Urban Spirit Possession

Vietnam in the Doi moi era experienced not only market reform and significant economic growth, but also a related, symbiotic revival of religious and ritual practice. This also included a new blossoming of spirit mediumship and ritual spirit possession. My postdoctoral research focused on Four Palace mediumship, an intrinsic part of what is today called the Mother Goddess Religion (Dao Mau). I show that Four Palace mediumship has emerged as a dynamic field of negotiation and contestation in the context of the party‐state administered symbiosis between socialism and market economy. Religious meanings and practices are thus not stable in time, but receptive to the creative force of human imagination, economic change and politico‐ideological vision.  

Related publications (selection)
2007
Spirited Modernities: Mediumship and Ritual Performativity in Late Socialist Vietnam. In: Modernity and Re-enchantment. Religion in Post-Revolutionary Vietnam, edited by Philip Taylor, 194-220. Singapore: ISEAS.
2008
Engaging the Spirits of the Dead: Soul-Calling Rituals and the Performative Construction of Efficacy. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 14,4: 755-773.
2008
Fate, Memory and the Post-Colonial Construction of the Self: The Life Narrative of a Vietnamese Spirit Medium. Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 3,2: 34-65.
2011
Performing the Divine. Mediums, Markets and Modernity in Urban Vietnam. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) Press.