Paper short abstract:

This paper proposes to reflect on the nature of the self (its emotion and consciousness) that is constituted in the processes of possession rituals in Tamil Nadu, South India.

Paper long abstract:

The request that deities (or/and demons) dance and incorporate themselves in human bodies is the basic goal of many of the rituals (exorcism, sacrifice and so on) I have documented in rural Tamil Nadu (South India) since 1990. Trance-possession becomes the means by which ritual participants assimilate these good (and bad entities) into their persons. "Who are you?" is the question that is then asked of the possessing powers. The question belongs to the world of public, external, and fixed identities, and eventually "dancing" gods (and demons) do reveal who they are and what they know, think, feel, and want. Communicating through the voice of their human mediums, they prove to be "persons" one can know, argue with, and urge to stay or scram. This paper proposes to reflect on the nature of the self (its emotion and consciousness) that is constituted in the processes of Tamil possession rituals. It documents how the fusion of cosmology (possessor) and psychology (possessed) effected by means of trance results in a complexification, or "enlargement" of the gods (and demons), but a simplification, or reduction, of their human hosts. It argues that the appropriation of fixed or typical, even archetypal, names and identities is the culmination of Tamil rituals of spirit possession, their raison d'être.