Possession Stories

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I think the lectures that Dr. Valk and Dr. Lyngdoh gave were really interesting and opened my eyes to a whole different realm of fairy tales that I’d never really experienced before. Before going to the lecture, I had a different view of possession. Being Catholic, I had always thought of possession as a very religious thing, only consisting of a person and a demon. The person is usually not responsible and has no agency when possessed, completely controlled by what is possessing them. The lectures of both professor’s, however, changed my views and showed me a totally different side of things. Dr. Lyngdoh’s talk especially was very insightful into possession on India. I found the idea of the sankhini extremely interesting, especially how they view the act of possession. Instead of a complete possession, their version reminds me more of a werewolf. The differences between snake and tiger possession were really interesting, as well as how the different stories reflect the culture of the area. I find it especially interesting, how the Catholics and the Presbyterians of the area collide with or embrace the fairy tales and indigenous beliefs. This culture's ideas about possession remind me of the stories read in class where the real bad guy is not as obvious such as "Snow, Glass, Apples".

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