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From the Alien to the Other: Steps toward a Phenomenological Theory of Spirit Possession
Author(s) -
Leistle Bernhard
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
anthropology of consciousness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1556-3537
pISSN - 1053-4202
DOI - 10.1111/anoc.12019
Subject(s) - possession (linguistics) , phenomenology (philosophy) , alien , epistemology , experiential learning , sociology , aesthetics , philosophy , linguistics , population , pedagogy , demography , census
Abstract In this article, I apply a structural‐phenomenological conception of experience and self to the anthropological theorizing of spirit possession. In particular, I argue that a phenomenology of the alien, as elaborated by the philosopher Bernhard Waldenfels, allows for a more differentiated understanding of possession phenomena. Following a characterization of alienness—in conceptual distinction from the more common term “otherness”—as a dimension that necessarily eludes experience, I describe spirit possession as a cultural technology to appropriate the experiential alien by transforming it into the symbolic other. I discuss this relation to the alien in thematic areas central to the anthropology of possession: illness and therapy, symbolism and naming, embodiment and self.