Human Spirits: A Cultural Account of Trance in Mayotte

Abstract

List of tables and figures Preface: cultural zero Acknowledgements Stylistic conventions Introduction Part I. Spirits and Hosts in Mayotte: 1. An overview of Mayotte society 2. Who the spirits are not: possession and Islam 3. The nature of spirits: first approximations 4. The incidence of trance 5. Possession as a system of communication Part II. The Syntagmatic Dimension: 6. Negotiation and energence: the case of Habiba 7. Medicine and transformation: the case of Habiba continued 8. The hidden name: the case of Rukia 9. Of affines and annunciations Part III. The Paradigmatic Dimension: 10. The trumba spirits 11. The world of possession 12. The spirits as children Conclusion Appendix: Additional classes of possession spirits in Mayotte Notes Bibliography Index.