Affect, trance, healing, and the self

Assigned readings

Please read the following.

Music and Trance, by Judith Becker (10 pages).

Head, Heart, Odor, and Shadow, by Marina Roseman (20 pages).

Congregational Music in a Pentecostal Church, by Queen Booker (14 pages).

Review of Steven Friedson's book, Dancing Prophets (5 pages).

Note: Friedson's book is available in the SUB bookstore. While the book is too long to assign in a course such as this, many of you will find it fascinating, particularly after watching the video. The review provides an overview of the book, as well as an example of how critical reviews are constructed.

Optional: Leaf through Gilbert Rouget's book, Music and Trance (Music Library reserve; also available in the SUB Bookstore). It's become a classic.

Listenings, viewings

We will watch the following in class, mostly Tuesday. If you miss them in class, please try to watch them in the Music Library.

• Prophet Healers of Northern Malawi (Steven Friedson)
• Mystic Iran (excerpts)
• others TBA

Your selected readings

Select a reading relevant to this week's topic, read it, and insert a link and a brief summary here. If you can find links to appropriate audio-visual materials, please include those as well.

Trance and Music in the Hausa Boorii Spirit Possession Cult in Niger - Veit Erman This article references the same article that Becker does – Rouget, La musique et la transe (1980) – but much closer to its publication. (Becker is writing in 1994, Erman in 1982). Veit uses Rouget’s work as a jumping-off point to talk about a specific example of the relationship between music to trance (the Hausa Boorii Spirit Possession Cult in Niger) and to agree with Rouget's thesis that music does not cause trance, although music may support trance. He contends that, from the Hausa example, trance seems to be learned in a culturally-specific way for culturally-specifice purposes. dstark

"Possession" in a Revivalistic Negro Church This is a great article. It takes a more scientific approach at studying trance. The basis of the study was The United House of Prayer for All People was founded in 1920's by C.E. (Sweet Daddy) Grace in the US. According to this particular sect, the founder is God's last earthly prophet (it's a little bit like a cult). It is popular among lower class blacks in USA with customery shouting and singing and a jazz band providing the music. This article gives a kind of 20th century western spin on the other trance material we've gone over.--Bkey 12:15, 8 February 2006 (MST)

"A Historical Interlude: Trance in Europe and the United States" from Judith Becker's Deep Listeners I picked this book up (since it was a good price through amazon) so I thought this would be an appropriate time to start reading it. I plan to continue during reading week, butfor now, this intermediary chaptere caught my attention. In it Becker tracks our Western attitudes towards trance from the early Middle Ages to present day with the purpose of deconstructing the inherent bias against trance by bringing to light the history of the development of those attitudes. Its interesting to note that in Western society trance is gendered, usually feminized and most case histories are about women. Becker also draws out the use of music in relation to trance, which is something others might not consider. I learned about Mesmer and his use of magnetism (leading up to the current understanding of hypnotism) in my Intro to Psych class, but here Becker points out how he used music during his sessions as well. It will be interesting to continue to read it durig the break. -Cari

A Trance Dance with Masks: Research and Performance at the Cuyamungue Institute This article profiles a trance dance that developed (oddly enough) out of doctoral research the author (Goodman) was performing. The research originated with the author's intrique at the fact that those who spoke "in tongues" during his fieldwork, despite their native language, all shared similar acoustic elements (accent, intonation)in regards to the "tongues" they spoke in. After this discovery, Goodman attempted to induce these corresponding trance states in the laboratory (through rhythm) and discovered that it was only when participates observed certain 'trance postures' that their reported visions and physiological experiences became similar. From this, she and some of her students began to develop trance dances from the visions they saw in certain trance postures. This article is interesting because of the way the author is claiming that the dances that were developed are "religious experiences" even though they originated in the contrived and most secular of all settings, the laboratory. This certainly begs the question of what constitutes a "religious experience" that has come up time and time again in our class disccusions.--KellyM 21:23, 8 February 2006 (MST)

Ceremonial Trance Behavior in an African Church: Private Experience and Public Expression, Bennetta Jules-Rosette Rosette studies trance in the African Apostolic Church and its forms or uses as prophecy and healing or exorcisms. She describes the process of invoking trance and translates examples of 'glossolalia' used in some of the situations. Her focus is on the need for both a personal and social context. For example, in some cases, the entire congregation experiences the trance, starting with one person and gradually spreading to everyone else. Bennetta notes that although there are variances in the experiences of trance in this church, there are many common occurrences, one being 'speaking in tongues.'--Lpauls 22:05, 8 February 2006 (MST)