Dear colleagues,
After a very fruitful and enlightening discussion panel at the SPA
conference (thank you all for your attendance & input!), we would like
to convene another session at the AAA conference (Montreal, November
16-20), focusing this time on presenting empirical work. We invite
abstract proposals to participate in this session. Abstracts are
limited to 250 words. Please let us know asap if you would like to be
considered and will be submitting an abstract for consideration. Please
submit your abstract proposal to Chris Lynn
([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) & Jeff Snodgrass
([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) by
April 11 so we can submit the session proposal by April 15.
The Neuroanthropology of Embodiment, Absorption, and Dissociation:
Research in Ritual, Play, and Entertainment
Organizers: Jeffrey Snodgrass (Colorado State University), Christopher
Lynn (University of Alabama)
ABSTRACT: This panel will present research that modernizes the legacy
of trance and possession research in anthropology. The aim is to
integrate anthropological and neuroscientific frameworks to explain
continuities and differences across "embodied," "absorptive," and
"dissociative" forms of ritual, play, and entertainment. Anthropology
has long focused on the ways culture is cognitively apprehended and
shared, as well as the degree to which it is performed or embodied
through collective and individual behavior. One lens has been through
the frame of dissociation, or the partitioning of conscious awareness,
and how this frame is mediated through cultural tropes. This year's
conference theme is particularly relevant, as we will be comparing and
contrasting the legacy of what has been clinically conceived of as a
'dissociation spectrum' that includes traces of unspecified normative
cultural models with specific contemporary analogs of dissociative or
absorptive ritual and secular play, games, and entertainment. The
tidemarks of dissociation and absorption as processes of psyche appear
in personal and idiosyncratic forms, transiently marking experience and
identity, but, given their processual nature, falling short of defining
them. However, religio-cultural practices have in some cases been
defined as dissociative-'trance cultures,' for example-and researchers
have sought to understand higher relative rates of such behaviors in
functionalist, structuralist, or political economic terms. Advances in
the theory and methods for understanding the mechanisms of mind and
embodiment present opportunities for a richer appreciation of the flow
of personal experience within the fluidity of culture.
The concepts of embodiment, absorption, and dissociation at first glance
seem to describe very different phenomena. Embodiment is often used to
describe the integration of mental and physical processes, absorption as
mental focus, and dissociation as a lack of psychic integration in areas
of perception, memory, awareness, and identity. However, anthropologists
describe some dissociative and absorptive experiences as forms of
cultural embodiment. For example, in dissociative trance and possession,
conceptualized in certain religious traditions as "divine play,"
spiritual adepts can shed their self-consciousness and reach states of
seeming unity of mind and body. Less appreciated but more central to
daily life, deeply absorptive or even dissociative secular playing of
games can lead to feelings of "flow" or "being in the zone," catalyzing
similar integration of psyche and soma. Still, depending on the context,
dissociative play, whether religious or secular, can also lead to
feelings of disembodiment. For instance, dissociative "ghost illness"
can further detach one from both one's mind and body, as can certain
forms of drug and internet play.
This session will consider this breadth of application in an effort to
clarify the meaning and relevance of embodiment, absorption, and
dissociation for the study of ritual and secular play and entertainment.
The papers presented will also consider related analytical categories
like depersonalization, derealization, and trance. Research presented
includes a wide range of religious and secular "play" activities, from
Brazilian religions of spirit possession and U.S. Pentecostalism to
Burning Man and World of Warcraft to legal drug use and athletic flow.
To avoid reifying conceptual distinctions and categories that do not
sufficiently represent actual play experiences, and also to better
interface with psychiatric and epidemiological studies, this panel
emphasizes the development of heuristic models that can be empirically
tested. More specifically, the panel suggests that such models be tested
against sociocultural, psychological, and neuroscientific data, thus
integrating context-specific and universalizing perspectives in an
attempt to provide richer and more complete explanations for the
activities of Homo ludens.
Thanks!
Christopher D. Lynn, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
The University of Alabama
19 ten Hoor, Box 870210
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0210
Director, Human Behavioral Ecology Research Group
Co-Director, Evolutionary Studies (EvoS) Program
Office: 12 ten Hoor
Ph: (205) 348-4162
Fax: (205) 348-7937
Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
|