The epidemiology of spirit possession in the aftermath of mass political violence in Mozambique

Social Science and Medicine

Volumn 71, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 592-599

  Igreja, Victor ^a   Dias Lambranca, Beatrice ^b   Hershey, Douglas A ^c   Racin, Limore ^d   Richters, Annemiek ^e   Reis, Ria ^e,f  

^a UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND   (Australia)

^b Independent Scholar   (Australia)

^c OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^d INTERDISCIPLINARY CENTER   (Israel)

^e LEIDEN UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER   (Netherlands)

^f UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

Health seeking behaviour; Mozambique; Postwar context; Spirit possession and symptoms; Violence

Indexed keywords

EPIDEMIOLOGY; HEALTH CARE; POST-WAR; PUBLIC HEALTH; VIOLENCE;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; ARTICLE; BONE PAIN; CONTROLLED STUDY; CULTURAL FACTOR; DYSPNEA; FEMALE; FUNCTIONAL HEALTH PATTERNS; HEADACHE; HEALTH CARE; HELP SEEKING BEHAVIOR; HUMAN; INFANT MORTALITY; MAJOR CLINICAL STUDY; MALE; MENSTRUATION DISORDER; MOZAMBIQUE; NIGHTMARE; PREVALENCE; QUALITATIVE RESEARCH; QUANTITATIVE STUDY; REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH; SELF REPORT; SOCIAL BELIEF; SPIRIT POSSESSION; SPONTANEOUS ABORTION; STOMACH PAIN; TRADITIONAL MEDICINE; VIOLENCE; WAR;

ADULT; FEMALE; HEALTH STATUS; HUMANS; MALE; MENTAL DISORDERS; MOZAMBIQUE; PATIENT ACCEPTANCE OF HEALTH CARE; QUALITATIVE RESEARCH; SEVERITY OF ILLNESS INDEX; SUPERSTITIONS; SURVIVORS; VIOLENCE; WAR;

MOZAMBIQUE;

EID: 77954028757     PISSN: 02779536     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.04.024     Document Type: Article

References (30)

1. American Psychiatric Association DSM-IV-TR 2000, American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC.
2. Boddy J. Wombs and alien spirits 1989, The University of Wisconsin Press, Wisconsin.
3. Bourguignon E. Religion, altered states of consciousness and social change 1973, Ohio State University Press, Columbus.
4. De Jong J. Trauma, war, and violence: Public mental health in socio-cultural context 2002, Kluwer Academic, New York.
5. Guarnaccia P., Canino G., Rubio-Stipec M., Bravo M. The Prevalence of ataques de nervios in the Puerto Rico disaster study: the role of culture in psychiatric epidemiology. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 1993, 181:157-165.
6. van der Hart O., Nijenhuis E., Steele K. Dissociation: an insufficiently recognized major feature of complex posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress 2005, 18:413-423.
7. Herman J. Trauma and recovery 1992, Basic Books, USA.
8. Honwana A. Undying past: spirit possession and memory of war in southern Mozambique. Magic and modernity 2003, 60-80. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. B. Meyer, P. Pels (Eds.).
9. Igreja V. Exploring the role of gamba spirits and healers in the postwar recovery period in Gorongosa. Transcultural Psychiatry 2003, 40:459-487.
10. Igreja V. Mental health in a postwar society. Mental health: Global policies and human rights 2004, 166-182. WHURR Publishers, London. P. Morrall, M. Hazelton (Eds.).
11. Igreja V. Traditional courts and the struggle against state impunity for civil wartime offences in Mozambique. Journal of African Law 2010, 54:51-73.
12. Igreja V., Dias-Lambranca B. The social world of dreams and nightmares in a post-conflict setting. Intervention 2006, 4:145-157.
13. Igreja V., Dias-Lambranca B., Richters A. Gamba spirits, gender relations and healing in post-civil war Gorongosa. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute N. S. 2008, 14:350-367.
14. Igreja V., Kleijn W., Dias-Lambranca B., Hershey D., Calero C., Richters A. Agricultural cycle and the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress 2009, 22:172-179.
15. Igreja V., Kleijn W., Richters A. Women's posttraumatic suffering after the war in Mozambique. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 2006, 194:502-509.
16. Kleinman A. Patients and healers in the context of culture 1980, University of California Press, Berkeley.
17. Kwon H. Ghosts of war in Vietnam 2008, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
18. Lambek M. Human spirits 1981, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
19. Marlin, R. (2001). Possessing the past: Legacies of violence and reproductive illness in central Mozambique. Ph.D. thesis, New Jersey: New Brunswick.
20. Martinez-Taboas A., Canino G., Wang M., Garcia P., Bravo M. Prevalence and victimization correlates of pathological dissociation in a community sample of youths. Journal of Traumatic Stress 2006, 19:439-448.
21. Masquelier A. Prayer has spoiled everything: Possession, power, and identity in an Islamic town of Niger 2001, Duke University Press, Durham.
22. Mollica R., Caspi-Yavin Y., Lavelle J., Tor S., Yang T., Chan S., et al. Harvard trauma questionnaire (HTQ): Manual Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese versions 1996, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
23. Perera S. Spirit possessions and avenging ghosts. Remaking a world: Violence, social suffering and recovery 2001, 157-200. University of California Press, Berkeley. V. Das, A. Kleinman, M. Lock, M. Ramphele, P. Reynolds (Eds.).
24. Reis R. The 'wounded healer' as ideology: the work of ngoma in Swaziland. The quest for fruition through ngoma: Political aspects of healing in Southern Africa 2000, James Curry, Oxford. R. van Dijk, R. Reis, M. Spierenburg (Eds.).
25. Rosenthal J. Trance against the state. Ethnography in unstable places 2002, 316-351. Duke University Press, Durham/London. C. Greenhouse, E. Mertz, K. Warren (Eds.).
26. Ross C. Epidemiology of multiple personality disorder and dissociation. Psychiatric Clinics of North America 1991, 14:503-517.
27. Schreuder B., Igreja V., van Dijk J., Kleijn W. Intrusive re-experiencing of chronic strife or war. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment 2001, 7:102-108.
28. Sharp L. Exorcists, psychiatrists, and the problems of possession in northwest Madagascar. Social Science & Medicine 1994, 38:525-542.
29. Spring A. Epidemiology of spirit possession among the Luvale of Zambia. Women in ritual and symbolic roles 1978, 165-190. Plenum Press, New York. J. Hoch-Smith, A. Spring (Eds.).
30. Zur J. Violent memories: Mayan war widows in Guatemala 1998, Westview Press, Colorado.