The Bloodstain: Spirit Possession, Menstruation, and Transgression in Niger
Ethnos June 1, 2011 DOI: 10.1080/00141844.2010.546867 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Ethnography Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 5 |
| Key findings | Argues that reactions to the blood-stained wrapper are shaped by situational factors including agency during possession, secrecy, and attention, rather than solely by structuralist notions of purity and pollution. |
Abstract
Examining the varied reactions of people to the blood-stained wrapper of a spirit devotee during a bori possession ceremony in Niger, I explore how dirt and disgust are more complex than neat structuralist models of purity and pollution often used to explain them. Understanding menstrual blood in situational terms, and looking at the reactions as shaped more about complex dimensions of agency in the course of possession, secrecy, revealing things known but not spoken, and forms of attention allows us to grasp better the varied kinds of disgust some people expressed after the incident.