AbstractChapter 9 tackles questions concerning the apparently variable distribution and relevance of spirit concepts and possession (e.g. the high degree of women's participation relative to men's participation in possession cults). Taking some of the necessary cognitive mechanisms for the emergence and spread of spirit concepts described in chapters 6–8, this chapter considers what...
AbstractThe reader is introduced to possession, and many of the key “why” questions that the book addresses, through the description of a possession healing ceremony and to the principal ethnographic focus of the book—a terreiro, or Afro‐Brazilian cult house in the city of Belém, northern Brazil. Brief introductions to dominant approaches to possession within academic scholarship and to the...
Abstract Chapters 4 and 5 introduce more comprehensively the scientific approach to be adopted, incorporating a review of past and present approaches to possession cults and spirit phenomena. The first of these chapters looks at ethnographic description and anthropological interpretation of spirit possession phenomena, considering the roles of both rich description and faithful representation...