BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//ceres.rub.de//events// CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-TIMEZONE:UTC BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Em-bodying Emotions and Deities DTSTART:20250703T070000Z DTEND:20250704T150000Z DTSTAMP:20260413T061912Z UID:b05-workshop-de-1-12226@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Metaphors of being “ridden” by anxiety\, “overwhelmed” by sorrow or “carried away” by “enthusiasm” indicate a curious re semblance between metaphors for emotions\, and expressions for spirit or d eity possession.\n\nIn religious traditions as far apart as Himalayan Hind uism and Haitian Voudoun\, the beings that “come over” or “enter” the human body are referred to as riders of their human vehicle\, or as “Divine Horsemen” (Maya Deren). In ancient Sanskrit texts\, the “ent ering” (āveśa) of a human person can as much refer to an emotion as to a deity or demon (see Frederick Smith 2006\, The Self Possessed). Arguabl y\, both emotions and spirits/deities are hard to “grasp” by words and concepts\, and even harder to control. To talk and think about such force s and entities which are “beyond our reach”\, we need metaphors which construct similarities – for instance\, by implying that emotions and de ities alike “enter”\, “ride” or otherwise “drive” the human bo dy.\nThis workshop examines phenomena such as possession and enthusiasm no t only through bodily symptoms or sociopolitical agency\, but also through their conceptual implications: They define the body and the immaterial as pects of the self by defining\, shifting\, or opening the boundaries that make up the “inner” and “outer” worlds.\n\nThis gives rise to ques tions such as the following:\n\n\n Is the self “entered” or “seized ” by emotions coming from “within”\, by spirits or other beings comi ng from “outside” the limits of control or rule by the self\, or by so me divinity which is already “within” the individual’s body\, heart or soul?\n What do the seemingly contradictory images of a Self being “r idden” and being “entered” by these forces tell us about the concept ualization of the Self itself?\n Do these metaphors have implications abou t the integrity\, (in-)dividuality or isolatedness of the Self?\n Are emot ions or spirits conceived of as “immaterial” forces? Is the “immater ial” located “inside” the body? If so\, why?\n How “embodied” ar e these forces when they are not yet / not anymore “within” (or around ) the possessed body?\n\n\nHere you find the program as pdf file.\n\nPROGR AM\n\nThursday\, 3 July\n\n\n \n \n 09:30\n Arrival\n \n \n 10:00 -11:00\n Introduction to the CRC 1475 “Metaphors of Religion” and th e\n Workshop Question\n Gerrit Lange (Ruhr University Bochum)\n \n \ n 11:00-11:30\n Coffee Break\n \n \n Session 1: Dancind and Being Danced\n \n \n 11:30-12:30\n What Metaphors Make Possible: Āṭṭa m and Piṇam as Idioms of\n Divine Becoming in South Indian Ritual Worl ds\n Sona Prabhakaran (Heidelberg University)\n \n \n 12:30-13:30\n Repossessed: Further Research and Thoughts on Possession as\n Experien ce and Metaphor\n Frederick M. Smith (University of Iowa)\n \n \n 13 :30-15:00\n Lunch Break\n \n \n Session 2: Riding and Being Ridden\n \n \n 15:00-16:00\n “Me monto”: Dual Agency and Literality in G etting onto and Surrendering\n to Spirits in Puerto Rican Brujería\n Raquel Romberg (Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg)\n \n \n 16:00-16:15\n Coffee Break\n \n \n 16:15-17:15\n Islamic Demo nology: Between Riding and Being Ridden\n Tobias Nünlist (University of Zurich)\n \n \n from 18:30\n Dinner\n \n \n\n\nFriday\, 4 July\n\n \n \n \n 09:30\n Arrival\n \n \n Session 3: Inviting and Driving out: Illness\, Holyness\, and Madness\n \n \n 10:00-11:00\n “It Ru ns in the Blood”: Jinn Possession According to\n Raqi Exorcists\n Wi lliam Sax (Heidelberg University)\n \n \n 11:00-11:30\n Coffee Break \n \n \n 11:30-12:30\n “So that You May Become Uncrazed”: Confli cting Perceptions of\n Divine Madness in Vedic Literature\n Per-Johan Norelius (Uppsala University)\n \n \n 12:30-13:30\n Purity and Posse ssion: Balinese Concepts of Self\, Trance-Possession and Emotions\n Anne tte Hornbacher (Heidelberg University)\n \n \n 13:30-15:00\n Lunch B reak\n \n \n 15:00-16:00\n Emotions\, Agency and Control in Akkadian Texts from Ancient Mesopotamia\n Ulrike Steinert (Johannes Gutenberg Un iversity Mainz)\n \n \n 16:00-16:15\n Coffee Break\n \n \n 16:15 -17:15\n Final Discussion\n \n \n from 18:30\n Dinner\n \n \n\n\n Abstracts\n\nWhat Metaphors Make Possible: Āṭṭam and Piṇam as Idiom s of Divine Becoming in South Indian Ritual Worlds\nSona Prabhakaran (Heid elberg University)\n\nMetaphor is commonly understood to operate via the i nvocation of similitude\, drawing upon familiar domains to render the unfa miliar\, abstract\, or ineffable partially comprehensible. Metaphor\, then \, is not a mode of explication but of orientation\, because it does not p resume to name what cannot be named\, but enables its intimation through s ensory and conceptual proximity. While this view departs from representati onalist assumptions\, it nonetheless remains committed to a referential fr ame—one in which metaphor invariably points beyond itself. This paper ch allenges such a reading by turning to ritual contexts in which metaphor is not simply a gesture towards the divine but the very condition of its eme rgence.\nAt my fieldsite in Valangaiman\, a village in Tamil Nadu\, ritual specialists and devotees describe two distinct modalities of divine becom ing: possession by (āṭṭam) and merging with a deity (teyvam). In thes e instances\, I shall argue that metaphor is not a linguistic proxy for th e sacred\; it is a ritual medium through which divinity is encountered\, s ensed\, and enacted. This becomes especially evident in ritual settings wh ere divine becoming is understood to be embodied\, transformative and inte nsely real\, regardless of how fleeting the instance may be. What is at st ake\, then\, is not whether the divine becomes present\, but how such pres ence is articulated—and\, crucially\, how it is mediated through distinc t metaphorical idioms.\nIn the case of possession\, articulated through th e metaphor of āṭṭam—the dance\, play\, or vibration of the goddess —divine presence is not simply described but made perceptible through th e intensification of rhythm\, movement\, and affective intensity. As the r itual builds\, so too does the goddess’s āṭṭam\, gathering force an d velocity. This is not an aesthetic flourish\, but the very mode through which her presence becomes recognisable: in bodies that shake\, convulse\, and yield to a force already in motion. Here\, metaphor is not merely ind icative\; it is generative. It does not gesture towards the divine—it ma terialises it through rhythm\, breath\, and embodied charge.\nIn the case of merging\, the devotee does not become the goddess herself\, but\, in a ritually elevated state\, attunes to divine presence whilst remaining dist inct from it. The term teyvam refers not to the goddess herself\, but to a ritually transformed human. This transformation proceeds through ritual a cts that first designate the devotee as piṇam—a corpse—and subsequen tly as teyvam.\nIf both possession and merging are understood as modes of divine becoming\, what\, then\, do these metaphors make possible? What kin ds of divine-human relation do they enact? What forms of presence\, absenc e\, and transformation do they temporarily call into being—and on what t erms?\n\n \n\nRepossessed: Further Research and Thoughts on Possession as Experience and Metaphor\nFrederick M. Smith (University of Iowa)\n\nI wil l present material from research I have performed on deity and spirit poss ession in India in two distinct areas since my book\, The Self Possessed: Deity and Spirit Possession in Indian Literature and Civilization (Columbi a Univ Press\, 2006) appeared. First\, I'll examine a rite of transfer of a possessed personality or entity\, namely Arjuna\, from father to son\, s et in a Pāṇḍav līlā or Pāṇḍav nāc (“divine performance” o r “dance” of the Pāṇḍavas) that I observed in the Garhwal Himalay as. The second is from a Buddhist text of the late first millennium CE\, t he Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa (ch. 31)\, in which local languages are keyed to different possessing entities\, with speech and speakers in north central India regarded as normative. Others\, which the text summarily describes\, represent the speech of different possessing entities. Whatever might be said of ethnic bias as the predominant factor in this unusual text\, in th e final analysis it is a sociolinguistic text couched in terms of possessi ng entities. In both cases we will examine the dynamics of emotion and met aphor\, of secondary embodiment as an experienced phenomenon and as an und erlying existential fact of life.\n\n \n\n“Me monto”: Dual Agency and Literality in Getting onto and Surrendering to Spirits in Puerto Rican Br ujería\nRaquel Romberg (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnbe rg)\n\nGrasping the meaning of “metaphor” is as puzzling as understand ing “possession.” Grappling with the intricacies of what anthropologis ts\, linguists\, and philosophers of language have made of metaphor is an inevitable recourse I take along with unpacking the emic terms used by Pue rto Rican brujos (witch healers) in reference to their various embodiments during possession\, trance\, dreams\, and visions. On the most immediate level\, possession as a metaphor can be perspectival. For brujos\, to get onto the spirit can be literal\, as a double form of agency of “montarse ”—in Spanish\, a reflexive verb indicating that the subject both perfo rms and receives the action of the verb. In this case\, it means to get on to or mount and surrender to the spirits\, while for anthropologists it ca n also be metaphorical or poetic (an “as if” trope à la Ricouer) to d escribe this type of agency and manifestation. Ethnographic vignettes will explore the relationship between the corporeality\, affect\, and discours e of possession in Puerto Rican brujería (witch- healing). They will illu strate how spirits manifest comparatively during possession\, trance\, dre ams\, and visions\, and how they are spoken about\, in order to tease out when emic experiences\, emotions\, and accounts of possession are literal\ , metaphorical\, synechdocal\, or metonymic.\n\n \n\nIslamic demonology: Between riding and being ridden\nTobias Nünlist (University of Zurich)\n\ nAs the Quran repeatedly mentions the jinn (demons)\, their existence is g enerally accepted in the Islamic world.\nThis contribution highlights the idea that demons often appear as mounted beings. While the Quran does not allude to this idea\, the sunna (sayings going back to the Prophet) is awa re that a group of jinn attended a preaching by Mohammed and asked him for food for them-selves and their mounts. Arabic and Persian sources from th e 9th c. onwards precise this idea.\nThe Arabian Nights know of the existe nce of Riemenbeinler. As their legs are boneless\, they are in need of a h uman being who carries them around and whom they torment by strangulation. When demons mount a human being\, it often falls ill. Illnesses\, particu larly mental disorders\, are explained as attacks by the jinn. The jinn ar e often supposed to enter the body of their victim physically.\nMuslims ar e aware of techniques which enable them to expel the malefactor again from the body of its be-jinned (majnūn) victim. Traditionally oriented schola rs\, however\, accept this possibility reluctantly only.\n\n \n\n“It ru ns in the blood”: Jinn possession according to Raqi exorcists\nWilliam S ax (Heidelberg University)\n\nMy paper has to do with understandings (I am reluctant to call them “metaphors”) of Jinn-possession amongst Urdu- and Arabic-speaking Muslim exorcists (Raqi) in India\, Sri Lanka\, Tunisia and the UK.  Many of them\, citing a verse from the Koran\, have told me that the Jinn “runs in the blood” and claim to have seen it moving th rough the veins of the body.  It would be more accurate to say that the J inn “inhabits” the victim's body in a very physical sense\, than that it “possesses” it.  This idea is further supported by the notion that there are certain parts of the body (in particular\, the little toe) that are “exit routes” of Jinn during exorcisms.  Further examples of the "embodiment" of Jinn will be discussed in the paper.\n\n \n\n“So that you may become uncrazed”: Conflicting perceptions of divine madness in V edic literature\nPer-Johan Norelius (Uppsala University)\n\nRelatively lit tle attention has been paid to the problem of divine madness – i.e.\, ma dness\, real or feigned\, induced by deities – in Vedic India. Well know n from ascetic sects in classical India\, in Vedic times the phenomenon ap pears to have been particularly associated with maun(e)ya- or “munihood\ ,” which included asceticism and ecstatic practices. While mentions of d ivine madness are sparse in the Brahmanical literature\, the textual evide nce suggests that it was present in Vedic society\, though as a controvers ial fringe phenomenon. The sources present us with divergent perspectives on the phenomenon\, which is mostly\, though not exclusively\, regarded wi th skepticism. The one notable exception is the locus classicus of mauneya -\, the Keśin hymn of the Ṛgveda (10.136). The muni or possessed asceti c is here allowed to speak in his own voice\, describing his ecstatic madn ess as a result of gods having entered (viś-\, used for divine or benign forms of possession) him and made him devéṣita-\, “driven by gods.” Atharvavedic spells against madness\, however\, paint a very different pi cture of munihood\, which they associate with mental illness and malign fo rms of possession\, attributed not to gods but to harmful spirits. Finally \, attention will be drawn to a late instance of deveṣita- in a narrativ e of the Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa\, where different voices on divine madness are represented.\n\n \n\nPurity and Possession: Balinese concepts of sel f\, trance-possession and emotions\nAnnette Hornbacher (University of Heid elberg)\n\nTrance-possession is a core feature of Bali‘s ritual practice s\, and has attracted the interest of anthropologists since the 1930s when the American “Culture and Personality School” (represented by Mead\, Bateson and others) interpreted states of possession as expressions of cul turally repressed feelings of anger\, frustration and grief and diagnosed Balinese with a “schizoid” character. But unfortunately\, this identif ication of subjective emotions with states of possession implies a Western paradigm of both reality and the human psyche that does not match Balines e explanations and perceptions. In contrast to this\, I will explore how s elf\, emotions\, trance-possession and other culture specific forms of dis sociation like amok are conceptualized\, practiced and cultivated in Balin ese society\, thereby offering an alternative approach to psychological mo dels of explanation.\n\n \n\nEmotions\, Agency and Control in Akkadian te xts from ancient Mesopotamia\nUlrike Steinert (Johannes Gutenberg-Universi ty Mainz)\n\nCuneiform texts written in Akkadian\, one of the oldest known Semitic languages\, use different linguistic constructions to describe em otional experiences\, in ways that reflect underlying conceptual structure s and metaphors. Akkadian emotion expressions attribute to experiencers va rying degrees of control or agency over their body and self. Descriptions of emotional episodes can range from active performance to total loss of c ontrol. In the latter case\, emotions are often constructed as agents that can at times assume the status of a personified or superhuman power.\nRel ated to this conceptualization is the culturally salient idea of divine or demonic agency as a force that can cause a range of changes in a human pe rson’s state of being. Affliction by deities or demons connected to a lo ss of agency or control in the afflicted person can manifest in various fo rms of illness\, altered states of consciousness and in overwhelming emoti onal experiences. The boundaries between these conceptual domains are thus fuzzy\, which is reflected in comparable expressions: superhuman agents\, diseases and emotions are equally said to “seize” or “overwhelm” a person. Moreover\, emotional experiences are sometimes likened to altere d states of consciousness\, for example\, when a person overwhelmed by emo tion is compared to a raving ecstatic who is under the control of a deity. \nThe talk presents an overview of the different modes of description and conceptualization of agency and control in emotional experiences and relat ed states of being\, through the discussion of selected Akkadian cuneiform sources from the second and first millennium BCE.\n\n  LOCATION:CERES-Palais\, Raum "Ruhrpott" (4.13) URL:https://sfb1475.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/de/veranstaltung/b05-workshop-de-1/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR