African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African folklore 886
or be seen as directly causal. Rather, the enactment of possession enables commentary on
the human condition in an expressive style articulating with, rather than completely
overturning, socially structured beliefs about personal identity.
These processes are clearly shown in the ludic, or carnival, elements of the possession
ritual. The songs and other behavior during the possession rituals display the inversion
typical of “rituals of reversal.” For example, men and women of diverse social strata,
who in principle normally do not marry, may flirt with one another and initiate romantic
liaisons. Contrary to the usual value in Tuareg culture placed on concealing one’s true
desires, the patient indicates nonverbally her song preference. The head dance of a patient
who is an elderly woman presents a further inversion of normal behavioral roles, for
older women usually do not dance in public, particularly not in mixed company or at
events featuring ribald entertainment (the verses of some songs contain sexual
innuendoes and sometimes even mock official Islam). Young boys play on the sidelines,
sometimes dancing like grown men, sometimes causing considerable mischief. They
speak to adults without the usual reserved respect, often teasing them, but this behavior
provokes little reprimand during a possession ceremony. Outside the possession ritual,
there is not such openly direct expression or free social interaction between youths and
older persons, or between members of different social strata.
In the Tuareg possession ritual, there are also symbolic parallels with rites of passage,
particularly marriage. For example, at the beginning of a possession rite, the possessed
patient always appears in a prone position on the ground, with her entire body covered by
a blanket. This is also the dominant symbol at weddings, seen in the central image of the
wedding tent: for the first days of the eight-day wedding ritual the bride lies prone
beneath a blanket in her mother’s tent. During this phase of the wedding, for several
successive nights, the older female relatives of the bride take down and reconstruct the
nuptial tent, making it larger each night. This tent image is associated with both the spiritpossession
ritual and rites of passage. The tension between the inversion and the
correspondence of symbols in spirit possession and the wedding rite of passage reflect
certain contradictions in Tuareg social relationships. The alternating frames of nonserious
joking and serious healing seem to parallel the frames associated with relationships over
the life course that are transformed, such as the transition from courtship (involving a
degree of sexual license and frequently illicit liaisons) to marriage (featuring behavioral
restrictions and economic obligations), as well as inlaw roles (which involve increased
reserve in relationships and participation in devotion to Islam). The transition to marriage
affects kinship behavior: the joking and horseplay of cousins become the reserve and
formality of husband and wife.
Thus, the tende n goumaten possession ritual, through its setting (which encourages
relaxing of the usual daily social restrictions) and its jokes and songs (which express
alternatively criticism and praise on social stratum, age, gender, and official religion)
provides a forum for reflection and discourse on Tuareg culture, society, and history. Its
ritual imagery not only encapsulates contradictions but also reveals compromises
between ideals and actual conditions of existence. For example, the imagery expresses a
contradiction between the local ideology of the elevated and independent status of
nobles—particularly women—and their actual position amid economic transformation
and uncertainty in contemporary social change (sedentarization and tensions with the