Table Of ContentCulture, Mind, and Society
The Book Series of the Society for
Psychological Anthropology
The Society for Psychological Anthropology—a section of the American
Anthropology Association—and Palgrave Macmillan are dedicated to pub-
lishing innovative research that illuminates the workings of the human mind
within the social, cultural, and political contexts that shape thought, emo-
tion, and experience. As anthropologists seek to bridge gaps between ideation
and emotion or agency and structure and as psychologists, psychiatrists, and
medical anthropologists search for ways to engage with cultural meaning
and difference, this interdisciplinary terrain is more active than ever.
Series Editor
Peter G. Stromberg, Department of Anthropology, University of Tulsa
Editorial Board
Eileen Anderson-Fye, Department of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve
University
Jennifer Cole, Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago
Linda Garro, Department of Anthropology, University of California,
Los Angeles
Daniel T. Linger, Department of Anthropology, University of California,
Santa Cruz
Rebecca Lester, Department of Anthropology, Washington University in
St. Louis
Tanya Luhrmann, Department of Anthropology, Stanford University
Catherine Lutz, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill
Peggy Miller, Departments of Psychology and Speech Communication,
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Robert Paul, Department of Anthropology, Emory University
Antonius C. G. M. Robben, Department of Anthropology, Utrecht University,
Netherlands
Bradd Shore, Department of Anthropology, Emory University
Jason Throop, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los
Angeles
Carol Worthman, Department of Anthropology, Emory University
Titles in the Series
Adrie Kusserow, American Individualisms: Child Rearing and Social Class
in Three Neighborhoods
Naomi Quinn, editor, Finding Culture in Talk: A Collection of Methods
Anna Mansson McGinty, Becoming Muslim: Western Women’s Conversions
to Islam
Roy D’Andrade, A Study of Personal and Cultural Values: American,
Japanese, and Vietnamese
Steven M. Parish, Subjectivity and Suffering in American Culture: Possible
Selves
Elizabeth A. Throop, Psychotherapy, American Culture, and Social Policy:
Immoral Individualism
Victoria Katherine Burbank, An Ethnography of Stress: The Social
Determinants of Health in Aboriginal Australia
Karl G. Heider, The Cultural Context of Emotion: Folk Psychology in West
Sumatra
Jeannette Marie Mageo, Dreaming Culture: Meanings, Models, and Power
in U.S. American Dreams
Casey High, Ann H. Kelly, and Jonathan Mair, editors, The Anthropology of
Ignorance: An Ethnographic Approach
Kevin K. Birth, Objects of Time: How Things Shape Temporality
Andrew Kipnis, editor, Chinese Modernity and the Individual Psyche
Katie Glaskin and Richard Chenhall, editors, Sleep Around the World:
Anthropological Perspectives
Naomi Quinn and Jeannette Marie Mageo, editors, Attachment Reconsidered:
Cultural Perspectives on a Western Theory
Rebecca Seligman, Possessing Spirits and Healing Selves: Embodiment and
Transformation in an Afro-Brazilian Religion
Possessing Spirits and Healing Selves
Embodiment and Transformation in an
Afro-Brazilian Religion
Rebecca Seligman
possessing spirits and healing selves
Copyright © Rebecca Seligman, 2014.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-40959-1
All rights reserved.
First published in 2014 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-48875-9 ISBN 978-1-137-40960-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137409607
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Seligman, Rebecca.
Possessing spirits and healing selves : embodiment and
transformation in an Afro-Brazilian religion / Rebecca Seligman.
pages cm
Summary: “Spirit possession involves the displacement of a human’s
conscious self by that of a powerful other – a spirit, god, or demon –
who temporarily occupies the human’s body. To many, spirit possession
is quintessentially exotic, a novelty, an example of the ways in which
“others” are fundamentally different. In this book, Seligman shows
that, far from being exotic and “other,” spirit possession mediumship
represents a privileged site for understanding a number of fundamental
aspects of human experience – especially those involved with
interactions among meaning, embodiment, and subjectivity. Using a
diverse set of ethnographic, psychological, and biological data gathered
during fieldwork among spirit possession mediums of the Candomble;
religion in Northeastern Brazil, she explores how everyday and religious
practices and meanings shape and interact with the bodily experiences
and psychophysiological states of Candomble; mediums, both before
and after their initiations, and how such interactions shape their
experiences of selfhood”— Provided by publisher.
1. Candomblé (Religion)—Brazil. 2. Blacks—Brazil—Religion. 3. Spirit
possession—Brazil. 4. Spiritual healing—Brazil. 5. Healing—Brazil.
6. Ethnology—Brazil. 7. Ethnobiology—Brazil. 8. Brazil—Religious life
and customs. I. Title.
BL2592.C35.S44 2014
299.69730981—dc23 2014009195
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: September 2014
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Thom, Nate, and Imogen
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Contents
List of Tables ix
Series Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Chapter 1 Introduction: Stepping into the “Supernatural
World” of Candomblé 1
Chapter 2 Reflections on the Challenges and Rewards
of Integrative Research 47
Chapter 3 Sometimes Affliction Is the Door: Healing and
Transformation in Narratives of
Mediumship 67
Chapter 4 Looking Inside: Biological Mechanisms and
Embodiment in Candomblé Trance and
Possession 111
Chapter 5 Healing the Embodied Self in Candomblé 135
Chapter 6 Conclusion: Stepping Back 159
Appendix: Methods 167
Notes 175
Glossary of Candomblé Terms 183
References 185
Index 203
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Tables
1.1 Mean number of symptoms on the Questionario de
Morbidade Psiquiátrica dos Adultos (QMPA),
a Brazilian screening instrument for anxiety
and depression 41
3.1 Results of semi-structured interview questions for
three comparison groups within Candomblé 68
3.2 Types and examples of affliction suffered by mediums
prior to initiation 88
