Description
Book SynopsisIn The Mind Possessed, Emma Cohen considers how the psychological systems undergirding spirit concepts are activated in real-world settings.
Trade ReviewWho is dancing before me: my neighbor or a powerful spirit? Where do minds go when the body is occupied by someone else? The Mind Possessed details the colorfulness of spirit possession while rendering it understandable. This gracefully written book potently models how the cognitive sciences should impact the study of culture and religion. Cohen demonstrates that a sophisticated understanding of human minds enriches anthropology and religious studies with scientific insights. Simultaneously she shows that careful ethnography can highlight questions for psychological sciences that might otherwise go unnoticed, in this case, complex issues concerning human minds and bodies. * Justin L. Barrett, Senior Researcher, Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, author of Why Would Anyone Believe in God?The Mind Possessed is an extraordinary accomplishment. Drawing on her fieldwork in Brazil, Emma Cohen explores the fascinating phenomena of spirit possession-the belief in, *
Table of ContentsNote on Translated Sources ; 1. Introducing Possession ; 2. Historical and Ethnographic Setting ; 3. The Research Community ; 4. Describing, Interpreting, and Explaining Spirit Possession ; 5. Medicalist, Physiological, and Sociological Explanations ; 6. Spirits as Concepts ; 7. Observing Possession ; 8. The Social Relevance of Spirits ; 9. Explaining Distributions of Spirit Concepts and Spirit Possession ; Appendix ; Glossary ; Notes ; References ; Index
