Comments on the book, Temiar Religion, by Geoffrey Benjamin

My comments on the book Temiar Religion, by Geoffrey Benjamin (2014. NUS Press). After testing the book with with Temiars of Pos Goob, in Kelantan, Malaysia, I discovered that many errors had been made (misunderstandings and mixed up concepts) which then led the author to make some inaccurate and false conclusions. Unfortunately, the author did not respond to my comments. 

As his work is currently the leading voice on Temiar ritual traditions, I find it necessary to make my comments public, so that the Temiars might be better understood and their culture be better preserved. Without my work to balance/correct areas of the book by Benjamin, their real belief system will hardly be known by the outside world.

In the book, he seemed determined to prove that good vs evil is rooted in the culture (when actually it is human vs the wild), and to prove his theory that rituals produce morals (which I find they don't in Temiar society), thus clouding the real social concepts from view. His theory of multiple souls existing in the Temiar makeup, the heart soul, head soul, grave soul, eye soul, tiger soul and any other soul, also doesn't hold up well to real Temiar belief. And his description of spirit mediums making a pretense, dreaming what they want to and having fake experiences does little to promote respect.