Ritual performance by spirit mediums materially vocalizes an expanded and more diverse repertoire of desire. I argue that spirit mediumship gives rein to a localized register of desire and sexuality that eludes discursive normalization. Engaging with affect theory in the tradition of Brian Massumi, the article proposes an important shift from discourse-based critique of Thai spirit possession to an approach that accounts for bodily sex and desire, beyond constructions and categories. This perspective demands a new set of tools that will better resonate with the expressions of the practitioners’ bodies. I focus on female practitioners in northeast Thailand, seeing in their bodies the potential for the enactment of heterogeneous modes of desire that exceeds the bounds of inquiry set by representationalist frames. This article questions the way sexuality has been conceived as constructionism by previous studies of mediumship. Proceedings of the African Futures Conference.PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review.Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe.The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology.Journal for the Anthropology of North America.General Anthropology Bulletin of the General Anthropology Division.Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings.
Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment.Bulletin of the National Association of Student Anthropologists.
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