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The cognitive science of religion has made a persuasive case for the view that a number of different psychological systems are involved in the construction and transmission of notions of extranatural agency such as deities and spirits. Until now this work has been based largely on findings in experimental psychology, illustrated mainly with hypothetical or anecdotal examples. In The Mind Possessed, Emma Cohen considers how the psychological systems undergirding spirit concepts are activated in real-world settings. Spirit possession practices have long had a magnetizing effect on academic researchers but there have been few, if any, satisfactory theoretical treatments of spirit possession that attempt to account for its emergence and spread globally. Drawing on ethnographic data collected during eighteen months of fieldwork in Bel?m, northern Brazil, Cohen combines fine-grained descriptions and analyses of mediumistic activities in an Afro-Brazilian cult house with a scientifically-grounded explanation for the emergence and spread of ideas about spirits, possession and healing. Cohen shows why spirit possession and its associated activities are inherently attention-grabbing. Making a radical departure from traditional anthropological, medicalist and sociological analyses, she argues that a cognitive approach offers more precise and testable hypotheses concerning the spread and appeal of spirit concepts and possession activities. This timely book presents new lines of enquiry for the cognitive science of religion (a rapidly growing field of interdisciplinary scholarship) and challenges the theoretical frameworks within which spirit possession practices have traditionally been understood.
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The Mind Possessed This page intentionally left blank The Mind Possessed The Cognition of Spirit Possession in an Afro-Brazilian Religious Tradition emma cohen 1 2007 3 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright # 2007 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cohen, Emma, 1979– The mind possessed : the cognition of spirit possession in an Afro-Brazilian religious tradition/ Emma Cohen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-19-532335-1 1. Psychology, Religious. 2. Spirit possession–Brazil. 3. Afro-Brazilian cults. I. Title. BL53.C643 2007 266.6'12160981–dc22 2006032578 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper To Renato Cohen and Fla´via Bassalo, in appreciation of your love, kindness, and support in Bele´m and beyond This page intentionally left blank Preface This is a book about spirits who possess bodies. More precisely, it is a book about various people’s beliefs about spirits who possess bodies, with a particular focus on an Afro-Brazilian religious community. In this community, as in many others across the world, people maintain that bodiless agents, or spirits, may temporar