Sensory Dimensions of Spirit Possession
Wisdom from the Edge August 15, 2023 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501770654.003.0004
Summary
Spirit possession is a dramatic religious experience where humans confront deities, using smell, sound, and vision as key ingredients in possession rituals. The chapter argues that sensory description enriches anthropological understanding of the human condition. It examines spirit possession through functionalism, psychoanalysis, physiology, symbolism, and theatrical frameworks, highlighting how possession embodies existential relations like earth and sky or men and women.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Sensory elements like smell, sound, and vision are integral to spirit possession rituals, which embody existential relations and enrich anthropological records. |
Abstract
This chapter examines how smell, sound, and vision become integral ingredients in recipes of and for spirit possession. Spirit possession underscores the drama of life in the world due to its embodied symbolism highlighting existential relations such as earth and sky or men and women. According to Roger Bastide, spirit possession is a dramatic religious experience during which human beings come face to face with the supernatural or deities. The chapter explains that the artful inclusion of the sensorial description of any performance enriches the anthropological record and the existential parameters of the human condition. It considers the notions of functionalism, psychoanalysis, physiological, symbolism, and theatrical framework to elaborate on the key concepts of spirit possession.