Showing Human Spirits: A Cultural Account of Trance in Mayotte (Cambridge Studies in Cultural Systems) by Michael Lambek

Paperback. Pub Date: 1981 Pages: 136 Publisher: Camidge. University Press based on Intensive ethnographic fieldwork this book describes and interprets trance behavior among the Malagasy speakers of Mayotte. A small island in the Comoro Archipelago in the Indian Ocean off. the coast of East Africa. Professor Lambek describes how the people of Mayotte (most often women) enter into trances. during which they believe their bodies are inhabited by spirits. He then analyses the conventions for behaviour in trance and the process by which the individuals come to terms with the spirits in their midst. The book presents thorough case studies of spirit possession over time. providing one of the most detailed accounts of possession phenomena available for a single society. The author argues that trance can best be understood as a social activity within a defined system of cultural mean...