women, power, and spirit possession
- Categories
- Book/Boek
- Creator
- Keller, Mary
- Publish Year
- 2002
- Shelfmark
- B3423 - B
- Thesaurus
- godsdiensten, mythen, geesten, mediums, theorieën, gender, macht, postkolonialisme, Maleisië, Zimbabwe, wereld, antieke oudheid
- Description
- Mary Keller studied the figure of the woman possessed by spirits, deities, or ancestors in different religions. She developed a theoretical framework, including postcolonial theory and feminist philosophy. The possessed woman is at once 'hammer' and 'flute'. She exercises a paradoxical authority - instrumental agency - born of her radical receptivity. Her power derives from the community's assessment that she no longer exist as autonomous agent. Keller includes case studies from contemporary Malaysia, where women were seized by spirits seeking to resacralize the territory, and from wartime Zimbabwe, where female spirit mediums, declared the ancestors' will to fight against colonialism. She provides a rereading of two plays, Euripides' Bacchae and S. Y. Ansky's The Dybbuk, which feature possessed women as central characters.