This essay discusses feminist ideas in connection to the occulture—Christopher Partridge’s term for the re-enchantment of art, popular culture, and everyday life through esoteric and spiritual currents—present in opera, musical theater, and film, focusing on femmes fatales, tricksters and ‘wicked women’ in a transcultural approach to religion, (Western) esotericism, and the performing arts. The...
CultureDecember 2, 2021Wolfgang G. Jilek1 citation
The author presents examples of pathogenic influence of culture. He identifies specific pathogenic factors associated with rapid socio-cultural change affecting North American Indians and African populations and sketches the resulting typical psychopathological conditions: anomic depression in Amerindians, transient psychotic reactions (bouffée délirante) in Africans. Witchcraft and sorcery...
Shamanism, as defined in this paper, existed among the Sami only into the 19th century. Besides its relatively early dissolution it displays certain unique features, as well as basic ideological similarities, that distinguish it from circumpolar shamanism in general. These variations are studied here as indicators of religious change in two periods of Sami history: the period of the impact of...
In what ways can spirit possession among the Malagasy speakers of Mayotte (Comoro Islands, East Africa) be said to be a creative performance? Situating trance episodes in the broader life context of the performer enables us to see that style is in large part a product of frame management. A good performer provides a clear and resonant articulation of her identities as character, medium, and...