Spirit Possession, Modernity, and Power in Africa - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0299166341 ISBN 13: 9780299166342

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000

Synopsis

    In Africa as well as in Europe, many spirits and their mediums are part of local as well as global cultures. Christian spirits named Hitler, Mussolini, or King Bruce (Bruce Lee) flourish in a pantheon of new holy spirits in Uganda waging war against the government. Spirits of airplanes, engines, guitars, and angels are found in Central Africa; and thunder, snakes, and rain as well as playboys and prostitutes inhabit the spirit world in West Africa.
    Spirit possession cults have continued to proliferate, even in the secular West, and continue to be a subject of intense interest. Despite the continuous expansion of the field, some problems are only now beginning to be explored. The experts in this volume focus on questions of power, the history and inner dynamics of cults, the role of gender and images of the other, based on research conducted during the last fifteen years in Africa. The contributors document changes taking place across the continent as possession beliefs and practices respond to new circumstances and address the shifting local implications of an increasingly global socio-economy. Gender, ethnicity, and class are examined as intersecting forces and features of spirit phenomena. The case studies presented are richly contextualized:  history, social organization and upheaval, alternative religious options—all are considered relevant to an understanding of possession forms.

Contributors: Leslie Sharp, Heike Behrend, Adeline Masquelier, Mathias Krings, Jean-Paul Colleyn, Alexandra O. de Sousa, Susan Kenyon, Tobias Wendl, Ute Luig, and Linda Giles

Co-published with James Currey Publishers, U.K.
The Wisconsin edition is not for sale in the United Kingdon, the traditional British Commonwealth  (excepting Canada), nor in Europe.

About this title

About the Author

Heike Behrend is professor of anthropology at the Institute for African Studies, University of Cologne, Germany.
Ute Luig is professor of social anthropology at the Institute for Ethnology, Free University of Berlin.

Review

Spirits and spirit possession are common in African public life, as is witchcraft. Yet this is an area to which political and social scientists as well as economists pay scant attention ... highly recommended to those who are not familiar with the subject, or who may still doubt its importance ...The merit of this volume is that the various country studies are presented in a manner that makes them comparable. - Patrick Chabal in INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Every article in the volume is full of necessary historical, political and economic information, enabling the reader to see how truly nuanced and dense the ethnographies are upon which the pieces are based...this is a very worthy scholarly project, and one that should have wide appeal to those interested in indigenous and external religious practices on the continent of Africa. - Misty L. Bastian in JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICA

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0299166341
• ISBN 13: 9780299166342
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: Behrend Heike, Luig Ute