Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Aberdeen, 1985. / "April 1985." Includes bibliographical references (p. 308-323).

The study of possession phenomena in South Asia presents a unique set of challenges for scholars. Because of its occurrence within diverse contexts, from healing temples and ritual performances to festival celebrations and devotional practices, attempts on the part of scholars to hone in on a concise vocabulary and conceptual framework with which to articulate the critical nature and function of possession has resulted in an extensive body of literature with wide-ranging methodological and theoretical dispositions. Each of these approaches, in its own way, contributes to an increasingly complicated web of intersecting disciplinary approaches. As this body of literature continues to grow, and with it, the resources for generating a more productive academic discourse surrounding possession, so too grows a set of distinct challenges. How is one to sort through the maze of interpretive strategies and the conclusions they produce? Is it possible to assemble them in such a way as to develop a cooperative and mutually beneficial approach? Is there hope for arriving at a commonly shared vocabulary of possession capable of functioning across disciplinary boundaries? And if so, would such a vocabulary avoid forcing localized experiences and practices to conform to ill-fitting, non-native criteria of analysis? Through critical evaluation of ethnographic contributions to the study of possession, this paper sets out to arrive at a set of conclusions about what works best for furthering the depth of appreciation and understanding for how diverse, complex, and pervasive possession practices are within a South Asian context. My criteria for this evaluation focuses on the degree to which specific approaches are established in, and guided by, an ethos of inclusivity, one that develops a healthy and vibrant dialectic between indigenous models of experience, practice, and interpretation, and those of the scholar. Along the way, I investigate key issues raised in the study of possession, such as ritual efficacy, embodiment, agency, and the nature of human relations with various nonhuman beings.

De praktiker och föreställningar som hör samma med den magiska verkligheten under etiketten ”witchcraft” verkar öka i popularitet i dagens Afrika. Medan vissa postmoderna antropologer har tolkat fenomenet som en kritisk kommentar mot moderniseringsprocesser är det troligt att föreställningen om den magiska verkligheten kan göra anspråk på fler uttryck än så. Syftet med den här undersökningen är att analysera hur informanternas syn på andebesättelse i en Luo-dominerad kristen evangelisk församling i Kibera, kan tolkas utifrån vissa ekonomiska, sociala och kulturella processer. Jag undersöker hur andebesättelse kan förstås med hjälp av informanternas förhållande till och synen på hemmet, familjen, könsroller, staden, landsbygden, avundsjuka och framgång. I analysen tolkas informanternas föreställningar om andebesättelse utifrån rörelser mellan de kenyanska gränserna rikedom/fattigdom, stadsliv/landsbygd och offentligt/privat. Andebesättelse kan därefter förstås som en slags medlare mellan dessa gränser, där de som befinner sig mellan någon av dessa oppositioner tenderar att vara särskilt utsatta för andliga attacker. / The notion of witchcraft seems to grow in popularity in the contemporary Africa. While some postmodern anthropologists have interpreted the phenomenon as a critical commentary on the processes of modernization, it is likely to be able to claim more than that. The purpose of the thesis is to analyse the notion of spirit possession by the informants in a Luo dominated evangelical church in Kibera, and how it may be interpreted through certain economic, social and cultural processes. This is made by investigating the views on the home, family, gender roles, urban, rural, jealousy and prosperity. The informant’s notion of spirit possession is interpreted in the analyse as movements across the Kenyan boundaries of rural/urban, public/private and rich/poor. Spirit possession is understood as a mediator between these boundaries, and those who is found to be in between some of these oppositions tend to be most vulnerable to spirit attacks.

Cette thèse traite de la manière dont les Tandroy, population originaire de l’extrême Sud de Madagascar, produisent leurs identités collectives en situation de migration urbaine dans la ville de Toliara. Les Tandroy, qui vivent depuis près d’un siècle en situation de circulation à travers l’île, sont le plus souvent assignés à un statut de migrants précaires, pour lesquels la ville demeure un espace étranger. Je montre, à travers une ethnographie de situations rituelles, comment cet état de la migration peut être considéré comme un espace de transition, dans lequel se joue le passage d’un état de mobilité à un état d’ancrage. Je montre également comment ce passage implique la remise en cause d’une identité collective construite avec la colonisation, et cristallisée au début des années 1970, époque où sévit une révolte paysanne menée par Monja Jaona, leader politique tandroy d’envergure nationale. Mes enquêtes se situent dans deux domaines, celui de la politique, et celui de la possession. Dans les deux cas, l’ancrage en ville s’exprime de manière paradoxale à partir du maniement de symboles ancestraux, pourtant fragilisés par le phénomène migratoire et jugés inadaptés à l’espace urbain : le poteau sacrificiel hazomanga, et l’esprit de possession kokolampo. Je m’intéresse à la manière dont ces éléments participent à l’élaboration de constructions symboliques confrontant des catégories identitaires articulées à l’expression d’une mémoire collective, et porte une attention particulière à la musique produite dans les situations ethnographiées, laquelle peut amener à une forme alternative de relation à l’identité collective, favorisant l’expérience de l’ancrage. / This thesis deals with the way the Tandroy people native of the South of Madagascar, produce their collective identities in situation of urban migration in the city of Toliara. The Tandroy have lived for almost a century in situation of migration through the island. They are assigned most of the time to a status of precarious migrants, for whom cities remain a foreign space. I show, through an ethnography of ritual situations, how this state of the migration can be considered as a space of transition, in which a state of mobility to a state of sedentarization takes place. I also show how this passage implies the question of the building of a collective identity with the colonization, and enhanced at the beginning of the 1970s, when arises a peasant revolt led by the tandroy political leader Monja Jaona. My inquiries focus on two domains : politics and spirit possession. In both cases, urban sedentarization is expressed in a paradoxical way from the manipulation of ancestral symbols, nevertheless weakened by migrations and considered unsuitable for the urban space : hazomanga-stake, and spirit possession kokolampo. I am interested in the way these elements participate in the elaboration of symbolic constructions confronting categories articulated in the expression of a collective memory and I thoroughly observe the music produced, which can bring to an alternative relationship to the collective identity, favoring the experiment of the sedentarization.

This dissertation explores the metaphor of dybbuk possession as a key to modern Jewish identity, focusing on the evolution of the dybbuk possession trope in twentieth- and twenty-first century Yiddish, English, Hebrew, and Polish language Jewish literature and culture. First described in the sixteenth century, dybbuk possession - a Jewish variant of spirit possession found in many cultures - grew out of the Jewish mystical tradition, especially the kabbalistic doctrine of transmigration of souls, according to which a soul of a deceased person took possession of a living human being. The trope of possession can be viewed as a mode of reflection on the modern Jewish experience, which shows how the past continuously possesses the present, and how this haunting attachment to the past becomes an essential component of Jewish identity. Highly interdisciplinary in character and transnational in scope, this project draws upon scholarship in gender, trauma, body, memory, and performance studies. An overview of cultural background of dybbuk possession (Chapter 1) is followed by an exploration of how the dybbuk possession trope is deployed metaphorically in Yiddish classics (Chapter 2), Holocaust narratives (Chapter 3), feminist fiction (Chapter 4), as well as in a selection of film and theater adaptations of S. An-sky's iconic drama, The Dybbuk, Or Between Two Worlds (1914) produced in Poland, Israel and the United States (Chapter 5). Finally, this dissertation features an unprecedented compilation of over seventy adaptations of An-sky's Dybbuk staged since the play's premiere in 1920 (Appendix).

Cette thèse porte sur l’itinéraire thérapeutique des personnes qui se pensent possédées par un esprit maléfique ou une divinité à travers les différentes thérapies disponibles à Kanke, ville du nord de l’Inde. Trois hôpitaux psychiatriques, construits à l’époque coloniale, s’y concentrent. Depuis quelques décennies un dargah, sanctuaire musulman, a été construit sur les terres-mêmes de l’un d’entre eux. Il est spécialisé dans le traitement des personnes possédées, tout comme les bhaktain, dévotes possédées par des divinités qui officient à leur domicile. Le travail de terrain a été réalisé dans deux hôpitaux psychiatriques, au dargah, et auprès de deux bhaktain. Dans les thérapies délivrées par les bhaktain et thérapeutes du dargah, l’émotion est suscitée chez le patient : il s’agit de provoquer l’esprit impur possédant le patient au moyen de substances divines. L’esprit maléfique se manifeste, et sera contraint de quitter ce corps. Si certains affirment avoir guéri, d’autres possédés consultent en psychiatrie. Les enjeux familiaux et socioéconomiques jouent un rôle de taille dans le choix du lieu de soins.L’interprétation des troubles est bien différente en psychiatrie où les professionnels utilisent des manuels de classification des troubles mentaux rédigés aux Etats-Unis pour diagnostiquer ces patients de milieu rural, pauvre, et parfois tribal. Ici, la possession est considérée comme un signe de maladie mentale. Les professionnels tentent de décourager l’interprétation des troubles en termes de possession au profit d’une conception neuroscientifique des problèmes et encouragent le patient à un contrôle émotionnel, usant parfois de références à l’hindouisme brahmanique.Les patients qui circulent entre ses lieux de soins sont pris dans ces logiques de soins antinomiques. La difficile articulation des différentes interprétations et pratiques thérapeutiques nous renseignent sur les enjeux politiques qui sous-tendent les rapports entre les différents thérapeutes. / This thesis is about the therapeutic journey of people who think they are possessed by a malefic spirit or a divinity. Various therapies are available for them in Kanke (north India). Here three psychiatric hospitals, built in the colonial period, provide mental health care. Few decades ago a dargah, a Muslim sanctuary, was built on one of them. It is specialized in the treatment of possessed people, like bhaktain, devotees possessed by divinities, which provide therapy at home. The fieldwork was realized between 2008 and 2014 in two psychiatric hospitals, in the dargah, and with two bhaktain.In the therapies delivered by bhaktain and therapists of the dargah, the patient’s emotion is stimulated : the impure spirit possessing the patient is provoked by means of divine substances. The malefic spirit manifests itself, and is forced to leave the body. While some possessed people assert being cured, others consult in psychiatry. The family and socioeconomic stakes play an important role in the choice of the place of care.The interpretation of the disorders is very different in psychiatry where the professionals use medical textbooks of classification of mental disorders published in the United States to diagnose these rural, poor, and sometimes tribal patients. Here, the possession is considered as a sign of mental illness. Only the private hospital tries another approach. The professionals try to discourage the interpretation of the disorders adopting a neuroscientific conception of the problems and encourage the patient to an emotional control, sometimes referring to Brahmanical Hindu texts. The patients who circulate between these places of care are caught in these paradoxical logics of care. The difficult articulation of the various interpretations and therapeutic practices the patient encounters informs us about the political stakes which influence relationships between therapists of various places of care.

Thesis (M.A.)--Colgate Rochester Divinity School/Bexley Hall/Crozer Theological Seminary, 1998. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-174).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-11, Section: A, page: 4180. Adviser: Thomas Turino. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 358-373) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

The Medium and the Message investigates the incorporation of Afro-Cuban trance techniques in Western theatrical performance. Through art practice and research, I am asking two questions: how do performers, trained in Western theatrical contexts, articulate their experience with Afro-Cuban trance techniques? And how can my research methodologies illuminate the inherent intercultural tensions in ways that are productive for performance practitioners and theorists? To answer these questions, I created four new works of theatrical performance where I developed a method for performers, utilizing Afro-Cuban rituals adapted for non-practitioners. Working toward a phenomenological understanding of what is happening when a performer incorporates a character, I drew on the ritual knowledge of trance possession in Lukumí and Palo Monte in order to examine how ontologies might speak to each other in artistic practice. I also served as advisor for the creation of a fifth work in order to test the method outside of my studio. I constructed a studio practice methodology, called kanga (from the Bantu for tying and untying), using three methods based on aspects of Afro-Cuban ritual, and modified for performance contexts: spell, charm, and trance. This methodology enacts and complicates distinctions between performance and ritual, serving as a contribution to respectful and responsible intercultural performance practices. My research-led practice includes autobiographical writing and auto-ethnography under a phenomenological research methodology that uses three methods for data collection: formal recorded interviews, video footage of the studio work, and regular rehearsal debriefings. The overall methodology, bridging theory and practice, is bricoleur, drawing from ethnography, psychoanalytic theory, and phenomenology. Both research and studio work led to the articulation of a state of consciousness in performance that I call hauntological. This borrows from Derrida (1994: 10) but is redefined to refer to a state of being where reality is co-constituted by the living and the dead, where ancestral spirits are invoked to do the work once reserved for characters. Finally, this led to the construction of a creative artifact called The Ghost Lounge, an art work that evokes a hauntological state of consciousness in the viewer.

Around Africa there seems to be an increasing disillusion with 'development', seen under the rubric of teleological 'progress', which is touted by post-colonial governments as being the cure for Africa's ailments and woes. Numerous authors have pointed out that this local disillusion, and the attempt to manage the inequities that arise through development and modernity, can be seen to be understood and acted upon by local peoples through the idiom of witchcraft beliefs and fears (see Geschiere & Fisiy 2001; Geschiere 1997; Nyamnjoh 2001; Comaroff & Comaroff 1993; Ashforth 2005) and spirit possession nanatives (see Luig 1999; Gezon 1999), or more simply, occult beliefs and praxis (Moore & Sanders 2001). The majority of the Mayeyi of Namibia's Eastern Caprivi perceive that development is the only way their regiOn and people can survive and succeed in a modernising world. At ~he same time there is also a seeming reluctance to move towards perceiving witchcraft as a means of accumulation (contra Geschiere 1997). This notion of the 'witchcraft of wealth' is emerging, but for the most part witches are seen as the enemies of development, while spirit possession narratives speak to the desire for development and of the identity of the group vis-a-vis the rest of the world. The thesis presented argues that, although modernity orientated analyses enable occult belief to be used as a lens through which to 1..mderstand 'modernity's malcontents' (Comaroff & Comaroff 1993), they can only go so far in explaining the intricacies of witchcraft and spirit possession beliefs themselves. The dissertation argues that one should return to the analysis of the cosmological underpinnings of witchcraft belief and spirit possession, taken together as complementary phenomena, in seeking to understand the domain of the occult. By doing so the thesis argues that a more comprehensive anthropological understanding is obtained of occult belief and practice, the ways in which the domain of the occult is constituted and the ways in which it is a reflection or commentary on a changing world.