In the
sociology of religion,
Luc de Heusch
Luc de Heusch (7 May 1927 – 7 August 2012) was a Belgian filmmaker, writer, and anthropologist, professor emeritus at the Free University of Brussels. His 1967 film ''Thursday We Shall Sing Like Sunday'' was entered into the 5th Moscow Inter ...
coined the term adorcism for practices to placate or accommodate spiritual entities in a
possessed
Possessed may refer to:
Possession
* Possession (disambiguation), having some degree of control over something else
** Spirit possession, whereby gods, demons, animas, or other disincarnate entities may temporarily take control of a human body
*** ...
person or place. Unlike
exorcism, the relationship with the entities is potentially positive. This is sometimes used as
initiation
Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformation ...
into a spirit cult.
Jean-Michel Oughourlian defines adorcism as "voluntary, desired, and curative possessions".
[Jean-Michel Oughourlian. The Puppet of Desire: The Psychology of Hysteria, Possession, and Hypnosis ugene Webb, trans. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991 p. 97).]
See also
*
Drawing down the Goddess
*
Exorcism
*
Hausa animism
Hausa animism , "Maguzanci" or Bori is a pre-Islamic traditional religion of the Hausa people of West Africa that involves magic and spirit possession. Most of the adherents of the religion accepted Islam after the 18th century Jihad by the Isla ...
References
Exorcism
Sociology of religion
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