![]() ![]() Additionally, the spirit world acts as a foil for village life in the context of rapid historical change and as such provides a focus for cultural resistance that is particularly, though not exclusively, relevant to women. She suggests that spirit possession is a feminist discourse, though a veiled and allegorical one, on women's objectification and subordination. Janice Boddy examines the moral universe of the village, discussing female circumcision, personhood, kinship, and bodily integrity, then describes the workings of the cult and the effect of possession on the lives of men as well as women. In accommodating the spirits, the women are able metaphorically to reformulate everyday discourse to portray consciousness of their own subordination. ![]() Through the woman, the spirit makes demands upon her husband and family and makes provocative comments on village issues, such as the increasing influence of formal Islam or encroaching Western economic domination. The two appellations of God peculiar to 37-71 are Lord of the spirits and the Ancient of days, the latter of these, of course, being taken from the book. Adherents of the cult are usually women with marital or fertility problems, who are possessed by spirits very different from their own proscribed roles as mothers. Part 3 describes the spirit world apart from specific incidences of possession in order to understand what messages villagers might derive from their experiences of spirits.Based on nearly two years of ethnographic fieldwork in a Muslim village in northern Sudan, Wombs and Alien Spirits explores the zâr cult, the most widely practiced traditional healing cult in Africa. The author discusses the role of possession in the lives of men as well as women, both as members of families exhibiting a propensity for spirit intrusion and as individuals suffering from poor self-image largely occasioned by infertility. ![]() Part 2 introduces the 'z¯ar' cult and, with several examples, describes the conditions under which possession, initially an illness, might occur. Part 1 examines the moral universe of village women by discussing the meaning of female circumcision, personhood, kinship, marriage, and bodily integrity. New directions in anthropological writingīased on nearly two years of ethnographic fieldwork in a Muslim village in northern Sudan, this study offers a multidimensional interpretation, of the 'z¯ar', a spirit possession cult dominated by women. Wombs and alien spirits: women, men and the Zar cult in Northern Sudan ![]() The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here ![]()
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