Description
Book SynopsisGustafsson's rich ethnographic research explores the world of spirit possession in Vietnam, focusing on the source of the pain, the physical and mental anguish the spirits bring, and various attempts to ameliorate their anger through ritual offerings.
Trade ReviewIn this engrossing account of spirit-possession illness caused by war ghosts in and around Ha Noi, Mai Lan Gustafson demystifies what are often perceived as mystical experiences without reducing them entirely to well-worn conceptual tropes. No doubt the book's greatest strength can be found in the vibrant and sympathetic ethnography of the wide cast of social actors involved in spirit possession. One theme that emerges as the book progresses involves the connections between angry ghosts and their victims as ways for the living to process wartime experiences, whether their own or not, through idioms of kinship, suffering, and social and moral responsibility. War and Shadows is a pleasure to read and a success in its own right. The book is also a clear introduction and guide to many issues salient to Vietnam Studies and would be an excellent teaching resource for lower and upper division courses on Vietnam.
-- Allen L. Tran * Journal of Vietnamese Studies *
The work is a straightforward discussion of a phenomenon evidently experienced by hundreds of people. The narratives supplied by Gustaffson's informants are allowed to stand on their own, supplemented by contextual information that positions them in the broader framework of contemporary Vietnamese social life...Human relationships and human conflicts are given new meaning by the supernatural, and the presence of spiritual phenomena in daily life forces the engagement of individuals, families, and nations with the very real and very pressing legacies of violence.
* Journal of Folklore Research *
Table of Contents1. The Problem
2. Foundations
3. Revelations
4. The Living and the Dead
5. Afterlives
6. Problem Solving
7. "Superstition" in a Secular State
8. Revivals
9. Conclusion
Epilogue
Appendix 1: Table of Suffering
Appendix 2: Chronology oft he War
Notes
References
Index
