Soil, self, resistance: late-modernity and locative spirit possession in Kerala

Summary

Spirit possession in late-modern Kerala reveals how mixed-up boundary processes reconfigure personhood, territory, and caste. A case history of an Īḻava moneylender's wife possessed by Untouchable ancestors illustrates contradictions between traditional person-kuṭumpam-soil consubstantiality and modern state-land relations. The new rich moving into formerly Untouchable border areas, believed haunted, further disrupts old separations. Thematic case histories serve as a window onto how multiple boundary processes shape self and territory.

Study at a glance

Abstract

I present a place-centred and low-caste view of spirit affliction/possession with reference to person-kuṭumpam (descent group)-soil continuity and interaction in late-modern Kerala, where previous boundary processes have been subjugated to a new set of boundary processes that mixed-up what was formerly unmixable. The person-kuṭumpam-soil consubstantiality, which is expressed in mortuary rituals, contradicts with the modern praxis of people-state-land relations. The new rich have been moving into the border areas of the village, which was formerly inhabited exclusively by Untouchables, and which was believed to be a dangerous place where ghosts and malevolent deities wandered. I present a case history of an Īḻava moneylender’s wife, whose body was possessed by Untouchable ancestors. I use thematically related case histories of spirit affliction and possession as a ‘window’ that provides a glimpse into the ways in which multiple boundary processes constitute person, self and territory in the late-modern context.