The self possessed : deity and spirit possession in South Asian literature and civilization

Frederick M. Smith

The Self Possessed is a multifaceted, diachronic study reconsidering the very nature of religion in South Asia, the culmination of years of intensive research. Frederick M. Smith proposes that positive oracular or ecstatic possession is the most common form of spiritual expression in India, and that it has been linguistically distinguished from negative, disease-producing possession for thousands of years. In South Asia possession has always been broader and more diverse than in the West, where it has been almost entirely characterized as "demonic." At best, spirit possession has been regarded as a medically treatable psychological ailment and at worst, as a condition that requires exorcism or punishment. In South (and East) Asia, ecstatic or oracular possession has been widely practiced throughout history, occupying a position of respect in early and recent Hinduism and in certain forms of Buddhism. Smith analyzes Indic literature from all ages-the earliest Vedic texts; the Mahabharata; Buddhist, Jain, Yogic, Ayurvedic, and Tantric texts; Hindu devotional literature; Sanskrit drama and narrative literature; and more than a hundred ethnographies. He identifies several forms of possession, including festival, initiatory, oracular, and devotional, and demonstrates their multivocality within a wide range of sects and religious identities. Possession is common among both men and women and is practiced by members of all social and caste strata. Smith theorizes on notions of embodiment, disembodiment, selfhood, personal identity, and other key issues through the prism of possession, redefining the relationship between Sanskritic and vernacular culture and between elite and popular religion. Smith's study is also comparative, introducing considerable material from Tibet, classical China, modern America, and elsewhere. Brilliant and persuasive, The Self Possessed provides careful new translations of rare material and is the most comprehensive study in any language on this subject.

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[目次]

  • List of IllustrationsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I: Orthodoxies, Madness, and Method1. Academic and Brahmanical OrthodoxiesPart II: Ethnography, Modernity, and the Languages of Possession2. New and Inherited Paradigms: Methodologies for the Study of Possession3. Possession, Trance Channeling, and Modernity4. Notes on Regional Languages and Models of PossessionPart III.5. The Vedas and Upanisads6. Friendly Acquisitions, Hostile Takeovers, The Panorama of Possession in the Sanskrit Epics7. Enlightenment and the Classical Culture of Possession

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この本の情報

書名 The self possessed : deity and spirit possession in South Asian literature and civilization
著作者等 Smith, Frederick M.
出版元 Columbia University Press
刊行年月 c2006
ページ数 xxvii, 701 p.
大きさ 24 cm
ISBN 9780231137485
NCID BA8161351X
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言語 サンスクリット
英語
出版国 アメリカ合衆国
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