Susan M Kenyon

Biographic Data

ID155177
NAMESusan M Kenyon
GIVEN NAMESSusan M
FAMILY NAMEKenyon
SIGNATUREKENYON S M
AFFILIATIONSButler University
VERIFIEDNo
TOTAL WORKS13
TOTAL CITATIONS19
AUTHOR COUNT13
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1979
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2019
H-INDEX2

  • Memory and Alterity in Zar: Religious Contact and Change in the Sudan

    Open AccessSusan M KenyonARTICLEEntangled Religions2019References: 5

    Drawing on long-term ethnographic research in the Blue Nile town of Sennar, supported by archival and historical documentation, this article explores the history of Zar spirit possession in Sudan, and the light this throws on the interplay of religions over the past 150 years. Life history data supports the argument that contemporary Zar is grounded in forms and rituals derived from the ranks of the ninteenth-century Ottoman army, and these remai…

  • New Work on Zar and Possession Rituals

    Open AccessSusan M Kenyon, Martin ZillingerARTICLEAnthropology News2017

  • Spirits and Slaves in Central Sudan

    Open AccessSusan M KenyonBOOKSpirits and Slaves in Central Sudan2012

    This historical ethnography from Central Sudan explores the century-old intertwining of zar , spirit possession, with past lives of ex-slaves and shows that, despite very different social and cultural

  • Spirits and Slaves in Central Sudan: The Red Wind of Sennar

    Susan M KenyonBOOKSpirits and Slaves in Central Sudan2012

  • Slavery Remembered: Lessons from the Zar

    Open AccessSusan M KenyonCHAPTERSpirits and Slaves in Central Sudan2012

    In May 2004 I was walking past Zainab’s old house and it looked different. Peeping inside, I found a gaping hole where the old overhanging trees had stood. Najat later told me that her brothers had cut the trees down, saying that nobody wanted them nowadays. She shrugged as if to say, “What can we do?” These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorith…

  • Colonialism and Colonization

    Open AccessSusan M KenyonCHAPTERSpirits and Slaves in Central Sudan2012

    In the early twentieth century the story of Zainab and oral traditions of zar began to overlap with historical records from the Blue Nile town of Modern (New) Sennar. This period also opens a window into a chapter of Sudanese history about which little is known: that of the Malakiyya colonies. These settlements illustrate the complex relationship between the heritage of military slavery, on the one hand, and the demands of the colonial state on t…

  • Movable feast of signs: Gender in Zar in Central Sudan

    Susan M KenyonARTICLEMaterial Religion2007References: 3

    Burei and tombura, two widespread forms of spirit possession found in Central Sudan, have many common characteristics and are both based on a belief in a particular type of spirit, known as zar. Popularly they are distinguished primarily by gender: burei is female, tombura is male. This distinction refers not only to the relatively greater involvement of men in tombura history and practice, but also to the public perceptions of differences betwee…

  • Gender Politics in Sudan: Islamism, Socialism, and the State

    Open AccessSusan M KenyonARTICLEAmerican Ethnologist1998Cited by: 2

    Gender Politics in Sudan: Islamism, Socialism, and the State. SONDRA HALE. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996. xvi + 292 pp., notes, tables, glossary, references, index

  • Zar as Modernization in Contemporary Sudan

    Susan M KenyonARTICLEAnthropological Quarterly1995Cited by: 7

    Le phenomene zar (croyances et pratiques associees a un type particulier d'esprit) s'est etendu a Sennar (Soudan) parallelement a des changements sociaux dus aux difficultes economiques et politiques. L'assemblee des esprits (al-Jum'a) et les activites liees au zar ont connu des modifications tout en conservant certains elements. Quant au rapport homme-femme dans les possessions, il est egalement en train d'evoluer

  • Knowledge and Practice in Mayotte: Local Discourses of Islam, Sorcery and Spirit Possession. Michael Lambek

    Open AccessSusan M KenyonARTICLEAmerican Anthropologist1995

  • Gender and alliance in central Sudan

    Open AccessSusan M KenyonARTICLEJournal of Cross-Cultural…1994References: 3

  • Five Women of Sennar: Culture and Change in Central Sudan

    Sharon Hutchinson, Sharon E Hutchinson et al.ARTICLEMan1992Cited by: 10

    I. Introduction: The Town of Sennar Society and kinship in Sennar Women and the religious life Women and work in Sennar II. Five Women of Sennar: al Mushata: traditional hairdresser Sitt al Kushuk: market woman al Diya: midwife Servant of God: faith-healer and seeress al Umiya: leader of the tombura zar cult III. Women's Work, Women's Ways: culture and change in Central Sudan

  • Quileute: An Introduction to the Indians of La Push

    Susan M Kenyon, Jay Powell et al.ARTICLEEthnohistory1979