Wombs
and Alien Spirits
Women, Men, and the Zar Cult in Northern Sudan
Janice Boddy
New
Directions in Anthropological Writing
"Wombs and Alien Spirits is a provocative book on women and religion and a valuable addition to the literature on Sudan."—Victoria Bernal, The Middle East Journal
Based on nearly two years of ethnographic fieldwork in a Muslim
village in northern Sudan, Wombs and Alien Spirits explores the zâr cult, the most widely practiced traditional
healing cult in Africa. Adherents of the cult are usually women
with marital or fertility problems, who are possessed by spirits
very different from their own proscribed roles as mothers. Through
the woman, the spirit makes demands upon her husband and family
and makes provocative comments on village issues, such as the
increasing influence of formal Islam or encroaching Western economic
domination. In accommodating the spirits, the women are able
metaphorically to reformulate everyday discourse to portray consciousness
of their own subordination.
Janice Boddy examines the moral universe
of the village, discussing female circumcision, personhood, kinship,
and bodily integrity, then describes the workings of the cult
and the effect of possession on the lives of men as well as women.
She suggests that spirit possession is a feminist discourse,
though a veiled and allegorical one, on women's objectification
and subordination. Additionally, the spirit world acts as a foil
for village life in the context of rapid historical change and
as such provides a focus for cultural resistance that is particularly,
though not exclusively, relevant to women.
“Janice Boddy—a professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto—has written a traditional ethnography, complete with kinship diagrams, Arabic terms, and many, many facts. By the end of the book you feel like you know her community of women well.”—The New York Times Book Review
Janice Boddy is associate professor of anthropology at
the University of Toronto.
Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.)
|
|
Fall 1989
LC: 89-040250 HQ
421 pp.
|
