Divine Politicking: A Rhetorical Approach to Deity Possession in the Himalayas

[bostonbro]

https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/7/9/117/htm

Interesting to know

[bostonbro]

Scholars of possession, such as Frederick Smith and others, have argued that possession in South Asia, unlike elsewhere, is not primarily about politics. For example, Smith writes:

Possession is often interpreted as an expression of social control, or at least its attempt, a category that includes political power…This political influence in South Asia, however, is hardly felt because, despite the widespread practice of possession, it has not gained sufficiently broad formal recognition to influence religious or political bodies, as it has, for example, in certain places in Africa where possession argues much more visibly a politics of identity based on a sense of colonialist victimization, or in Tibet where the Nechung oracle has had a history of influencing the politics of the Dalai Lamas.