Dynamic Cosmos : Movement, Paradox, and Experimentation in the Anthropology of Spirit Possession

This edited volume applies the analytic notions of paradox and play to the ethnographic manifestation of spirits, angels, and demons in different locations around the world. The 10 case studies conceptualize the co-presence of humans and entities with terms that do not exclude spiritual reasoning on the one hand, and social explanations on the other. Through in-depth descriptions of localized possession cosmologies, the different chapters collectively propose path-breaking methodological directions in this field, which incorporate ethnographic theories of simultaneity into anthropological theories of religion, kinship, and ritual. Framed by an introduction written by the editors and an afterword by Michael Lambek, a leading authority in possessions studies, the volume contains cutting edge analyses that will provide readers with new tools to evaluate previously unstudied aspects of spirit possession; all of which stem from the fantastic forms of human movement that accompany the phenomenality of paradoxes in mundane reality.

Diana Espírito Santo is Associate Professor in the Anthropology School at the Pontificia Universidad
Católica de Chile, Chile

Amy L. Allocco is Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Multifaith Scholars Program at Elon University, USA.

Matan Shapiro is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Digital Humanities at King's College London, UK.

Bettina E. Schmidt is Professor in the Study of Religions and Anthropology of Religion in the Centre of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UK.

Steven J. Sutcliffe is Visiting Fellow in Religious Studies at The Open University, UK. He is the co-editor (with Carole Cusack) of The Problem of Invented Religions (2016) and (with Ingvild Gilhus) of New Age Spirituality: Rethinking Religion (2014), and is the author of Children of the New Age: A History of Spiritual Practices (2003). He is one of the editors of the series Bloomsbury Advances in Religious Studies, which publishes theoretically astute, evidence-based monographs and edited volumes on the study of religion.