Duke Magazine Featured Course: Shamanism & Spirit Possession

After nearly thirty years in the field, cultural anthropologist Rich Freeman has observed more than a hundred rites of spirit possession, especially in his field study area in southwest India. Now students can catch a glimpse of these elaborate initiations in this course, an interdisciplinary brew of religion, cultural anthropology, and history. A visiting professor of history and religious studies, Freeman first launched the seminar at the University of Michigan and brought it to Duke in 2009. He notes that the course is “obviously an outlier from the usual run of Duke offerings, but that seems to make it attractive to a self-selected and interestingly varied group of students.” Read More here: http://dukemagazine.duke.edu/article/featured-course-shamanism-spirit-possession