Based on intensive ethnographic fieldwork, this book describes and
interprets trance behaviour among the Malagasy speakers of Mayotte,
a small island in the Comoro Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off
the coast of East Africa. Professor Lambek describes how the people
of Mayotte (most often women) enter into trances, during which they
believe their bodies are inhabited by spirits. He then analyses the
conventions for behaviour in trance and the process by which the
individuals come to terms with the spirits in their midst. The book
presents thorough case studies of spirit possession over time,
providing one of the most detailed accounts of possession phenomena
available for a single society. The author argues that trance can
best be understood as a social activity within a defined system of
cultural meaning rather than as a psychological problem, a simple
deception or a means of manipulating others. This book should be of
particular interest to those concerned with the study of ritual,
symbols and non-Western religious systems.
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