Spirit possession

Summary

Spirit possession offers an alternative to the Self-Other binary dominating social theory. Ethnography of two women healers in rural Rajasthan—a Hindu possessed by a Muslim martyr's spirit and a Muslim possessed by a Hindu goddess—shows the body as a permeable site where the other takes over the self. Their mythico-ritual healing creates speech communities crossing caste and ethnic lines, contrasting with polarized identity politics of groups like the Tablighi Jamacat and Vishva Hindu Parishad. This challenges conventional understandings of ethnicity, gender, and historical violence.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This paper challenges the preeminence of the Self-Other binary in contemporary social theory. The opposition not only pervades the field of cultural studies, it also dominates disciplines such as historiography and anthropology and the burgeoning work on ethnicity. Spirit possession, however, suggests an alternative paradigm for redefining the self and the other, inter-ethnic relations, and understanding culture and cosmologies. The argument is developed from an ethnography of two shaman women in rural Ajmer in Rajasthan. The spirit of Pīr Bābā or Imam Husayn martyred during the Karbala massacre possesses the ‘Hindu’ woman, Sushila Rawat. The collective mother goddess called Bayasaab Mātā possesses the ‘Muslim’ woman healer, Jamila Merat, whose practice has been taken over by her younger brother after her death.Embodiment visualizes the body as a permeable site where the other substantially takes over the self for the duration of the trance. The power of the possessing spirit enables the healer to intervene in the mundane world of desire, kāma, and necessity. Spirits and healers travel in time and across space enabling the latter to weave complex cosmographies such as when Sushila relates the mythic landscape of Ismailism and untouchable traditions.The highly creative imaginary of the two shrines is in contrast to the polarized discourse of ethnicizing groups such as the Tablighi Jamacat and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) who are actively involved in identity contests in the area. The discourse of mythico-ritual healing indicates an alternative civilizational response to the politics of “righting historical wrong” and to the issue of how to address past conquest and/or violence, real or perceived. The client-healer relationship brings into existence a speech community that cuts across caste and ethnic boundaries.The gender performativity of the two woman-healers helps them renegotiate gender relations within the community. But the discourse of disease and possession also exposes the gendered fractures within communities ethnically defined. The objectification of the self and the subjectification of the other involved in spirit possession suggest new ways to reconceptualize the Self-Other binary.