Soil, self, resistance

Late-modernity and locative spirit possession in Kerala

Bibliographic Data

ID20051273
AuthorsYasushi Uchiyamada (Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development, corresponding author)
Year1999
Pages289-311
Publication date1999-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueLa possession en Asie du Sud (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherÉditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/books.editionsehess.26337
OpenAlexW2516179008
ISBN9782713231407
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited15

I present a place-centred and low-caste view of spirit affliction/possession with reference to person-kuṭumpam (descent group)-soil continuity and interaction in late-modern Kerala, where previous boundary processes have been subjugated to a new set of boundary processes that mixed-up what was formerly unmixable. The person-kuṭumpam-soil consubstantiality, which is expressed in mortuary rituals, contradicts with the modern praxis of people-state-land relations. The new rich have been moving into the border areas of the village, which was formerly inhabited exclusively by Untouchables, and which was believed to be a dangerous place where ghosts and malevolent deities wandered. I present a case history of an Īḻava moneylender’s wife, whose body was possessed by Untouchable ancestors. I use thematically related case histories of spirit affliction and possession as a ‘window’ that provides a glimpse into the ways in which multiple boundary processes constitute person, self and territory in the late-modern context

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Caste · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Modernity · Political science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Social and Economic Development in India · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Ecology

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