Stalking the stalker

A Chwezi initiation into spirit possession and experiential structure

Bibliographic Data

ID2266760
AuthorsKoen Stroeken (0000-0003-3409-444X, KU Leuven, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume12
Issue4
Pages785-802
Publication date2006-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-0987 • E-ISSN: 1467-9655
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9655.2006.00363.x
OpenAlexW2036642370
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited42

Among Sukuma (Tanzania) the Chwezi spirit society operates in the shadow of, and in tension with, the lineage cults domesticating the dead. As this ethnography describes, Chwezi candidates are initiated into spirit possession by 'stalking the stalker', that is, by seeking synchrony with intrusion. Recognition of the healing and of the power/resistance in spirit performances once resuscitated anthropology from its crisis of representation, but now arrests advance. Both functions obscure possession itself, which, unlike rituals, has a subversive, 'quaternary' structure that reveals the gap between experience and communication, and thus decentres both self and society. Spirit possession exposes the plurality of experiential structures. This may better account for its role world-wide in dialectics of social resistance and of cathartic healing

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Battle · Criminology · Ethnography · Experiential learning · Political science · Possession (linguistics · Sociology · Stalking · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology

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