Overview

Zanzibar, an island off the East African coast, with its Muslim and Swahili population, offers rich material for this study of identity, religion, and multiculturalism. This book focuses on the phenomenon of spirit possession in Zanzibar Town and the relationships created between humans and spirits; it provides a way to apprehend how society is constituted and conceived and, thus, discusses Zanzibari understandings of what it means to be human.

Full Product Details

Author:   Kjersti Larsen
Publisher:   Berghahn Books
Imprint:   Berghahn Books
Volume:   5
Weight:   0.381kg
ISBN:  

9781845450557

ISBN 10:   1845450558
Pages:   184
Publication Date:   01 June 2008
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Map of the Western Indian Ocean Preface and Acknowledgements Chapter 1. Introduction Considering perspectives on spirit possession The fieldwork: people, engagement and context The fieldwork: ritual participation Performance, meaning and reflexivity Ritual, communication and enactment Knowledge, experience and forms of negotiation The book Chapter 2. Introduction to Zanzibar: the place, its politics and organization A view of the past and the present Identity, social privileges and political reorganization A plural society Gender, distinctions and effects in everyday and ritual life Gender, ritual participation and knowledge Chapter 3. Spirits, possession and personhood The position of spirits Spirits are beings with a worldly existence Spirit possession and practices Personhood, notions of strength and self-control Experiencing spirits Chapter 4. Makabila, people and spirits Articulation of differences and the problem of identity Identification of a spirit The demands of spirits belonging to different makabila The world of spirits and human beings Chapter 5. Human concerns, spirits and recreation of relationships How the spirits reveal their presence in the human world Communication between humans and spirits The ritual group and the ritual framework Ngoma ya sheitani: a celebration and a cure Chapter 6. Between self and other: body and mind Ngoma ya ruhani States of body and states of mind A bodily experience of spirits Losing oneself to the spirit Altered states of body, altered states of mind Chapter 7. Gender: relations, markers and sexuality Gender and complementarity Concealment and disclosure Acts of disclosure and moral ambiguity Enactment and perceptions of the body Strict categories in a flexible universe Gender images and human practices Chapter 8. Women, men and gendered spirits A ngoma ya kibuki ritual Matters of affection, pride and self-control Presentation, representation and excess Comedy, parody and the ways of humans and spirits Body, aesthetics, and gender images On reflections and acts of transgression Chapter 9. Conclusion: social identities and dramatization of the other An aesthetic moving together Improvisation, play and the dramatization of a life-world Reflections on embodiment and modes of knowing Glossary Bibliography Index

Reviews

.. .<em>a fascinating account of spirit possession in Zanzibar...[that] contributes to and sheds new light on debates on ethnicity, identity, and gender... Its particular value lies in its excellent ethnographic data, which demonstrate the author's deep knowledge of Zanzibari society and its interconnections with the wider world, both 'East' and 'West', and highlight the value of long-term ethnographic fieldwork.</em> <b> - </b> <strong>JRAI</strong></p> <em>Kjersti Larsen's book raises significant anthropological questions about much writing on spirit possession in Africa...Larsen's work makes important and detailed considerations of [the] problem [of racial identity], perhaps more sensitively than many others</em>. <b> - </b> <strong>Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale</strong></p> <em>...a sensitive and rich portrayal of the phenomenon of spirit possession in Zanzibar Town.</em> <b> - </b> <strong>American Ethnologist</strong></p> <i> [The author] provides a sensitive account of people's experiences of possession and the ways in which they relate to their spirits. It is refreshing to read an account like this in which some of the uncertainties and differences of opinion about spirit possession are highlighted. </i><b> - Tanzanian Affairs</b></p> <i> Written as a reflexive and phenomenological account, and organized into nine short chapters, the book traverses theoretical terrain in ways that challenge theories that reduce spirit possession to an effect of social marginality. </i><b> - Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale</b></p>

-...a fascinating account of spirit possession in Zanzibar...[that] contributes to and sheds new light on debates on ethnicity, identity, and gender... Its particular value lies in its excellent ethnographic data, which demonstrate the author's deep knowledge of Zanzibari society and its interconnections with the wider world, both 'East' and 'West', and highlight the value of long-term ethnographic fieldwork.- - JRAI -Kjersti Larsen's book raises significant anthropological questions about much writing on spirit possession in Africa...Larsen's work makes important and detailed considerations of [the] problem [of racial identity], perhaps more sensitively than many others.- - Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale -...a sensitive and rich portrayal of the phenomenon of spirit possession in Zanzibar Town.- - American Ethnologist -[The author] provides a sensitive account of people's experiences of possession and the ways in which they relate to their spirits. It is refreshing to read an account like this in which some of the uncertainties and differences of opinion about spirit possession are highlighted.- - Tanzanian Affairs -Written as a reflexive and phenomenological account, and organized into nine short chapters, the book traverses theoretical terrain in ways that challenge theories that reduce spirit possession to an effect of social marginality.- - Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale .. .a fascinating account of spirit possession in Zanzibar...[that] contributes to and sheds new light on debates on ethnicity, identity, and gender... Its particular value lies in its excellent ethnographic data, which demonstrate the author's deep knowledge of Zanzibari society and its interconnections with the wider world, both 'East' and 'West', and highlight the value of long-term ethnographic fieldwork. - JRAI Kjersti Larsen's book raises significant anthropological questions about much writing on spirit possession in Africa...Larsen's work makes important and detailed considerations of [the] problem [of racial identity], perhaps more sensitively than many others. - Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale ...a sensitive and rich portrayal of the phenomenon of spirit possession in Zanzibar Town. - American Ethnologist [The author] provides a sensitive account of people's experiences of possession and the ways in which they relate to their spirits. It is refreshing to read an account like this in which some of the uncertainties and differences of opinion about spirit possession are highlighted. - Tanzanian Affairs Written as a reflexive and phenomenological account, and organized into nine short chapters, the book traverses theoretical terrain in ways that challenge theories that reduce spirit possession to an effect of social marginality. - Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale .. .a fascinating account of spirit possession in Zanzibar...[that] contributes to and sheds new light on debates on ethnicity, identity, and gender... Its particular value lies in its excellent ethnographic data, which demonstrate the author's deep knowledge of Zanzibari society and its interconnections with the wider world, both 'East' and 'West', and highlight the value of long-term ethnographic fieldwork. . JRAI Kjersti Larsen's book raises significant anthropological questions about much writing on spirit possession in Africa...Larsen's work makes important and detailed considerations of [the] problem [of racial identity], perhaps more sensitively than many others. . Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale . ..a sensitive and rich portrayal of the phenomenon of spirit possession in Zanzibar Town. . American Ethnologist [The author] provides a sensitive account of people's experiences of possession and the ways in which they relate to their spirits. It is refreshing to read an account like this in which some of the uncertainties and differences of opinion about spirit possession are highlighted. . Tanzanian Affairs Written as a reflexive and phenomenological account, and organized into nine short chapters, the book traverses theoretical terrain in ways that challenge theories that reduce spirit possession to an effect of social marginality. . Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale

.. .a fascinating account of spirit possession in Zanzibar...[that] contributes to and sheds new light on debates on ethnicity, identity, and gender... Its particular value lies in its excellent ethnographic data, which demonstrate the author's deep knowledge of Zanzibari society and its interconnections with the wider world, both 'East' and 'West', and highlight the value of long-term ethnographic fieldwork. . JRAI Kjersti Larsen's book raises significant anthropological questions about much writing on spirit possession in Africa...Larsen's work makes important and detailed considerations of [the] problem [of racial identity], perhaps more sensitively than many others. . Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale . ..a sensitive and rich portrayal of the phenomenon of spirit possession in Zanzibar Town. . American Ethnologist [The author] provides a sensitive account of people's experiences of possession and the ways in which they relate to their spirits. It is refreshing to read an account like this in which some of the uncertainties and differences of opinion about spirit possession are highlighted. . Tanzanian Affairs Written as a reflexive and phenomenological account, and organized into nine short chapters, the book traverses theoretical terrain in ways that challenge theories that reduce spirit possession to an effect of social marginality. . Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale

Author Information

Kjersti Larsen is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology and African Studies at the Department of Ethnography, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. She has carried out fieldwork in Zanzibar since 1984 and since 1997 has also conducted fieldwork in Northern Sudan.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions