7 papers in the library · 7 citations · publishing 1993-2026
January 20, 2026 Susan J. Rasmussen
Abstract This is a critical overview of recent and current studies of spirit possession, a condition featuring an altered state of consciousness that is culturally defined as the occupation of a person by forces that are alien and often invisible—for example, spirits, ancestors, or other entities and powers. The chapter explores how possession offers insights, but it also poses challenges in...
Cambridge University Press eBooks February 16, 1995 Susan J. Rasmussen
Spirit possession rites and verbal art imagery do not occur as discrete entities, but as a continuous code. Ritual and mythology are mirror images of each other in their articulation of issues surrounding concepts of self. Both address healing in their interconnected themes of suffering and social conflict, and both draw upon the same symbolic repertoire and imagery. Both encapsulate the...
Cambridge University Press eBooks February 16, 1995 Susan J. Rasmussen
Spirits of solitude bring illnesses of the heart and soul. In song verses used in spirit possession rituals, one who is possessed is referred to obliquely through the metaphor of an orphan ( golama ), a term also used to refer to a childless camel, and a female camel who has lost her young. Asalama, the blacksmith woman whose ritual served as a prelude to my quest for understanding possession,...
Cambridge University Press eBooks February 16, 1995 Susan J. Rasmussen
There are numerous elements of reversal, or symbolic inversions, during the possession ritual that are apparent in the singing, dance motions, and ritual paraphernalia of the event. Possession songs begin only after sunset, when restrictions on behavior are relaxed, and when patients usually emerge from their tents (or, more rarely, are brought to the curing site away from their compound)....
February 16, 1995 Susan J. Rasmussen
Among the Tuareg people in the Air Mountain region of Niger, women are sometimes possessed by spirits called 'the people of solitude'. The evening curing rituals of the possessed, featuring drumming and song, take place before an audience of young men and women, who joke and flirt as the ritual unfolds. In her analysis of this tolerated but unofficial cult, Susan Rasmussen analyses symbolism...
Africa 1994 Susan J. Rasmussen 5 citations
Abstract Among the Kel Ewey Tuareg of north-eastern Niger, particularly in noble circles, spirit possession is associated with Sudanic/servile cultural origins; so, too, are dancing and drumming. I argue that, in performing a sideways swaying motion of the head and shoulders referred to locally as a dance, women in possession trance transform Sudanic culture. The head dance as flowing,...
Anthropology & Humanism June 1, 1993 Susan J. Rasmussen 2 citations
It is now recognized that spirit possession and a work of art share common properties. Yet few analyses stop to consider the transformative effects of possession artistry in diverse contexts, extending beyond the immediate ritual process: while visiting, in leisure, gossip, courtship, and festival settings, where local residents in effect re‐create possession in commentary about its music,...