Somatizing the Past: Healing the Dead through Spirit Possession in the Garifuna Dugu of Honduras
This article explores the connection between individual experience, religious initiation, historical consciousness, and ethnicity within the context of Dugu, the religion practiced by the Garifuna, an Afro-Amerindian group that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent. During colonial tim...
| Published in: | Journal of Africana religions |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
The Pennsylvania State University Press
2022
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| In: |
Journal of Africana religions
Year: 2022, Volume: 10, Issue: 1, Pages: 47-71 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Honduras
/ Garifuna
/ Spiritual possession cult
/ Collective memory
/ Initiation
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| RelBib Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion AZ New religious movements KBR Latin America |
| Further subjects: | B
Spirit Possession
B Ethnicity B Historical Consciousness B Garifuna B Collective Memory B Dugu |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article explores the connection between individual experience, religious initiation, historical consciousness, and ethnicity within the context of Dugu, the religion practiced by the Garifuna, an Afro-Amerindian group that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent. During colonial times, in 1797, the British Crown forced the Garifuna people to leave their homeland; they were displaced to the Atlantic coast of Central America, where they now live in scattered communities. This traumatic event remains entrenched in Dugu and emerges among individuals’ somatic experiences and ritual performance. Overwhelmed, ancestors become visible in dreams and hallucinatory visions and are the instigators of misfortune. Also, the spirits of the dead are believed to act on the bodies of their living descendants by spirit possession. By focusing on some recurrent patterns of possession episodes among the Garifuna people, I argue that particular scenes of a collective memory are embodied by individuals, who evolve from afflicted patients to “living supports” of a historical legacy via initiation. |
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| ISSN: | 2165-5413 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Africana religions
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