Research report instructions:
– Write an essay based on your Research Proposal (what is in the abstract & title below) and the feedback you got for it (please check feedback from tutor, highlighted in yellow).
– This is an anthropological research report. Don’t write an essay that fits in another discipline. For example, to write a research project that just examines prevalence rates of emotional disorders around the world. Nor do I want an essay that only draws on material from neuroscience, for example.
– Don’t use very broad terms like “Western” and “Eastern” culture – be specific & evidence-based & think critically.
– Don’t make meaningless comparisons between multiple cultures where the answer is simply that people do things differently.
– Substance: substantiate your argument with examples and references
– Key concepts: define key concepts used & preferably using anthropological sources
– Critical Thinking: Critical use of concepts and sources
– Originality & Creativity
– Use of Ethnographic sources: bonus marks for including ethnographic examples in the essay
– Relevance to Anthropology
Title:
Shamanism, spirit possession and the altered state of consciousness – the experience and understanding of trance in a cross-cultural context.
Abstract:
Scholars and anthropologists from around the globe have long studied Shamanism and the encompassing functionalities of an altered state of consciousness. This research report also aims to explore the meaning of shamanism and spirit possession in relation to the different types of altered state of consciousness (ASC) in .
I will look at exploring what the term trance means, how it is shaped within various ceremonies and rituals in different cross-cultural settings in countries such as Indonesia and Nepal.
This report also investigates cross-cultural gender traits in Shamanism, spirit possession and the ASC, making comparisons between gender roles and how it interplays in aforementioned cultures’ roles of possession. It also touches on a comparison of theoretical approaches in dissociation in relation to psychological theories versus anthropological, and explore the concept of ‘self’, ‘Other’ and external powers such as ‘spirit matter’.
Notes & feedback from my tutor on my abstract and what to action in this report:
This is a wide range of ideas, and your writing will suffer trying to cover it all. You want to focus on at least one or two linked areas and execute them well.
While you’re on the right track, at present, the topic you have proposed is too broad and is striving to cover too much. You will need to spend time narrowing this down, exploring one or two key areas. For instance, this may look like discussing different types of possession/trance within one country from the list you’ve stated, or comparing possession/trance in different cultural contexts, or gendered experiences of possession/trance in a cultural context.
Below are some resources which may prove useful in helping you in narrowing your topic. This is a good start – keep at it!
Bhavsar V, Ventriglio A, Bhugra D. Dissociative trance and spirit possession: Challenges for cultures in transition. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2016 Dec;70(12):551-559. doi: 10.1111/pcn.12425. Epub 2016 Sep 18. PMID: 27485275.
Boddy, J. (1988). Spirits and Selves in Northern Sudan: The Cultural Therapeutics of Possession and Trance. American Ethnologist, 15(1), 4–27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/645483
Boddy, J. (1989). Wombs and alien spirits: Women, men and the zar cult in northern Sudan. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Cohen, E 2008, ‘What is Spirit Possession? Defining, Comparing, and Explaining Two Possession Forms’, Ethnos, vol. 73, no. 1, pp. 101–126.
Lewis, I.M., Al-Safi, A. & Hurreiz, S. (Eds.) ( 1991). Women’s medicine: The zar-Bori cult in Africa and beyond . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute.
Ong, A. (1988). The Production of Possession: Spirits and the Multinational Corporation in Malaysia. American Ethnologist, 15(1), 28–42. http://www.jstor.org/stable/645484
Tsintjilonis, D. (2006). Monsters and Caricatures: Spirit Possession in Tana Toraja. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 12(3), 551–567. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4092507