Where Humans and Spirits Meet: The Politics of Rituals and Identified Spirits in Zanzibar

摘要

The author of this book contends that among the heterogeneous population of Zanzibar, spirit possession provides a means whereby sharp differences in genders, ethnicities, and religious faiths can be publicized and negotiated, and the ambiguities generated by such differences can be resolved. Over nine chapters, she introduces the topic and the location, and she describes the complex heterogeneity of the society, the nature of spirits, spirit- human relationships, concepts and problems of identity, gender relationships, ideas of the physical body, and the central role of possession rituals in negotiating among all these issues.