Spirits and Trance in Brazil: An Anthropology of Religious Experience

Description

Bettina E. Schmidt explores experiences usually labelled as spirit possession, a highly contested and challenged term, using extensive ethnographic research conducted in Sao Paulo, the largest city in Brazil and home to a range of religions which practice spirit possession. The book is enriched by excerpts from interviews with people about their experiences. It focuses on spirit possession in Afro-Brazilian religions and spiritism, as well as discussing the notion of exorcism in Charismatic Christian communities. Spirits and Trance in Brazil: An Anthropology of Religious Experience is divided into three sections which present the three main areas in the study of spirit possession. The first section looks at the social dimension of spirit possession, in particular gender roles associated with spirit possession in Brazil and racial stratification of the communities. It shows how gender roles and racial composition have adapted alongside changes in society in the last 100 years. The second section focuses on the way people interpret their practice. It shows that the interpretations of this practice depend on the human relationship to the possessing entities. The third section explores a relatively new field of research, the Western discourse of mind/body dualism and the wide field of cognition and embodiment. All sections together confirm the significance of discussing spirit possession within a wider framework that embraces physical elements as well as cultural and social ones. Bringing together sociological, anthropological, phenomenological and religious studies approaches, this book offers a new perspective on the study of spirit possession.

Bettina E. Schmidt is Professor in the Study of Religions at the School of Theology, Religious Studies and Islamic Studies at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UK and Director of the Religious Experience Research Centre, Lampeter, UK.

This book offers a broad framework within which to understand spirit possession. Schmidt brings together a number of different disciplinary approaches, and provides a fresh examination to studies in this fascinating field. This is a valuable book for undergraduate and graduate courses, as well as for those looking for a way to understand spirit possession that bridges older and recent perspectives and puts them into a model useful for research into this fascinating topic. I highly recommend the book. * Nova Religio * Provides a detailed theoretical discussion and analysis of concepts within possession studies, combined with an innovative approach to fieldwork ... the book provides a welcome development within the academic study of spirit possession which will, no doubt, foster serious discussion about the future of the field. * Reading Religion * Spirits and Trance in Brazil is one of the best empathetic depiction of spirit possession I ever read. * Anthropos * From beginning to end, Spirits and Trance in Brazil shifts the cutting edge of studies of religions and cultures onwards in exciting directions. It greatly improves engagement with the key words of recent scholarship, especially those associated with "turns". In particular, it does so by focusing on them together rather than separately. It is, then, a book about more than spirit trances, it is also expert about corporeality, ontology, ritual, cognition, gender, experience, theory, method, charisma, agency, hierarchy and more. * Graham Harvey, Professor of Religious Studies, The Open University, UK * Spirits and Trance in Brazil is the result of a competent and fascinating field research of spirit possession competently analysed with recourse to the relevant international academic literature including recently defended Master and PhD-thesis of Brazilian scholars. Although Bettina Schmidt focusses on Afro-Brazilian Religions and Brazilian Spiritism she is aware of the more general presence of spirit possession in the sense of a common denominator of the eclectic religiosity of the Brazilian people. Hence, her book offers not only essential insights into a particular religious subfield but also familiarizes her readers with generally neglected characteristics of the country with the largest Catholic population in the world. * Frank Usarski, Professor of Religious Studies, Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo, Brazil *