| Title | Possession, in Four Voices |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Richard Davis (author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.53288/0361.1.13 |
| Landing page | https://punctumbooks.com/titles/living-with-monsters-ethnographic-fiction-about-real-monsters/ |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Richard Davis |
| Publisher | punctum books |
| Published on | 2023-05-11 |
| Long abstract | This chapter links three kinds of possession across different cosmological worlds. The three possessions and cosmologies focus on Christian executive possession, as defined by Emma Cohen, snake ancestor possession at Saibai Island, northwest Torres Strait, and the dream possession of an anthropologist at the same island. Inspired by the multi-perspectivist work of Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and others, the story confers the same ontological status on monsters, spirits, and humans by allowing the possessed and the possessor their own voices. Through this ontological equivalence, two questions are explored in this story. Firstly, what might an immigrant spirit being from a colonising religion look like to an Indigenous spirit being, both of whom are possessing entities? Secondly, what does it mean to be caught up in the mythic fabric of another through the loss of the sovereignty of self-possession? These questions are pursued through a person-within-person narrative technique that allows culturally distinct understandings of evil, ecstasy, and love to be explored. |
| Page range | pp. 215–235 |
| Print length | 21 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
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Richard Davis has long anthropological experience working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples throughout Australia where he has published on gender (Indigenous Australian masculinities in particular), performance, the frontier, Indigenous epitathic writing, death, and knowledge. He has held academic positions at the Australian National University, University of Western Australia, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and Charles Darwin University. In addition, he has worked as a Senior Anthropologist at the Central Land Council, has advised both the Australian Federal Government and British Museum on protection and repatriation of Indigenous human remains, and prepared anthropological reports for Australian Native title claims. Alongside his academic research and teaching, he has expanded his ethnographic writing into poetry where he has explored issues of embodiment, encounter, and emplacement in fieldwork, publishing his poetry in Anthropology and Humanism, Westerly, and other books and journals. He is currently working as an academic anthropologist for the Australian government.