Spirit Possession, Modernity & Power in Africa
Title | Spirit Possession, Modernity & Power in Africa PDF eBook |
Author | Heike Behrend |
Publisher | Univ of Wisconsin Press |
Total Pages | 198 |
Release | 1999 |
Genre | Body, Mind & Spirit |
ISBN | 9780299166342 |
In Africa as well as in Europe, many spirits and their mediums are part of local as well as global cultures. Christian spirits named Hitler, Mussolini, or King Bruce (Bruce Lee) flourish in a pantheon of new holy spirits in Uganda waging war against the government. Spirits of airplanes, engines, guitars, and angels are found in Central Africa; and thunder, snakes, and rain as well as playboys and prostitutes inhabit the spirit world in West Africa. Spirit possession cults have continued to proliferate, even in the secular West, and continue to be a subject of intense interest. Despite the continuous expansion of the field, some problems are only now beginning to be explored. The experts in this volume focus on questions of power, the history and inner dynamics of cults, the role of gender and images of the other, based on research conducted during the last fifteen years in Africa. The contributors document changes taking place across the continent as possession beliefs and practices respond to new circumstances and address the shifting local implications of an increasingly global socio-economy. Gender, ethnicity, and class are examined as intersecting forces and features of spirit phenomena. The case studies presented are richly contextualized: history, social organization and upheaval, alternative religious options--all are considered relevant to an understanding of possession forms. Contributors: Leslie Sharp, Heike Behrend, Adeline Masquelier, Mathias Krings, Jean-Paul Colleyn, Alexandra O. de Sousa, Susan Kenyon, Tobias Wendl, Ute Luig, and Linda Giles Co-published with James Currey Publishers, U.K. The Wisconsin edition is not for sale in the United Kingdon, the traditional British Commonwealth (excepting Canada), nor in Europe.
Spirit Possession, Modernity & Power in Africa
Title | Spirit Possession, Modernity & Power in Africa PDF eBook |
Author | Heike Behrend |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 170 |
Release | 1999 |
Genre | Cults |
ISBN | 9780852552599 |
Focuses on questions of power, the history and inner dynamics of cults, and images of the other.
Spirits in Politics
Title | Spirits in Politics PDF eBook |
Author | Barbara Meier |
Publisher | Campus Verlag |
Total Pages | 269 |
Release | 2013-09 |
Genre | Body, Mind & Spirit |
ISBN | 3593399156 |
4e de couv.: This anthropology addresses persisting questions social anthropologist, historians, and political scientists working in African societies have been confronted with: Do spirits enter the scene after political have failed as a relapse into an allegedly non-modern condition? Or do they precede colonial processes of political transformation, as classis theories of modernization try to establish? The volume seeks to extend the reflections on the relationship of religious phenomena in the socio-political sphere in African societies. It presents case studies which focus on the concepts of modernity, power, and violence, adding the notion of healing to this context and investigating their empirical correlations.
Ceremonial spirit possession in Africa and Afro-America
Title | Ceremonial spirit possession in Africa and Afro-America PDF eBook |
Author | Sheila S. Walker |
Publisher | Brill Archive |
Total Pages | 202 |
Release | 1972-01-01 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9789004035843 |
Spirit Mediumship and Society in Africa
Title | Spirit Mediumship and Society in Africa PDF eBook |
Author | John Beattie |
Publisher | Routledge |
Total Pages | 351 |
Release | 2013-11-05 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 1136527656 |
Gathering together under a single cover material from a wide range of African societies, this volume allows similarities and differences to be easily perceived and suggests social correlates of these in terms of age, sex, marital status, social grading and wealth. It includes material on both traditional and modern cults.
Embodying Colonial Memories
Title | Embodying Colonial Memories PDF eBook |
Author | Paul Stoller |
Publisher | Routledge |
Total Pages | 240 |
Release | 2014-01-02 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 1136652663 |
A study of the West African Hauka - spirits that grotesquely mimic and mock "Europeans" of the colonial epoch. The author considers spirit possession as a set of embodied practices with serious social and cultural consequences. Embodying Colonial Memories is the first in-depth study of the West African Hauka, spirits in the body of (human) mediums which mimic and mock Europeans of the colonial epoch. Paul Stoller, who was initiated into a spirit possession troupe, recounts an insider's tale of the Hauka with respect and "brotherly" deference. He combines narrative description, historical analysis, and reflections on the importance of embodiment and mimesis to social theory, with particular reference to the Songhay peoples of the Republic of Niger.
Spirit Possession and Spirit Mediumship in Africa and Afro-America
Title | Spirit Possession and Spirit Mediumship in Africa and Afro-America PDF eBook |
Author | Irving I. Zaretsky |
Publisher | Routledge |
Total Pages | 434 |
Release | 2019-06-19 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1000517527 |
Originally published in 1978 Spirit Possession and Spirit Mediumship in Africa and Afro-America is an incredibly diverse and comprehensive bibliography on published works containing ethnographic data on, and analysis of, spirit possession and spirit mediumship in North and Sub-Saharan Africa and in some Afro-American communities in the Western Hemisphere. The sources on Western Afro-American communities were chosen to shed light on the African continent and the Americas. The bibliography, while not exhaustive, provides extensive research on the area of research in spiritualism in Africa and Afro-America. The bibliography also provides unique sources on spirit cults, ritual or ethnic groups and will be of especial interest to researchers. Although published in the late 70s, this book will still provide an incredibly useful research tool for academics in the area of religion, with a focus on spiritualism and non-western religions.