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9781137027498

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<p> The fruit of decades of anthropological fieldwork with a set of families in Sennar, Spirits and Slaves in Central Sudan is a valuable ethnohistorical resource. This is a rich and rewarding ethnography, beautifully written and highly accessible. It is a welcome addition to the literature on Sudan, on zar, and on Sudanese women. - Janice Boddy, professor and chair, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto<p> When Sudan figures in the news, reports are inevitably confined to chronic civil war, famine, and religious strife. This lively account from one of the field's leading authorities on zar spirit possession offers a wonderfully refreshing antidote. Kenyon's meticulous work deciphers the intertwined yet obscured histories of women and zar spirits in the town of Sennar. As she so adeptly demonstrates, zar's origins date back to the Ottoman Empire, where one encounters a richly-textured spirit history embedded in the biography of Zainab, a settler of Malakiyya or slave origins who brought zar to the region. Unlike so many other studies based on comparatively brief stints in the field, Kenyon's work is singular in that she can draw from data accumulated over three decades. A vibrant panoply of women and spirits stimulates the senses during ceremonies replete with incense, sparkly clothes, drumming, coffee, booze, and cigarettes. Yet it is also a convincing portrait of the dynamism, flexibility, and historical responsiveness of zar, a spirit realm populated by pashas, concubines, servants, and refugees, alongside scolding Ethiopians, arrogant Chinese, and drunken Europeans. This is indeed a detailed subaltern history, as recounted through the stories and actions of remarkable women, and recorded by a truly gifted ethnographer. - Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Anthropology, Barnard College

<p>The fruit of decades of anthropological fieldwork with a set of families in Sennar, Spirits and Slaves in Central Sudan is a valuable ethnohistorical resource. This is a rich and rewarding ethnography, beautifully written and highly accessible. It is a welcome addition to the literature on Sudan, on zar, and on Sudanese women. - Janice Boddy, professor and chair, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto<p> When Sudan figures in the news, reports are inevitably confined to chronic civil war, famine, and religious strife. This lively account from one of the field's leading authorities on zar spirit possession offers a wonderfully refreshing antidote. Kenyon's meticulous work deciphers the intertwined yet obscured histories of women and zar spirits in the town of Sennar. As she so adeptly demonstrates, zar's origins date back to the Ottoman Empire, where one encounters a richly-textured spirit history embedded in the biography of Zainab, a settler of Malakiyya or slave origins who brought zar to the region. Unlike so many other studies based on comparatively brief stints in the field, Kenyon's work is singular in that she can draw from data accumulated over three decades. A vibrant panoply of women and spirits stimulates the senses during ceremonies replete with incense, sparkly clothes, drumming, coffee, booze, and cigarettes. Yet it is also a convincing portrait of the dynamism, flexibility, and historical responsiveness of zar, a spirit realm populated by pashas, concubines, servants, and refugees, alongside scolding Ethiopians, arrogant Chinese, and drunken Europeans. This is indeed a detailed subaltern history, as recounted through the stories and actions of remarkable women, and recorded by a truly gifted ethnographer. - Lesley Sharpe, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Anthropology, Barnard College<br>

<p> The fruit of decades of anthropological fieldwork with a set of families in Sennar, Spirits and Slaves in Central Sudan is a valuable ethnohistorical resource. This is a rich and rewarding ethnography, beautifully written and highly accessible. It is a welcome addition to the literature on Sudan, on zar, and on Sudanese women. - Janice Boddy, professor and chair, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto

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Susan M. Kenyon is professor emerita of the Department of Anthropology at Butler University, USA.

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