spirits and selves in Northern Sudan: the cultural therapeutics of possession and trance

Examination of cultural and social factors surrounding zar spirit possession diagnoses in Northern Sudan suggests that a major issue addressed by the cult is the cultural overdetermination of women's selfhood. Circumcision and infibulation operate to establish in women a sense of self congruent with the cultural image of woman as reproducer. When experiences and expectations fail to mesh, some women fall ill and are ultimately diagnosed as possessed. Through acceptance of the possession diagnosis and participation in curing rites involving trance, a patient is given scope to expand and regenerate her sense of self and recontextualize her experiences. [ethnomedicine, women, Sudan, spirit possession, the self, gender identity]