Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men, and the Zar Cult in Northern Sudan / Edition 1

by Janice Boddy

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299123147
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	12/15/1989
Series:	New Directions in Anthropological Writing
Edition description:	1
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Janice Boddy is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto.

Editorial Reviews

"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

From the Publisher

Adherents to the Zar cult in northern Sudan encounter spirits that are parallels of historically relevant figures in the known human world. Those possessed, usually women, meet aliens who speak about issues confronting their village. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, Boddy's (anthropology, U. of Toronto) study grounds her interpretation of the Zar in observation, anthropological theory, and practice. Cloth edition (12310-3), $45. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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