Selves, Spirits, and the Usefulness of Comparison (David Lambert)I noted the earlier essays here and here.... In short, I would suggest that the use of comparative studies as framing material for the biblical, alongside the synchronic approach, is conducive to making a general claim about the importance of “spirit”-phenomena but not to the actual identification of difference, which I see as essential to the comparative and critical enterprise. The suggestion would seem to be that spirit possession is a core, universal human experience, quite apart from the particularities of its social construction as a part of a broader engagement of political, economic, social, religious, and gendered concerns in specific local sites. ...
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