The Politics of Madness and Spirit Possession in Northern India.
Medical anthropology January 1, 2021 Asaf Sharabi 11 citations
In the Western Himalayas, being a medium of a god is common and normative. This article describes three mediums whose strong criticism of religious practices and the caste system caused mixed feelings in their community. Villagers typically cope with deviant mediumship by ignoring the person or gossiping to express skepticism or label the possession as inauthentic. These usual approaches failed for these three mediums. Consequently, some community members invoked the biomedical concept of madness to stop what they saw as deviant mediumship.