Dynamics of the spirit possession phenomenon in Eastern Tanzania

Summary

Spirit possession cults in eastern Tanzania serve as institutional forms of religious experience that help people navigate fundamental social change caused by a national villagisation program. Religion both shapes and is shaped by historical development. The study examines how specific religious practices relate to societal change, the social and economic relations expressed through possession, and whether possession enables people to creatively overcome crises imposed by changing social and economic conditions. The context involves four ethnic groups undergoing relocation from scattered homesteads to new or enlarged villages.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The discussion on the spirit possession phenomenon is related in this study to the more general question of the role of religious institutions as part in the development process of a people living in a limited geographical area of a wider national society. It is assumed that religion, like culture in general, has its specific institutional forms as result of the historical development of a society, but at the same time religion is a force shaping that history. People's cultural resources influence their social and economic development and form a potential creative element in it'. Some of the questions to be asked are: "How are specific religious practices related to the dynamics of change in the societies in question? What is the social and religious context in which the spirit possession phenomenon occurs in them? What social and economic relations get their expression in them? To what extent is spirit possession in this case a means of exerting values and creatively overcoming a crisis or conflict which the changing social and economic relations impose on the people? The established spirit possession cults are here seen as the institutional forms of religious experience. At the same time it becomes evident that there is institutionalization in process as well as deinstitutionalization of spirit possession where it occurs outside established institutional forms. Institution is taken as a socially shared form of behaviour the significance of which is commonly recognized by those who share it. By the term spirit possession cult is meant a ritual form of spirit possession of a group which is loosely organized and without strict membership. The context of the study is four ethnic groups in Eastern Tanzania, near the coast of the Indian Ocean. The general theme of the project is The Role of Culture in the Restructuring of Tanzanian Rural Areas. The restructuring refers to a villagisation programme carried out in the whole country. People are being moved from their scattered homesteads to new villages and old villages are enlarged by incorporating several villages into one. People are going through a process of fundamental social change.

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