Spirits

Morphing allows for the creation of new identities to replace old ones that are no longer effective. It allows us to see that identity is not, and should not, be viewed as a fixed entity, rather it is an ever-changing recreation of the self. In other words, we are not born as ge…

Ekpu Oro ancestral figures existed as summaries of the personal and social experiences of the Oron people of Southeastern Nigeria---they embodied Oron spiritual beliefs and cultural history; hence, were vessels for the spirits of the dead that instilled great influence over the …

This dissertation examines beliefs and practices related to second sight in Scotland, with a particular focus on the period from c. 1600 to c. 1800. An influential strain of historiography has asserted that this period was characterized by “disenchantment,” a process of increasi…

This dissertation chronicles the late medieval interest in the question of how true or divine revelations and visions could be distinguished from their false or diabolic counterparts. The resulting discourse, which drew on Scriptural warnings of false prophecy and came to be ide…