Erika Bourguignon: A Portrait of the Anthropology of Consciousness

Erika Bourguignon, a leading figure in the anthropology of consciousness, discusses her decades-long career studying possession, altered states of consciousness, religion, psychological anthropology, and shamanism. Her fieldwork in Haiti and comparative work with Lenora Greenbaum established her as a preeminent psychological anthropologist and the premier anthropological authority on trance, possession, and altered states of consciousness. Melford Spiro describes her as resisting postmodernist and interpretivist trends in the field.

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Abstract

This is an interview with Erika Bourguignon, who has been a presence in the anthropology of consciousness for decades. Her work has examined possession, altered states of consciousness, religion, psychological anthropology, and shamanism. Her own fieldwork in Haiti has been augmented by book‐length comparative work with Lenora Greenbaum as well. In a 1996 article in Ethos, Melford Spiro notes that Bourguignon is a scholar who has resisted the trends of "postmodernists and interpretivists" and he describes her as "a preeminent psychological anthropologist as well as the premier anthropological authority on trance, possession, and altered states of consciousness."