Religion Altered States O Consciousness And Social Change PDF
Preview Religion Altered States O Consciousness And Social Change
$12.50 Religion, Altered States of Consciousness, and Social Change Edited by Erika Bourguignon In the space of one short decade, the rise to prominence on the national scene of what has become a widely publicized drug culture has, with alarming suddenness, brought the subject of altered states of consciousness to the attention of a deeply disturbed and often frightened Amer ican public. Thus what was formerly regarded as the exclusive and uncontested province of the psychiatrist engaged in treating patients and of anthropologists conducting research in exotic societies has become the substance of a heated popular debate. This same ten-year period has seen a marked revival in the activities of marginal religious groups and the emergence, often with consider able violence, of a number of new ones. This religious renewal has occurred simultaneously with the discovery, on the part of anthropolo gists, of an awakened interest in the study of religion and, in particular, of religious rituals and symbols. These developments provide the setting for the ten original articles that make up this volume, which seek to distinguish the more sporadic and ephemeral religious movements from those more stable groups in which altered states of con sciousness are used within a ritual framework and which have achieved a degree of organiza tional structure and some measure of control over the ecstatic religious experiences of their members. The research area ranges from Sub-Saharan Africa to modern Sao Paulo, and from Micro nesia to the Caribbean. Five case studies are undertaken that reveal a great deal of variety in the relationships between social change and pos session trance, and that deal with societies on several levels of social integration: tribal socie ties in various states of transition, peasants, pro letarians, and members of the lower and middle (Continued on back flap) Religion, Altered States of Consciousness, and Social Change Religion, Altered States of Consciousness, and Social Change Edited by Erika Bourguignon Ohio State University Press Columbus 1973 Copyright ® 1973 by the Ohio State University Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Bourguignon, Erika. Religion, altered states of consciousness, and social change. 1. Psychology, Religious. 2. Trance. 3. Sects. 4. Religion and sociology. I. Title BL53.B643 200M9 72-8448 ISBN 0-8142-0167-9 Contents Preface vii Introduction: A Framework for the Comparative Study of Altered States of Consciousness 3 Erika Bourguignon Part I: Cross-Cultural and Comparative Studies 1. Societal Correlates of Possession Trance in Sub-Saharan Africa 39 Lenora Greenbaum 2. Possession Trance in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Descriptive Analysis of Fourteen Societies 58 Lenora Greenbaum 3. Social Change, Ecology, and Spirit Possession among the South African Nguni 88 Judith G ussier Part II: Field Studies 4. Spirit Mediums in Palau: Transfor mations in a Traditional System 129 Anne P. Leonard Contents 5. Apostolics of Yucatan: A Case Study of a Religious Movement 178 Felicitas D. Goodman 6. The Shakers of St. Vincent: A Stable Religion 219 Jeannette H. Henney 7. Umbanda in Sao Paulo: Religious Innovation in a Developing Society 264 Esther Pressel Part III: Some Conclusions 8. An Assessment of Some Comparisons and Implications 321 Erika Bourguignon Epilogue: Some Notes on Contemporary Americans and the Irrational 340 Erika Bourguignon Appendix 359 Notes on the Contributors 311 Index 379 VI
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