Showing papers on "Possession (law) published in 1980"

Towards an experiential analysis of shamanism

Abstract: A comprehensive delineation of the ecstatic states of shamans is developed along the lines of cross-cultural psychiatry. Psychiatric concepts, such as dissociation, role playing and hypnosis, are integrated with the ethnographic literature on spirit possession, soul journey and other forms of shamanic ecstasy in order to shed light upon some old anthropological controversies regarding the psychopathology and authenticity of the shaman's trance. Forty-two cultures, from four different cultural areas, are compared in order to determine a set of experiential and psychological factors that collectively identify what is meant by shamanic ecstasy. Shamanic ecstasy is identified as a specific class of ASC involving: (a) voluntary control of entrance and duration of trance, (b) posttrance memory, and (c) transic communicative interplay with spectators. [shamanism, altered states of consciousness, spirit possession, ethnopsychiatry]

Barbarians and Romans, A.D. 418-584: The Techniques of Accommodation

Abstract: Despite intermittent turbulence and destruction, much of the Roman West came under barbarian control in an orderly fashion. Goths, Burgundians, and other aliens were accommodated within the provinces without disrupting the settled population or overturning the patterns of landownership. Walter Goffart examines these arrangements and shows that they were based on the procedures of Roman taxation, rather than on those of military billeting (the so-called hospitalitas system), as has long been thought. Resident proprietors could be left in undisturbed possession of their lands because the proceeds of taxation,rather than land itself, were awarded to the barbarian troops and their leaders.

The unity of nature

Abstract: “In my beginning is my end.” Thus begins T.S. Eliot’s philosophical poem East Coker, the second of his Four Quartels [1]. The application to our present topic: philosophy and, I think, fundamental science move in circles or, if the hope for progress is not delusive, in spirals. When we begin to speak about language, we have been speaking, i.e., we have been using language, for years. When we decide to learn scientifically from experience, we are already in possession of the human experience of how to learn from individual and common experience. Language and experience, science and philosophy are parts of human cultural history, the beginning of which is beyond our memory. And when, on the other side, an end is achieved, say a scientific theory is completed, one of its tests is its semantic consistency, that means its ability to justify precisely that language and to explain precisely that experience which had initially been needed to endow its concepts with an understandable meaning.

Spirits and spouses: possession as a system of communication among the Malagasy speakers of Mayotte

Abstract: Spirit possession can be viewed as a system of communication based on a minimal triad of three “persons”—host, spirit, and intermediary. The model is illustrated with case material from Mayotte in which the possession of women by spirits produces ties of “friendship” between the spirits and the women's husbands, thus adding new dimensions to the conjugal relationships. [possession, social structure, symbolic, trance, women]

The meaning and definition of “property” in seventeenth-century england*

Abstract: advanced in seventeenth-century legal dictionaries suggests two important developments.' The first is the emergence of a definition of absolute individual ownership, resting on the notion of "the greatest interest" attributed to the person who had the property. The second is the erosion of the distinction between real and personal property. It may be worthwhile to supplement this account by reference to a controversy generated by Holdsworth's remarks on the emergence of a concept of ownership in the seventeenth century, which brings together the two points about "the greatest interest" and the distinction between realty and other property. Holdsworth's thesis was that the concept of ownership changed in the seventeenth century, as a result of developments in the actions of trover and ejectment. In trover and ejectment, he claimed: "the common law had come to recognize that ownership was an absolute right as against all the world, and not merely the better right of a plaintiff as against the defendant to possession".2 The argument put forward to explain this is as follows. Both trover and ejectment were relevant actions when the plaintiff was out of possession (when another had his goods or was on land to which he was entitled). The plaintiff alleged a claim superior to that of the defendant in order to recover. But it was now open to the defendant to attack the plaintiff's claim to the land or goods by saying that it belonged to a third party. Holdsworth placed the change of opinion which allowed such a response, and thus the change in what the plaintiff might need to show, in the period towards the end of the seventeenth century. The consequences of this, in Holdsworth's view, were profound: If the plaintiff need only prove a better right than the defendant's, then, modern English law would, like mediaeval law, have continued to refuse to recognize anything like an abstract dominium or ownership which is good against all the world. If, on the other hand, the plaintiff, in order to succeed in this action must prove an absolute right, then it would be true to say that through this action the conception of an abstract dominium or ownership, which is good against all the world, has come into English law.3

Spirit Possession and Mental Health: A Psycho-Anthropological Perspective

Abstract: This paper offers a psycho-anthropological perspective on spirit possession and mental health in a variety of cultures and communities. Its prime focus is the distinction between two forms of possession: ritual and peripheral. The former is displayed in a ceremonial context and includes the social function of reinforcing cultural morality and established power. The latter, by contrast, represents a more long-term state in which the individual believes that he is unwillingly possessed by intruding spirits andfunctions as an indirect form of social protest. While both are reactions to stress, ritual possession operates as a socially sanctioned psychological defense mechanism, while peripheral possession constitutes a pathological reaction to individual conflict.

Collective possession and ownership: A study of its judged feasibility and desirability

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to chart the psychological dimensions of collective ownership, thereby opening this topic to further systematic inquiry. It was an exploratory study examining (a) the meaning or mechanics of collective possession, and (b) evaluations of collective possession. Interview questions about collective possession were administered to (a) 150 Americans, 30 at each of five age levels (kindergarten, second, fifth, and eleventh grades, and 40- to 50-year-old adults), and (b) 120 Israelis, 60 from the kibbutz and 60 from the city (in each case, 30 of kindergarten age and 30 of fifth-grade age). A content analysis was performed on the interview responses. The resulting dimensions both of the meaning of collective possession and of evaluations of collective possession are presented, and the relative saliences of these dimensions for the different age and cultural groups are discussed.

The Psychodynamics of Demon Possession

Abstract: Field observations and interviews with possessed individuals in contemporary Trinidadian society indicate that the incorporation of the local folklore and superstition is the prime prerequisite for the possession complex, but that the reaction per se is triggered by situations of unusual stress or emotional conflict. Although a consistent clinical picture of psychopathology is not apparent, the four reported case histories consistently reflect a tendency toward hysterical features, sometimes in conjunction with neurotic depression. In all cases, however, possession affords two positive advantages to the individual-direct escape from a conflict situation and diminution of guilt by projecting blame on to the intruding spirit. Mlental illness has often been attributed to supernatural powers. Although a conception of man as the supernatural battleground of eternal demonic war for the possession of his soul was most prevalent in the Middle Ages, archeological and anthropological evidence indicates that even Stone Age man had a demon-ridden cosmos and a sorcerous treatment of madness. With modification, this "evil spirit" theory has endured for centuries, and instances of demon possession are still apparent in both primitive and advanced twentieth century societies. This paper seeks to examine the psychodynamics of demon possession in contemporary Trinidadian society, and focuses on the predisposing, precipitating and cultural factors which contribute to this condition. This includes analysis of Trinidadian folk beliefs and superstitions as well as isolation of specific stress factors in individual case histories. The paper also comments on the pragmatic nature of the possession-reaction and the advantages afforded by allowing the individual to escape from unpleasant reality as well as projecting feelings of blame or guilt on to the

"After College, What?": New Graduates and the Family Claim

Abstract: century confronted a dilemma made famous by Jane Addams in her autobiography, Twenty Years at Hull House, and her essay, "Filial Relations": when graduates returned home from college eager to apply their knowledge and skills to the larger social realm, parents, refusing to sanction the legitimacy of this "social claim," reasserted familial authority. The daughter, still regarded as a "family possession" despite her years at college, submitted, though she felt wronged. The result, said Addams, was an "unhappy woman," restless and miserable, "consumed by vain regrets and desires." ' In this essay, I shall examine the formative place of familial relationships in the after-college lives of educated women of this era, and shall suggest a modification of the "social" vs. "family" claim which Addams described.2 Although as Addams suggested, familial attachments often prevented individuals from using their higher education in a manner commensurate with the promise of the college years, the role of the family

‘Possession’ in psychiatric patients in Britain

Abstract: Various different types of explanation that have been offered for so-called possession states are reviewed. Patients continue to be seen who believe that they are possessed. A group of 16 such patients are described. The relative contributions of individual and cultural factors are discussed. It is concluded that in this group of patients, while cultural factors may exert a pathoplastic influence, the main causes of disturbance lie within the individual.

Monastic Possession of Parish Churches in England in the Twelfth Century

Abstract: The rapid increase in monastic acquisition of parish churches in the twelfth century reflected a number of trends, both temporal and spiritual, in the Christian society of western Europe. It was an expression of the laity's continuing devotion to the monastic ideal, now reinforced by the foundation and spread of new religious orders, and it was in part a consequence of the redefinition of relations between the laity and the clergy following in the wake of the Gregorian Reform. More than that, however, it raised within the Church questions as to the proper relationship between the monastic clergy and the pastoral and juridical structure of the Church. To understand the phenomenon, therefore, it is necessary to examine the motives of donors of parish churches and those of the religious who received them, to bear in mind the climate of respectable opinion (both lay and-ecclesiastical) which came increasingly to deny possession of parish churches to the laity and yet could countenance their passage into the hands of religious houses, and to consider the repercussions of widespread monastic acquisition of churches in the Church at large. This article is concerned in particular to re-examine the means by which monasteries obtained grants of churches, viewed against the background of the Church's assault on lay ownership of churches and tithes, and to reconsider the evolution of the vicarage system, as the ecclesiastical authorities strove to accommodate within the mission of the reformed Church monastic efforts to exploit the churches in their possession.

La Chicana: A Bibliographic Survey

Abstract: Rape and territorial conquest have often gone together in history. The Spanish men who took possession of what is now Mexico in the sixteenth century also freely took possession of native Indian women, and thus it is said that "La Raza,"[2] the mestizo race, was born of Spanish father and Indian mother. It is from Mexico's native peoples, their conquest and transformation by Spain and their reconquest in the Southwest by the United States in 1848, that Chicanas descend. America being their native land, it is not they but the descendants of European conquerors and immigrants who are the true "aliens" in the United States. Women historians have argued that knowledge of women's lives calls into question conventional views of history and of historical periods.[3] It seems clear to me that coming to grips with Chicana history would demand a fundamental altering of historical conceptions not yet even imagined by "herstory." It would require not just a feminist, but an anti-colonialist history of America. It is not only racism or ethnocentrism that prevents our constructing this new history; it is also that we hardly even know how to conceptualize a history of America that does not begin with Columbus.[4] This essay will unfortunately not be able to lead the way into such uncharted territory. Its aim is necessarily more modest: to provide an introduction to Englishlanguage materials on Chicanas. While I assume no prior familiarity with Chicana issues or literature, I do take for granted a certain acquaintance with the issues and literature of what is commonly referred to by Chicanas as Anglo feminism. A preliminary note is necessary on the problems the reader/researcher is likely to encounter in exploring literature on La Chicana. First of all, for those lacking Spanish, access to resources is significantly restricted. Secondly, locating existing English-language sources in our ethnocentric library collections and bookstores can present formidable obstacles, as I soon found out in the course of this project. These two barriers to the existing literature are extremely frustrating, but ultimately less disturbing than the general paucity of sources. Historical materials were suppressed or destroyed in the course of the Spanish and U.S. conquests.[5] Others lie buried in archives, invisible until the contours of Chicana history are better known. Studies by the Federal Government often deprive us of data on Chicanas by submerging it with data on Chicanos (the "minorities and women" approach), on Hispanics, or even whites. Finally, one finds Chicanas overlooked or tokenized in both the feminist and the Chicano literature of the last decade. I will emphasize easily accessible works wherever possible in this essay. However, failure to include the hard-to-locate Chicana/o sources would only contribute to their continued invisibility; I include many of these sources with the hope that readers will pressure their libraries to increase their collections in this area. Finally, I am emphasizing very recent works.

Law Professors: A Profile of the Teaching Branch of the legal Profession

Abstract: In the United States, law schools provide the principal route of entry into the legal profession. Indeed, education in a law school is the only experience that virtually all members of the modern legal profession have in common. The gatekeeping function of law schools places the nation's law teachers in a most influential position. Although law professors play a vital role in selecting and molding the members of the profession, little research has been done on them. This article presents the results of the American Bar Foundation's first major study of law teachers. The author finds them to be a most highly credentialed group of lawyers, the overwhelming majority of whom are graduates of a small group of elite law schools. She also finds that possession of a degree from one of these schools appears to be not only highly determinative of who become law teachers but also of the nature of teachers' academic careers.

A case of "possession"

Abstract: The following account is based on the psychotherapy given in thirty sessions of one hour each to a young woman claiming to be possessed. Notes were made after each session. I begin with a relatively detailed description of the patient by way of presenting my material and the psychotherapeutic mode of procedure adopted. In the subsequent discussion I will develop my theoretical reasoning on the genesis and treatment. (The author requests that mention of the following case be confined to the specialist press. The account has been changed in a few details to avoid identifica-

Demon-possession and exorcism in the New Testament

Abstract: Since the epochal work of D. F. Strauss on the mythical nature of the miracle stories in the Gospels\ Christian scholarship has been distinctly nervous about making too much of the miracles attributed to Jesus. 2 The healing miracles were generally less awkward to handle: few would dispute that individuals had experienced heal1~g through Jesus' ministry. But the understanding of at least some of these beatings as exorcisms-that is, as the expulsion of demons or unclean spirits-has continued to pose problems for those who want to hold a properly scientific view of the world and of illness. Rudolf Bultmann's comment is often quoted:

Cacodemonomania and exorcism in children.

Abstract: Despite its popularity in the lay media, alleged possession of children by demons has received scant attention in the scientific literature. Five cases are presented. This phenomenon probably represents a variant of folie a deux. A religious consultant may advantageously be included as a member of the treatment team.

Juvenile Delinquency in the USSR: A Criminological Survey

Abstract: This article examines some statistical data concerning juvenile delinquency in the USSR, analyzes social and demographic characteristics of juvenile delinquents, and describes special methods of preventing and combating juvenile delinquency in the USSR. In those cases when the article does not contain direct references to the source of the data, the author cites the results of various research studies which are in his possession.

Land Tenure and Women At Mari

Abstract: "In an economy based on agriculture, questions relating to social stratification cannot be treated separately from those affecting possession and utilization of the soil" (I. J. Gelb) 1). Any assessment of the role and status of one segment of a society must necessarily situate that segment within the social context of that society generally. The original goal of this study was to determine the role and extent of participation of women in the agrarian economy at Mari, particularly in the possession and use of land 2). However, since there is at present no description of the general situation at Mari, it quickly became evident that the scope of this study would have to be expanded to describe first the possession and use of land in general as it is reflected in the Mari documents. Only after this groundwork has been laid (Part I) can we then turn to an analysis of the role of women within this system (Part II). As there does not appear to be any significant difference in this regard between the Assyrian interregnum and the Zimri-Lim period, texts from both periods will be used without discrimination, unless otherwise stated, as evidence of the common and universal practice within the Mari kingdom.

God and Spacelessness

Abstract: In recent years the doctrine that God exists in a timeless eternity has achieved something of the status of philosophical heterodoxy, if not of downright heresy. The arguments against the idea of God's timeless eternity come from two sources. The first of these is Professor Kneale's paper 'Time and Eternity in Theology' (Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 6i, i960-6i) in which, alluding to the famous definition of eternity by Boethius as 'the complete possession of eternal life at once' Professor Kneale confesses 'I can attach no meaning to the word "life" unless I am allowed to suppose that what has life acts . . . life must at least involve some incidents in time and if, like Boethius, we suppose the life in question to be intelligent, then it must involve also awareness of the passage of time'

Francis webb's library

Abstract: The Willoughby Municipal Library in Chatswood, N.S.W., is in possession of both Francis Webb's personal library (nearly four hundred volumes) and his collection of nine eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English oil paintings. These items were donated by Webb's sisters in 1978. They chose Willoughby Library because of Webb's association with the district: part of his secondary schooling was with the Christian Brothers in Chatswood and some years later he lived for a time at 15 Johnson Street.

Money and the Mind: The Economics of Translation in Goethe's Faust

Abstract: Goethe's Faust is informed by a series of contracts in which one party leaves a deposit with another. In Part One, for example, Faust deposits his soul in order to transfer to himself special powers, and in Part Two the Emperor deposits his subterranean estate in an attempt to save the Empire from ruin. Faust's contract with Mephistopheles elucidates an attempt to translate linguistically the "Word" of the biblical Grundtext into action, and the Emperor's contract elucidates an attempt to translate, by the medium of paper money, Grundbesitz into gold. In Faust, as we shall see, translational contracts connect the intellectual possession of an idea, which concerns language, with the propertal possession of a commodity like gold, which concerns economics. The way in which linguistic and economic translation are identified with and opposed to each other in Faust suggests an economy significant to the study of literature and philosophical dialectic in general.

A Cultural Perspective on Rape

Abstract: In the Trojan council, Paris argues against returning Helen to the Greeks: Sir, I propose not merely to myself The pleasures such a beauty brings with it; But I would have the soil for her fair rape Wiped off in honorable keeping her. What treason were it to the ransack’d queen, Disgrace to your great worths, and shame to me, Now to deliver her possession up On terms of base compulsion!1

Hysterical Possession Syndrome: A Retrospective Study:

Abstract: Culture bound syndromes are well known entities and have got a place in the text books of psychiatry by their own right. Though a few (Wittkover & Ria 1965) Wittkover & Raymond Prince 1974) fail t o accept them as distinct entities, majority of psychiatrists d o make a diagnosis of culture bound syndrome as it gives a live picture of the symptomatology and probably indicates the prognosis in certain types. I t also gives information regarding socio cultural background of the patieqt.

Education and Incomes

Abstract: We observed earlier that the confusion of individuals and occupations in terms of market position is probably a consequence of the close relationship, in the public mind, between the nature of the demands of the job tasks in terms of the personal skills of incumbents and the possession of such skills as a consequence of training, among professionals and artisans. For those in other types of job, the popular conception is probably of a much looser relationship between education, as an indicator of general ability, and the demands of job tasks for that ability.

There ought to be a law: research note on findings and limitations of survey research into general population attitudes about cannabis use, other deviancies, and the law.

Abstract: Summary This paper describes and questions the social meaning of some 1975 general population survey data on individuals' expressed attitudes to legal control of various forms of behaviour, including possession of cannabis. Only a small proportion of the sample favoured ‘legalization’ of cannabis, larger proportions favouring legal status for homosexual behaviour, abortion and the buying of contraceptives. Few respondents would, however, take it upon themselves to report cannabis users to the police, and opinions about proper court sentences were highly varied. The paper briefly contrasts a social interpretation of such moral sentiments (involving social relations of labour market, family and law) with the individualistic interpretation that the attitude-survey methodology itself imposes. The paper concludes that there is a need to develop social theory able to generate problem-solving research and practice in the dependency field.

The Selection of Jurors in the Higher Courts of Queensland

Abstract: The rejection and acceptance decisions of eight barristers during jury selections in two attempted murder cases and two cases involving the possession of dangerous drugs before the Supreme Court in Queensland, together with demographic and physical characteristics of 163 potential jurors, were recorded to discover whether patterns of jury selection were similar in Queensland to those believed to exist in the United States and Canada. Results suggested that each type of barrister had a profile of characteristics of potential jurors believed prejudicial to his case, and these people were systematically challenged. Profiles changed according to the case and the behaviour of the other barrister, with many of these profiles being different to those found overseas.