Dear All,
I would like to draw your attention to the following Conference that we are
organizing at the Giorgio Cini Foundation, San Giorgio Island, Venice. For
further details, please, see the attached pdf file. If you have any
questions, please, do not hesitate to contact us at
*[log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]>*.
Best regards,
Andrea and Francesco
*CALL FOR PAPERS*
*Embodying Modern “Scientific” Medicine and “Religious/Spiritual” Healing*
*A Comparative Perspective on Exorcism and Non-Voluntary Spirit Possession*
*International Conference*
Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 13-14-15 December 2018
Organisers:
Francesco Piraino (Fondazione Giorgio Cini, KU Leuven)
Andrea De Antoni (Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto)
Spirit possession has been broadly defined as “any altered or unusual state
of consciousness and allied behaviour that is indigenously understood in
terms of the influence of an alien spirit, demon, or deity. The possessed
act as though another personality (…) has entered their body and taken
control” (Crapanzano 2005, 8687). This definition has proven to be
problematic, for the modalities of what is emically considered spirit
possession differ according to societies and do not necessarily involve
unusual states of consciousness (e.g. Cohen 2008). Consequently,
socio-anthropological research has tended to focus on the particularities
of possession in different contexts. Nevertheless, studies have highlighted
the political dimensions of possession – or more general “occult” beliefs
and practices related to spirits – as related to resistance to changes in
socio-economic system as results of colonialism, modernization, capitalism,
globalization and their related immoralities (e.g. Comaroff and Comaroff
2002; Lewis 1971; Ong 1987; Sanders 2008; Taussig 1980). These approaches
have been useful for the understanding of the politics of spirits and
possession, but they overlook individual experiences, as well as
possibilities for cross-cultural research.
In recent years, social sciences have witnessed a renewed interest in the
topic of possession and exorcism, also as a consequence of new approaches.
On the one hand, mainly cognitive approaches argue that “what constitutes
possession and the paths by which possession concepts and practices are
transmitted (….), are informed and constrained by recurrent features of
evolved human cognition” (Cohen 2008, 103). Similarly, it has been
suggested that, in order to develop a cross-cultural comparison of
spiritual experiences, phenomena that have local terms, but are associated
to an unspecified broad range of physical events (e.g. “feeling the
presence of God” among Charismatic Evangelical Christians), bodily
affordances, or striking anomalous events, should be taken into
consideration (Cassaniti and Luhrmann 2014). These perspectives have great
potential for cross-cultural research, but they tend to “psychologize” or
“internalize” spirits, thus not giving an account of the complexities
through which their realities emerge within the social.
Different approaches have developed in the past decades, focusing on an
increasing interest in embodiment. Corporeality has been recognized as a
condition of human experience, and the body as the “existential ground of
culture and self” (Csordas 1994b). Current scholarship widely acknowledged
the lived and moving body as a source of perception: as the subject of
motor intentionality, it is considered a bearer of practical knowledge and
skills, developed through practice, with which we dwell in the world
(Ingold 2000). This ecological approach pointed out the necessity of
investigating human experiences and social phenomena from the perspective
of perception of the body in its interaction with the environment, i.e. not
only with other humans, but also with non-humans.
Recent research on possession and spirits in general, therefore, points at
approaches that focus on “more than belief” (Jensen, Ishii, and Swift
2016), in order to highlight how the “agency of intangibles,” the “social
life of spirits” (Espirito-Santo and Blanes 2013), as well as spirit
realities emerge within the social through practice, bodily perceptions and
interactions with the environment. Consequently, for instance, experiences
with spirits and demons in Catholic Charismatic healing have been analysed
from the perspective of bodily perceptions emerging through ritual practice
(e.g. Csordas 1994a; Csordas 2002), hearing the voice of God has been
identified as a cultural practice that can be learnt among American
Evangelists (Luhrmann 2012), the making of spirits in Ghana and spirit
possession rituals in South India have been seen as emerging not through
cognition or belief, but through perceptions of the body “acting with
things” (Ishii 2012), experiences in haunted places in Japan have been
analysed as emerging through perceptions of the body moving in certain
specific environments (De Antoni 2011), and possession and the devil during
Roman Catholic exorcisms in Italy have been seen as emerging through
“affective correspondences” among humans and non-humans (De Antoni 2017).
All these “embodied” approaches have a great potential for cross-cultural
research and, yet, a comparative perspective is nearly missing. Moreover,
in spite of the abundance of research on voluntary or shamanic spirit
possession, there is a general lack of investigation of non-voluntary
spirit possession, on how it emerges, and how affected people arrive to the
point of being treated as possessed. Furthermore, there is a lack of data
about how exorcism and modern “scientific” (bio)medical practices relate,
particularly in contexts where the medical system is institutionalized.
This conference is a first step towards filling these gaps, while aiming at
developing a comparative, cross-cultural perspective on spirit possession
and exorcism, with a particular focus on the interactions with medical
practice and practitioners. We invite contributions that focus on one or
more of the following points:
- Experiences of people who are affected by non-voluntary spirit possession
and their case histories
- Experiences of possessed people in their interaction with medical practice
- Interactions between exorcists and medical practitioners
- Experiences of possession and bodily perceptions as emerging through
practice, rather than their symbolism, meaning making and cognition
- Interactions between humans and non-humans
We particularly welcome contributions that address issues such as the above
on the basis of empirical case studies. We are also interested in
contributions that explicitly use or experiment with innovative methods
and/or tackle methodological questions specific to the conference theme.
*Submission Process*
Abstracts up to 300 words, accompanied by a CV, should be submitted in
English by the *1st of August* to *[log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]>*. A notification of acceptance will be
forwarded by the 1st of September. Following the notification of
acceptance, we will require you to send us a draft chapter by the 1st of
December, so that all the participants in the conference can prepare in
advance. A few months after the Conference, we will ask participants to
send us their full paper, to be published in an edited book.
We welcome submissions from doctoral students, early career researchers and
established academics.
*Economics*
The Cini Foundation will provide accommodation on San Giorgio Island,
coffee breaks and lunches for all participants. Participants will arrange
and pay for their own transportation, and will be requested to donate to
the Cini Foundation Library Civiltà e Spiritualità Comparate one book
related to religious studies they authored or in which they have
participated. Extra funding may be available to cover the travel expenses
of a limited number of junior scholars who cannot obtain funding from their
own institutions. If extra funding is needed, please indicate this in the
email with which you submit your abstract.
--
デ・アントーニ アンドレア 立命館大学国際関係学部・研究科 准教授 文化人類学・宗教学
〒603-8577 京都府京都市北区等持院北町56-1
Andrea De Antoni (Ph.D.), Associate Professor, Cultural Anthropology,
Religious Studies
College/Graduate School of International Relations, RITSUMEIKAN UNIVERSITY
56-1 Toji-in Kitamachi, Kita-ku, Kyoto 603-8577, Japan
Editor - Japan Anthropology Workshop (JAWS) Newsletter (
http://www.japananthropologyworkshop.org/)
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