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Spirit Possession, Family Issues, and the Revelation of Gods’ Biographies

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Filial Obsessions

Part of the book series: Culture, Mind, and Society ((CMAS))

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Abstract

This chapter addresses methodological problems of interpretation of mythic narrative and spirit possession. Each of the traditions of myth interpretation surveyed—structuralist, psychoanalytic, hermeneutic—makes largely unexamined assumptions about how and why narratives convey the meanings or messages analysts attribute to them. In addition to exegesis of alleged meanings, more attention should be directed to how narratives are produced. To illustrate this point, a detailed account of a spirit-possession session illustrates how “disturbances of affect” related to family issues dominate the agenda of Taiwanese spirit-healing sessions. Spirit mediums’ dual roles as healers and as revealers of gods’ biographies account for why mythic narratives about gods so frequently focus on typical complexities of family processes—processes linked, in turn, to patrilineal institutions.

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  1. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

    P. Steven Sangren

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Sangren, P.S. (2017). Spirit Possession, Family Issues, and the Revelation of Gods’ Biographies. In: Filial Obsessions. Culture, Mind, and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50493-3_4

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