalore, India; Thomas T.M., University of Kerala, Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, India; Chauhan A., CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Karnataka, Bangalore, India

Rights

Restricted Access; Hardcopy may be available in the library

Relation

ISSN: 9713336;

Format

online

Language

English

Type

Article

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.1177/09713336251366806

https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105013874203?origin=resultslist