Ustream ©

UBC : IS+H : Lecture 07 : Emma Cohen

260 Views Length: 42:25 Emma Cohen, "Spirit Possession and Folk Dualism" :

Spirit possession concepts across a wide variety of cultural settings entertain the possibility of migrant minds and body exchanges. What is particularly apparent from the cross-cultural record is… Emma Cohen, "Spirit Possession and Folk Dualism" :

Spirit possession concepts across a wide variety of cultural settings entertain the possibility of migrant minds and body exchanges. What is particularly apparent from the cross-cultural record is that although there are many different possibilities -- at least in principle -- for the ways in which minds and bodies may be recombined, there is one configuration that appears with considerably more frequency than any other. This configuration assumes that when a spirit possesses a medium, the medium's mind/soul/spirit/agency is completely displaced. This paper presents experiemental evidence that suggests that the specific nature of our intuitions about the autonomy of physical and social worlds (i.e. 'intuitive mind-body dualism') gives rise to a narrow range of intuitively plausible migrant mind scenarios that fit with the concept of displacement. This explains, in part, why the displacement concept enjoys such widespread cross-cultural success.

More