essay

Embodied spirits: Palestinians and the experience of possession

Feminist (re)visions of the subject : landscapes, ethnoscapes, and theoryscapesLanham, Md.Published In 2001 • Pages: 145-157

By: Rothenberg, Celia.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this article, Rothenberg interprets spirit possession of two West Bank villagers in context of the Israeli occupation. She first discusses JINN spirits and possession in general and then recounts and interprets two specific cases. In the first case, a young woman sent to Jordan to marry a cousin, gives birth to her first child and is possessed by a Jewish JINN who wants the mother to kill the child. Rothenberg interprets the possession as an idiom for an unhappy marriage and Israeli domination. In the second case, a political prisoner meets his JINN, a Jewish woman who wants to marry him, but instead becomes his friend. The author interprets this tale in terms of empowerment and identity.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
External relations
Spirits and gods
Revelation and divination
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Palestinians
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2005
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Middle East
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Middle East
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Ian Skoggard ; 2004
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1995-1996
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1967-1995
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Artus, West Bank, Occupied Territories, Israel
NotesAdditional notes
Celia Rothenberg
Includes bibliographical references (p. 157)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
00066337
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Palestinian Arabs