The article offers an intellectual journey through some recent anthropological studies that investigate issues of becoming “possessed”, becoming a “person” and becoming a “spirit”. First, I take up some critiques of the modern concept of person through the re-reading of spirited possession, in particular the strict division between material and spiritual aspects of human agency. Second, I follow some critical interpretations of the material and non-material dynamics of “possession” itself. Third, I try to reflect on ethnographies concerning the dissociative states of consciousness, based on insider accounts of experts and practitioners of spirit possession. The journey concludes with an engagement with the Deleuzian concept of becoming and its methodological implications for the practices of positioning of the ethnographer in the fieldwork.
The wandering Orixás. Spirit possession and genealogies of Afro-Atlantic religions
MINELLI, MASSIMILIANO
2014
Abstract
The article offers an intellectual journey through some recent anthropological studies that investigate issues of becoming “possessed”, becoming a “person” and becoming a “spirit”. First, I take up some critiques of the modern concept of person through the re-reading of spirited possession, in particular the strict division between material and spiritual aspects of human agency. Second, I follow some critical interpretations of the material and non-material dynamics of “possession” itself. Third, I try to reflect on ethnographies concerning the dissociative states of consciousness, based on insider accounts of experts and practitioners of spirit possession. The journey concludes with an engagement with the Deleuzian concept of becoming and its methodological implications for the practices of positioning of the ethnographer in the fieldwork.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
