In Afro-Brazilian spirit-possession religion, people seeking healing during times of distress engage with spirits through trance, spiritual afflictions; ritualized dance movements, and diverse gestures and postures. These engagements represent cultural models of movement and sensory experience. A cultural anthropology student will investigate these models through an in-depth study of individuals' bodily ways of being to examine individual variation in displaying those models and to explore how individuals' body styles interact with their activities in a spiritual healing community. Employing participant observation, person-centered and semi-structured interviews, ranking tasks, focus groups, extensive videotaping and notation of movement in daily and ceremonial life and consensus analysis, this study seeks to understand bodily aspects of sociocultural life. The project will assess the proposition that the greater the medium's bodily displays correspond with the culturally understood bodily characteristics of the spirits that he or she embodies, the greater his or her rank of healing power. This tests the hypothesis that bodily engagement is a crucial component in perceptions of healing efficacy. In addition to contributing to the education of a young social scientist, this research will advance our understanding of how healing is accomplished by spiritualist healers. The new knowledge will be of interest to health and welfare professionals in all societies where such healing practices are prevalent.
