Survivals and surviving: belonging to zar in Cairo

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Last Modified
  • March 22, 2019
Creator
  • El Hadidi, Haguer
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Anthropology
Abstract
  • This study is about zar spirit possession as practiced in Cairo, mostly by Muslim women. The research is based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork. The word zar has two meanings. It refers to a number of spirits which have the capacity to afflict humans with physical and sychological ailments or existential harm which are seen as symptoms of possession. The word also refers to a set of rituals and healing practices that reconciles the spirits with their human hosts and reverses the effect of possession from affliction to well-being. The study focuses on the socialization and localization of space and time in the zar ritual complex through a discussion of a sample from the extensive and elaborate ritual practices and on zar experience as images of passiones in dreams, cravings, trance and other ritual events. Zar spirits and rituals incorporate a person experiencing a crisis into a body of people who view themselves as a guild corporation. The core of zar intiation rituals is a sacrificial rite, practiced throughout the life cycle of the zar members thus grounding them in the landscape of Cairo while producing localility and belonging. Public forms of zar devotion may also include trance and other forms of dancing and the sharing of the sacrificial meal. Zar is a hybrid transnational phenomenon that came to Egypt from different places in Africa through the slave trade in the nineteenth century. Its most interesting feature is its dynamism in the face of change and its ability to adapt to different social and economic conditions. Zar is an open-ended system that continuously absorbs new symbolic and material elements into its practices. The analysis of Zar should not be confined to monolithic interpretations because it is open to a variety of experiences and interpretations. My study demonstrates that Zar is not only a guild corporation, a profession, a set of rituals that localizes people in time and space, a way of knowing the world, a moral orientation, but also zar may also be interpreted as a source of community, acts of transfer, religion, history, performance and entertainment.
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  • In Copyright
Note
  • "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Anthropology."
Advisor
  • Daniels, Robert E.
Degree
  • Doctor of Philosophy
Graduation year
  • 2006
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