'It's All To Do With Words': An Analysis of Spirit Possession in the Venezuelan Cult of María Lionza

Humans possessed by spirits are often described as ill or distressed, lacking power, control, and agency, and spirit possession has been described as a kind of ventriloquism in which mediums acquire a voice more powerful than their own as humans. What remains unsaid and unheard is what the spirits and humans talk about during possession episodes. This article suggests that the tendency to focus on the form and not the content of possession episodes has allowed for another form of ventriloquism, in which anthropologists themselves use the mediums to speak to their own agendas. Against this tendency, participants in the cult of María Lionza see words as central to the cult, to be listened to carefully. An analysis of the content of their possession episodes reveals how, far from being passive, deprived of agency, and 'muted', the possessed in the cult are actively engaged in an ongoing conversation with anthropologists, historians, the media, and the state.     

Magico‐spiritual power,female sexuality and ritual sex in Muslim Java: Unveiling the kesekten of magical women

This article argues that in practice, concepts of magico‐spiritual power (Javanese: kesekten; Indonesian: kesaktian) are linked with sexuality, particularly female sexuality, in some segments of contemporary Central and East Javanese Muslim society. Few scholars have turned attention to the interconnectedness of these seemingly contradictory topics. Feminist studies tend to focus on the ways in which women locate themselves within and critique Sharia‐based discursive and social orders, without considering the roles that magico‐spiritual power and associated practices play in these Islamic systems or in Islam in a more general sense. Similarly, male scholarship that considers the cultural relevance of Islam and magic rarely refers to gendered and sexual dimensions as praxis from a feminist perspective. By drawing on examples of ‘magical women’ including the Javanese spirit queen of the southern ocean Gusti Kanjeng Ratu Kidul, the historical Hindu figure Ken Dedes, and contemporary ritual sex practices at a Muslim saint's grave, we show how women, female spiritual beings and female sexuality, and sexuality in general, can be considered sources of magico‐spiritual power in Muslim Java. Our arguments conclude that in Javanese Islam, transgression of Sharia sexual norms can be both a sign and a source of magico‐spiritual power.     

Reproductive strategies and Islamic discourse: Malian migrants negotiate everyday life in Paris, France

Approximately 37 thousand Malians currently reside in France as part of the West African diaspora. Primarily Muslim, both women and men confront challenges to their understandings of Islamic prohibitions and expectations, especially those addressing conjugal relations and reproduction. Biomedical policies generate marital conflicts and pose health dilemmas for women who face family and community pressures to reproduce but biomedical encouragement to limit childbearing. For many women, contraception represents a reprieve from repeated pregnancies and fatigue in spite of resistance from those who contest women's reproductive decisions as antithetical to Islam. French social workers play a particularly controversial role by introducing women to a discourse of women's rights that questions the authority of husbands and of religious doctrine. Women and men frame decisions and debate in diverse interpretations of Islam as they seek to manage the contradictions of everyday life and assert individual agency in the context of immigration and health politics.     

Ólavsøka: The faroese national holiday*

In many cultures with male‐dominated religions, women are subject to illnesses which are attributed to spirit‐possession. Two main alternative therapies are usually available. Treatment is effected either by exorcism, or by domesticating the spirit ‐ a process which de Heusch calls ‘adortism’. In the latter case, women are recruited through illness into female‐centred ‘cults of affliction’, regarded as superstitious and subversive by men, who try to prevent their wives from becoming involved in these cults, preferring exorcism as therapy. Exorcism thus becomes an instrument of male power in the struggle to control women's incipient religiosity. The paper examines the interplay of exorcism and adorcism in relation to gender in Christian, Muslim and Buddhist settings. It concludes by considering the implications of women as well as men practising exorcism, and suggests that the consequences of the formal distinction between exorcism and adorcism may not always be as sharply opposed as appears at first sight.     

Global Violence and Indonesian Muslim Politics

The attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States and the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan provoked fierce threats of violence in Indonesia, the world's largest majority-Muslim country. Western journalists portrayed these reactions as among the most destabilizing in the Muslim world. Less widely reported, however, was the intensification of a struggle between Muslim proponents of democracy and neof undamentalist conservatives, sparked by the same incidents. This article explores the varied reactions of Muslims to the violence of September 11 and its aftermath in light of this contest between rival Muslim groupings. It examines their competing visions of Islam and nation, as well as their supporting alliances in state and society. The example highlights the pluralism of Muslim politics and the special challenges of democratic transitions. Emphasizing the plurality and permeability of civilizations, the example also suggests that there is no "clash of civilizations" between Islam and the West but, rather, a more open process of globalization, localization, and exchange. [Keywords: Islam, Indonesia, violence, democratization, civilization]     

Becoming American by becoming Muslim: strategic assimilation among second-generation Muslim American parents

ABSTRACT

Strategic assimilation describes how individuals use boundary work to construct identities which allow them to selectively maintain ties to a minority community while assimilating into the mainstream. However, scholarship that accounts for the role that minority religious identity plays in these processes is warranted. The current study fills a theoretical and empirical niche by exploring boundary work among not only racial, but religious minorities in their processes of identity construction and assimilation. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork as well as 72 in-depth interviews with Muslim Americans in Metro-Detroit, I demonstrate how upper-middle-class suburban second-generation parents actively deconstructed class, racial, and ethnic boundaries to construct boundaries around religious identity and generational identity. In so doing, they consciously crafted a de-ethnicized interpretation of Islam and hence a Muslim American identity that they saw as integral in promoting upward assimilation for themselves and their third-generation children.     

Dissociative Symptoms and Reported Trauma Among Patients with Spirit Possession and Matched Healthy Controls in Uganda

Spirit possession is a common, worldwide phenomenon with dissociative features. Studies in Europe and the United States have revealed associations among psychoform and somatoform dissociation and (reported) potential traumatic events. The aim of this study was to explore the relationships among spirit possession, dissociative symptoms and reported potentially traumatizing events in Uganda. One hundred nineteen persons with spirit possession, diagnosed by traditional healers, were compared to a matched control group of 71 nonpossessed persons. Assessments included demographic items and measures of dissociation and potentially traumatizing events. Compared to the nonpossessed group, the possessed group reported more severe psychoform dissociation and somatoform dissociation and more potentially traumatizing events. The associations between these events and both types of dissociation were significant. Yet, consistent with the cultural perception of dissociative symptoms, the participants subjectively did not associate dissociative symptoms with potentially traumatizing events. In conclusion, spirit possession deserves more interest as a possible idiom of distress and a culture-specific expression of dissociation related to potential traumatizing events.     

'Stalking the stalker': a Chwezi initiation into spirit possession and experiential structure

Among Sukuma (Tanzania) the Chwezi spirit society operates in the shadow of, and in tension with, the lineage cults domesticating the dead. As this ethnography describes, Chwezi candidates are initiated into spirit possession by 'stalking the stalker', that is, by seeking synchrony with intrusion. Recognition of the healing and of the power/resistance in spirit performances once resuscitated anthropology from its crisis of representation, but now arrests advance. Both functions obscure possession itself, which, unlike rituals, has a subversive, 'quaternary' structure that reveals the gap between experience and communication, and thus decentres both self and society. Spirit possession exposes the plurality of experiential structures. This may better account for its role world-wide in dialectics of social resistance and of cathartic healing.     

Traumatic Experience and Somatoform Dissociation Among Spirit Possession Practitioners in the Dominican Republic

Recent studies in African contexts have revealed a strong association between spirit possession and severe trauma, with inclusion into a possession cult serving at times a therapeutic function. Research on spirit possession in the Dominican Republic has so far not included quantitative studies of trauma and dissociation. This study evaluated demographic variables, somatoform dissociative symptoms, and potentially traumatizing events in the Dominican Republic with a group of Vodou practitioners that either do or do not experience spirit possession. Inter-group comparisons revealed that in contrast to non-possessed participants (n = 38), those experiencing spirit possession (n = 47) reported greater somatoform dissociation, more problems with sleep, and previous exposure to mortal danger such as assaults, accidents, or diseases. The two groups did not differ significantly in other types of trauma. The best predictor variable for group classification was somatoform dissociation, although those items could also reflect the experience of followers during a possession episode. A factor analysis across variables resulted in three factors: having to take responsibility early on in life and taking on a professional spiritual role; traumatic events and pain; and distress/dissociation. In comparison with the non-possessed individuals, the possessed ones did not seem to overall have a remarkably more severe story of trauma and seemed to derive economic gains from possession practice.     

The "amazing" fertility decline: Islam, economics, and reproductive decision making among working-class Moroccan women

Often it is understood that Islam prohibits family planning because the Qur'an does not explicitly address contraception. Public health and development officials have recently congratulated the Muslim world for decreases in fertility given the supposed constraints placed on reproductive healthcare by Islam, while popular culture writers have warned the West of threats by young Muslims if the population goes uncontrolled. This article draws on data collected through interviews with working-class women seeking reproductive healthcare at clinics in Rabat, Morocco, and with medical providers to challenge the link between Islamic ideology and reproductive practices and the correlation among Islam, poverty, and fertility. Morocco, a predominantly Muslim country, has experienced a dramatic decrease in fertility between the 1970s and today. I argue that patients and providers give new meanings to modern reproductive practices and produce new discourses of reproduction and motherhood that converge popular understandings of Islam with economic conditions of the Moroccan working class.     

White privilege in the lives of Muslim converts in Britain

This paper explores how the whiteness of converts to Islam affects their post-conversion experiences. It shows how white converts are privileged because their whiteness functions as a marker of dominance and respectability. In attempting to go beyond well-established observations about the existence of white privilege, the limits of white privilege are also considered. It is argued that upon converting to Islam, white converts' whiteness is jeopardized, thus showing the precariousness of whiteness. The paper also considers how converts' whiteness can cause them difficulties rather than benefits due to the unique context that they find themselves in. Unlike white supremacists who portray white people as always a victim however, this paper seeks a more balanced understanding of the complexity of whiteness as often-but-not-always privileging. This paper is based on thirty-seven in-depth interviews that were conducted between 2008 and 2009 with Muslim converts in Greater Manchester.     

Becoming Sinless: Converting to Islam in the Christian Solomon Islands

ABSTRACT   Islam is beginning to have a significant presence in the predominantly Christian nation of Solomon Islands. A few well-educated Islanders were drawn to Islam's elegant monotheism and promise of unity in the 1980s and early 1990s, but numbers have grown significantly in the years following a violent civil conflict (1998–2003). Many of these new Muslim converts, especially those from the island of Malaita, seem preoccupied with the problem of sin and blame Christianity for destroying customary rules, especially those enforcing gender segregation. Echoing long-standing Malaitan critiques of Christian freedom, they say that Christians rely too heavily on God's grace and their own ability to resist temptation. Unlike Christianity and similar to the traditional religion of the islands, Islam provides clear moral rules for living. Seeking an escape from a cycle of sin and redemption, these ex-evangelical Christians now see in Islam the possibility of becoming sinless.     

Changing Islam,changing the world: contrasting visions within political Islam

ABSTRACT

How do political Islamists, movements and thinkers view political change? To what extent do they promote violence as a means of bringing about change? Are they themselves willing to change and adapt to modern political systems? There is a wide array of movements in the Muslim world that grapple with these questions and as a consequence, numerous answers and disagreements. This paper will focus on three cardinal and contested issues: Is violence a legitimate means to bring about change? Is it legitimate to adopt Western political institutions? How should Muslim movements and regimes coexist with ancient political entities such as tribes and ethnic groups? By comparing and contrasting the political outlooks of the Muslim Brothers and the Salafi-Jihadis, the article highlights the ideological gaps between moderate and militant political Islam.     

Mystical Styles of Expression among North Indian Faq?r: Nara as a Manifestation of Hukm

This paper explores the mystical complex of North Indian ‘holy men’ commonly known as faqir and their relationship to mainstream Indian Islam. It is based on research done at the thirteenth century Indo‐Muslim shrine of Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi, India. Many faqir beliefs and practices diverge from Islamic orthodoxy by emphasising a mystical relationship with the saints. While faqir are Muslims, their emphasis on mystical expressions demarcates them from orthodox styles of Indian Islam. Two of these expressions are hukm, the mystical bond between a faqir and Muslim saint, and nara, a series of expletives used to communicate with the saint when in a euphoric state. Hukm and nara are pivotal to a faqir's mystical complex and are creative sources of his spiritual life. Prompted by a paucity of critical analyses into the area of North Indian faqir mysticism and ritual performance, this paper argues that the interplay between hukm and nara generates a form of creative expression for the faqir that is related to, but independent of, Indo‐Muslim orthodox practices and constitutes an alternative style of religious expression within Indian Islam.     

The balancing of virtues—Muslim perspectives on palliative and end of life care: Empirical research analysing the perspectives of service users and providers

In this paper, I will share findings from a qualitative study that offers a thematic analysis of 76 interviews with Muslim patients and families as well as doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, chaplains and community faith leaders across the United Kingdom. The data show that for many Muslims, Islam—its texts and lived practice—is of central importance when they are deliberating about death and dying . Central to these deliberations are virtues rooted within Islamic theology and ethics, the traditions of adab (virtue) and aqhlaq (proper conduct). Themes analysed include theological and moral understandings around the virtues of hope and acceptance. The study provides an analysis of these themes in relation to the experiences of Muslim patients and families arriving at meaning making around death and dying and how this interfaces with their interaction with biomedicine and healthcare. The study shows that the juxtaposition of different values and moral frameworks require careful negotiation when Muslim patients and families encounter the healthcare system. The study also describes how healthcare professionals and staff of other faiths and no faith encounter Muslim beliefs and practices, and the challenges they face in interpreting virtues and values rooted in faith, especially when these are perceived to be mutually opposed or inconsistent.     

The dialogical collective: mediumship,pain, and the interactive creation of Ndyuka Maroon subjectivity

This article explores how pain ritually assists in producing Afro‐Surinamese Ndyuka Maroon understandings of subjectivity and the self. Ndyuka discourses conceive persons as composites of multiple human and spirit others. I describe how these discourses emerge dialogically during oracular interactions between possessed mediums and their patients. Beginning as inarticulate sensations, personal pain is ritually transformed into identifiable spirits who expose their hosts as embodiments of past and present social relations. Over the course of oracular interactions, the qualities of physical pain are made to communicate that the pain is both an identity and a vital part of the sufferers’ embodied self. In parallel to this process, spirit mediums perform pain in possession to establish the origins of their authority in relations with spirits. Ritually transforming pain into identities of relation, Ndyuka oracular mediumship persuades patients to re‐evaluate their subjective experiences as innate evidence of Ndyuka social ideology.