Goblet-Vanormelingen V
Soc Sci Med. 1993 Jul;37(2):241-52. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(93)90458-g.
The mbombo is a popular ritual practice, with preventive and curative implications, of a rural society in central Africa. This rite is used by: pregnant women who have lost several children by abortion, at childbirth, or during their first year of life; by women who get pregnant after a long spell of primary or secondary infertility; by their children until they can walk; and by twins and their mother. The principal characteristics of the rite include: the separation of mother and child from their family, a long period of marginality under the continuous protection of a ritualistic healer, and a progressive reinsertion in the therapeutic support group, composed of the family and the community of sufferers. When one analyses the meanings and operational functions of the global ritual process of this therapy, which incidentally takes into account several midwifery techniques, it is not only a fecundity ritual, but also a rite of initiation, protection, purification and passage. Thus it is a global therapy involving besides child survival, the restoration of a new physiological, psychological, religious and social identity of the ritual subjects.
姆博姆博是中非一个农村社会中一种流行的仪式活动，具有预防和治疗意义。该仪式被以下人群使用：因流产、分娩或出生后第一年就失去几个孩子的孕妇；经历长时间原发性或继发性不孕后怀孕的女性；她们的孩子，直到能走路为止；以及双胞胎及其母亲。该仪式的主要特点包括：母亲和孩子与家人分离，在一位仪式治疗师的持续保护下经历一段长时间的边缘状态，以及逐步重新融入由家庭和患病群体组成的治疗支持群体。当人们分析这种疗法的整体仪式过程的意义和操作功能时，顺便提一下，它涉及多种助产技术，这不仅是一种生育仪式，也是一种入会仪式、保护仪式、净化仪式和过渡仪式。因此，这是一种全面的疗法，除了关乎儿童生存外，还涉及恢复仪式主体新的生理、心理、宗教和社会身份。
