Spirits of the Hereafter: Death, Funerary Possession, and the Afterlife in Chuuk, Micronesia

摘要: In Chuuk, Micronesia, recently deceased kin often appear as spirit visitors and may possess female relatives in order to provide comfort guidance, deriver important messages from beyond the grave. These spirits are fully sentient beings who retain social emotional ties with their earthly homes families, occupy a liminal space between this world afterlife. During period, must learn how "be dead," while riving struggle reconcile themselves corporeal death new spiritual life of departed. Spirit possession other forms communication, including popular use ouija boards, help facilitate process "becoming dead" on both sides cosmological divide. Traditional contemporary mortuary rituals, transformation soul into being, experiences afterlife, interactions through funerary encounters examined understand journey becoming that is also marked by rupture, ritual, problems grief attachment. (Spirit possession, death, cosmology, Christianity, Micronesia) This article examines possessions occur shortly after dead. living women family give deliver Funerary during or period formal mourning, when rituals performed, intense emotions love/sadness (ttong), grief/loss (leetiipeta), suffering (riaffou) shared newly Spirits remain wish be kin. They place worlds dead, hover invisibly around families homes, yet uncertain about role dead (nguun), (sootupw), becomes kind Chuukese person agent world. At same time sootupw learns those left behind mourn loss they wait wonder fate loved one's soul. The initiate contact answers encounters, attempt communicate talking grave "playing" board, an introduction increasingly today. way, undergo own reconciling departed relative. Most anthropological writing topic focuses attendant aspects dying, is, beliefs, practices, (e.g., Bloch Parry 1982; de Witte 2001; Metcalf Huntington 1991). Comparatively little has been said terms parallel taken souls approaches one occurs divide I take seriously beliefs Chuukese/Mortlockese (2) spirits, endeavor elucidate processual afterlife ways make sense them, not just anthropologists. Therefore, traditional social/emotional …