Sex and the Sacred

Spontaneous and ritualized forms of divine, demonic, or ancestral embodiment are found on all continents and throughout history. In this course, we will explore spirit possession as a sociocultural, psychological, political, moral, and religious phenomenon. What are spirits, gods, and ancestors, and how do they take over the bodies of living people? What role does spirit possession play in political and moral conflicts, or in quests for health and happiness? What understandings of psyches, social process, subjects, and bodies are precipitated and challenged by possessed people? We will pay particular attention to the relationship between sex and the sacred as dimensions of life that dissolve firm boundaries between selves and others, bodies and worlds. Case studies will be drawn from across the world, but there will be a strong emphasis on Europe, Africa, and the Indian Ocean region.