PPR472: Spirit Possession in Contemporary Social Contexts

Objectives

Traditionally a mainstay of anthropological studies, spirit possession has become a truly trans-disciplinary subject and is treated today in a broadening range of academic approaches, disciplinary forums and popular contexts. Both the continuing popularity of Lewis's Ecstatic Religion (now in its third edition, 2003) and the growing number of monographs and edited collections treating contemporary spirit possession further underscore its increasing academic salience. This is a text-based module which responds to renewed academic interest in spirit possession by engaging a range of relevant themes and issues in light of theoretical insights furnished by a number of disciplinary approaches. Each module session is orientated by a chapter taken from the module's core text: Dawson, A. 2011. Summoning the Spirits: Possession and Invocation in Contemporary Religion. London: I. B. Tauris.

Select Bibliography

Behrend, H. & Ute Luig, U. Eds. 2000. Spirit Possession, Modernity, and Power in Africa. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.

Cohen, E. 2007. The Mind Possessed: The Cognition of Spirit Possession in an Afro-Brazilian Religious Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Crapanzano, V. and Garrison, V. Eds 1977. Case Studies in Spirit Possession New York: Routledge.

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