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

by Janice Boddy

Book Overview

Based on nearly two years of ethnographic fieldwork in a Muslim village in northern Sudan, Wombs and Alien Spirits explores the z?r 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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0299123146
• ISBN13: 9780299123147
• Release Date: December 1989
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Length: 424 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.2"