ABSTRACT
This volume considers spirit possession in the Himalayas and the various ways in which invisible powers are made present. It does so by examining material representations of these powers through artefacts, animals, plants and natural substances, while also focusing on narratives of people’s encounters with the invisible that may help them to reconfigure reality. Through these two approaches, the contributions examine new phenomena associated with the concepts of "possession" and "shamanism", which otherwise tend to lead research into well-worn furrows. The book addresses a range of themes, including the gods of the Western Himalayas, death and ritual dissolution among Hyolmo Buddhists in Nepal, gods and rivers as legal persons in India, and the problem of conversion disorder in Nepal.
Rich in ethnography, this book will be indispensable for scholars and researchers of anthropology, religion, spiritualism, sociology of religion, Himalayan studies, sociology and South Asia.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|57 pages
The Pluridimensional Self
chapter 3|18 pages
Reluctant Shamans
chapter 4|12 pages
Spirit Dispossession in the Nepal Himalayas
part II|120 pages
Techniques of Encounter with the Invisible
chapter 6|16 pages
Shamans, Ethnographers, Mimesis
chapter 7|18 pages
“In the Middle of Time”
chapter 8|19 pages
Dialogues with Rice
chapter 9|19 pages
Shaman's Adventures in Spiritland
chapter 10|26 pages
The Mediums' Dance and Iconographic Silences
part III|54 pages
When the Invisible Faces New Normativities