Spirit Possession and Personhood among the Kel Ewey Tuareg

Tuareg women are sometimes possessed by spirits called 'the people of solitude', from which they are released by an evening ritual. Susan Rasmussen analyses symbolism and aesthetic values, provides case studies, and reviews what local people think about the meaning of possession.

Susan J. Rasmussen (Author)

9780521470070, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 February 1995

196 pages
23.7 x 16 x 1.5 cm, 0.423 kg

"The study reveals a sophisticated knowledge of the subject matter.... Rasmussen skillfully demonstrates how possession allows for the articulation of hidden agendas. ...the book is a must read for studetns of possession." Adeline Masquelier, Religious Studies Review

Among the Tuareg people in the Air Mountain region of Niger, women are sometimes possessed by spirits called 'the people of solitude'. The evening curing rituals of the possessed, featuring drumming and song, take place before an audience of young men and women, who joke and flirt as the ritual unfolds. In her analysis of this tolerated but unofficial cult, Susan Rasmussen analyses symbolism and aesthetic values, provides case studies of possessed women, and reviews what local people think about the meaning of possession.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Illnesses of the heart and soul: the case of Asalama
Part I. Images of Possession: 2. Inversion and other tropes in spirit possession rituals
3. 'Like a tree branch swaying in the wind': the head dance
4. Illnesses of God: personhood, knowledge, and healing
Part II. Art, Agency, and Power in the Ritual Sessions: 5. Sound, solitude, and music
6. The tande n goumaten songs
Conclusions
Notes
References, Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]