Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men, and the Zar Cult in Northern Sudan

by Janice Boddy

Based on nearly two years of ethnographic fieldwork in a Muslim village in northern Sudan, Wombs and Alien Spirits explores the zâr cult, the most widely practiced traditional healing cult in Africa.  Adherents of the cult are usually women with marital or fertility problems, who are possessed by spirits very different from their own proscribed roles as mothers.  Through the woman, the spirit makes demands upon her husband and family and makes provocative comments on village issues, such as the increasing influence of formal Islam or encroaching Western economic domination.  In accommodating the spirits, the women are able metaphorically to reformulate everyday discourse to portray consciousness of their own subordination.
    Janice Boddy examines the moral universe of the village, discussing female circumcision, personhood, kinship, and bodily integrity, then describes the workings of the cult and the effect of possession on the lives of men as well as women.   She suggests that spirit possession is a feminist discourse, though a veiled and allegorical one, on women's objectification and subordination.  Additionally, the spirit world acts as a foil for village life in the context of rapid historical change and as such provides a focus for cultural resistance that is particularly, though not exclusively, relevant to women.

Genres: Anthropology, Ethnography, Nonfiction, Africa, Religion, Humanities, Gender

424 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1989

About the author

Aman's story was originally compiled by Virginia Lee Barnes, an anthropologist (Ph.D., University of Hawaii), and upon her death in 1989, the manuscript was completed by Janice Boddy, distinguished professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto, who added an introduction placing Aman's story in its proper historical and social context

Reviews

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a powerful and fascinating account of the women of the village of Hofriyati women in northern Sudan. I was mesmerized throughout. This, to me, is my vision of what it’s like to be an anthropologist (and probably most other people’s as well): A white western woman (Canadian, no less) living amongst another people for two years, and then returning to her home to try to assimilate and deepen her and our understanding of that exotic “other” that, in many cases, isn’t as different from us as we may have originally anticipated. The zar cult is an especially intriguing religious phenomenon, not the least because of its widespread existence through Africa, the Middle East, and Iran.

I didn’t read the back cover description until I began to write up this review, and I disagree with how it’s written. I don’t know if this means that the back cover write-up wasn’t approved by Janice Boddy, or whether I just assimilated and understood the ethnography differently than Boddy herself. I disagree with the description of the zar as a “healing cult.” While the state of possession first manifests itself through illness, and while the ritual celebration that acknowledges the presence of the spirit is referred to in the indigenous language as a “cure,” I find the reference to a “healing cult” to be very reductive of the full, rich, cultural experience of the zar. The zar is about so much more than healing: it is about society, politics, economics, gender roles, imagination, creativity, and spirituality.

I disagree with the phrase “the spirit makes demands.” This implies a coercive factor that I feel is not present. The zar are a potent force in the lives of both women and men. At no point did I feel that the men felt coerced into placating the zar. It was simply a part of Hofriyati life, an expectation of how gender roles are constructed and maintained within village society. I disagree with the phrase “makes provocative comments.” Boddy suggests that the primary role of the zar is part of the constructing of the feminine consciousness of the Hofriyati women. The spirits bring messages of how to survive in a global context without being assimilated by foreign cultures, messages about the value and importance of cultivating the self-worth of women in an environment primarily dominated by male ideologies, and messages about how women can choose to have a voice in a society where they are dually subordinated – by the simple fact of being women, and by being rural Sudanese.

“As an aesthetic genre the zar, like satirical allegory in Western literature, permits a great deal to be implied which might be too inappropriate, heretical, or politically dangerous to express overtly. Ricoeur (1976:47) describes the literary text as ‘that use of discourse where several things are specified at the same time and where the reader is not required to choose among them. It is the positive and productive use of ambiguity.’” [p. 356]

I suppose that my arguments against the back cover write-up are mostly semantic in nature, and mostly about degree rather than kind. All of the implications and possible collective meanings of the zar cult are very difficult to explain in a paragraph or two. It is a religious and a social experience that penetrates to the very heart of this traditional society, and I was pleased and delighted to spend the last ten days carefully engrossed in Boddy’s excellent descriptions, busily highlighting important sections and writing copious notes in the margins. I could say so much more about interiority/exteriority, about the intricate interweavings of the cult with issues of feminity and fertility, about the impact of the encroaching effects of western cultures on this distant rural exotic community, but I will leave these and many more topics for interested readers to discover for themselves. My favourite quotes all came from the last few pages of the book, where Boddy discusses her views on how anthropological investigations may indeed shed more light on our own worldviews, than on those of “the other.”

“Anthropological monographs…declare themselves to be about the cultures they depict….To say that our ethnographies are fictions, as to say that zayran are not real, is clearly to overstate the case: we hardly construct from whole cloth. Yet surely, since we write at a physical and cultural remove from our subjects, we portray highly processed visions of their worlds. What we have to say about other cultures is doubly filtered, first, in the course of observation, then through the writer’s memory and the constraints of her medium. The outcome is a kind of allegory based – like that of the zar – on actual observations of human foreigners, but – as in Hofriyat – put together so as to meet the demands for cultural coherence which the ‘author’ shares with her audience. In either case the product is a negotiated one, which in turn acts as a foil for more culture-bound readers’ lives.” [p. 357]

“The reflexive effect of Western ethnographies may be to strengthen our own institutions and cultural constructs, not…to deconstruct and critically examine them. And this, because the questions we put to our informants are implicitly dictated by our concerns, not theirs. Fair enough: we may never come to know another culture as it is actually lived by its participants. Yet this need not invalidate the enterprise, only its more extreme claims to scientific ‘truth.’ When read, in part, as allegory, ethnographies contain a wealth of potential messages about the culture they silently imply: some critical, others clearly supportive.” [p. 359]

I highly recommend Wombs and Alien Spirits to anyone with an interest in cultures of the exotic “other.” I love that I can give perfect five-star ratings to my school books. It certainly reassures me that I am entering the right field of work. :)

[didi · Rating 5 out of 5]

when Hofriyati laugh at one whose behavior is improper in its most minute detail, they are all the while assessing their own behavior, their ideals, and finding them no laughing matter.

[Tunzeel Elseir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best read to date❤️

[Carrie Strine · Rating 3 out of 5]

So interesting and well researched but a bit dense for me. Read very slowly over time.

[Helena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've seen silver amulets attributed to the Zar Cult, usually the Egyptian branch, and wanted to learn more about it. This book focuses on the Zar Cult in Northern Sudan, which has different traditions but a similar belief system. I don't want to give away any details here and ruin the book for you!

This is a scholarly book,serious writing and a well executed case study. There'es more to this than the history and development of Zar. The book is about women living in patriarchal society with many rules and regulations defining their lives. Ms. Boddy does a good job staying objective and showing us how the women themselves view, function, and interact with one another within this society. Zar plays an important role in their lives.

There are some parallels with what we currently refer to as shamanism, and if you are interested in that topic, you may enjoy this book as well.

I recommend this and have purchased a copy for my home collection!

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men, and the Zār Cult in Northern Sudan by anthropologist Janice Boddy is a book with a mostly self-explanatory title (I say "mostly" because it is not, in fact, about aliens). I chose this book as my other alternate reading selection for a course in Anthropological Theory, but don't let that frighten you away! I promise you the book is not dry, as the name of that class would suggest. ...

For full review, please visit me at Here Be Bookwyrms on Blogger:

http://herebebookwyrms.blogspot.com/2...

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Best title yet for an ethnography.

[Alia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting!!!