Vlad Naumescu

Learning Spirit Possession: An Introduction

Our introduction builds on existing approaches in possession studies to explore a less-developed path focused on processes of ‘learning possession’. We propose here an ontogenetic and pragmatic approach to spirit possession based on a historically and cognitively informed ethnography. Our main aim is to suggest an analytical framework able to take into account the interrelationality of cultural contexts and patterns of thinking, feeling and interacting involved in learning possession. Our epistemological framework is based on the notion of cultural expertise, defined as the culturally relevant matching of emotion, perception and reasoning in an assemblage pertaining to the process of learning a particular skill, as well as the creative and open-ended process in which experts learn to ‘play’ with shared social, aesthetic, moral and performative values.