The Structure of Indigenous Trance Language

The structures of trance texts used in healing rituals from five indigenous cultures (e.g., Navajo, Aboriginal Australians, San, Chagga, old Serbian) are compared to identify common factors that may underlie the effects of indigenous trance languages. Strikingly, despite being separated by vast distances and having had no historical contact, these cultures use trance texts that share virtually identical structural elements—a convergence that cannot be explained by cultural exchange. In contrast, the content of the texts varies greatly. The mechanisms through which these shared structural features generate their effects are examined with reference to concepts from cognitive psychology and cognitive linguistics.