Anthropology of Dreams and Dreaming

In an Ese Eja community in the Peruvian Amazon, people dream the names of theirchildren. Apart from a neo-Freudian perspective, naming dreams reflect, more impor-tantly, multiple overlapping realities of time and space. As such, notions of agency, multiplicity, and transformation need to be examined for a proper analysis of dreaming. Drawing on multinatural perspectivism, the author examines eshawa, an Ese Eja concept of personhood that connects the self not only with the body but also with all species and an expansive sprit world. The author suggests that naming dreams are reminders of the still possible transformation between multiple worlds. Such an interpretation of dreams, as sources of knowledge and channels to cross realities, emphasizes the overlay between subjective dream worlds and public objective waking worlds rather than their “opposition.”

En una comunidad Ese Eja en la Amazonia Peruana, las personas sueñan los nombres de sus hijos. Además del obvio interés de su análisis neo-Freudiano, los “sueños de nombre” de los Sonenekuiñaji muestran la superposición en el tiempo y el espacio de distintas realidades. De acuerdo a esto, un adecuado análisis de los sueños requiere la consideración de nociones especificas sobre la agencia (agency), multiplicidad y transformación. Utilizando el modelo del perspectivismo multinatural como punto de partida, la autora examina eshawa , concepto Ese Eja que incluye nociones de la personeidad (“personhood”) y conecta al ser (“self”) no solamente con el cuerpo, sino también con todas las especies y con un mundo espiritual expansivo. La autora sugiere que los sueños de nombres hacen recordar a los Ese Eja la todavía posible transformación entre mundos múltiples. La consideración de los sueños como fuentes de conocimiento y canales para comunicar distintas realidades favorece dinámicas de  “superposición” frente a “oposición” en las relaciones entre los mundos subjetivos e íntimos de los sueños y los públicos y objetivos de la vigilia.

Voices in your dreams...


Did you dream something last night? Was it promising or scary? What was the last very scary dream you had? Did you tell anybody about it? Would you like to know if the dream had any deeper meaning? Would you tell your wife, daughter or mother if she had the key to find out?

In the old days, prior to the oil era, people paid a lot of attention to their dreams. They would not have just ignored a dream as the confused nightly sorting process of our brains. Dreams always had a deeper meaning and the interpretation of dreams was important and in the hand of specialists. The term specialist may remind us of a profession with training and qualification procedures and that is very close to what it was. The only difference is that it was an exclusively female profession, a powerful female DOMAIN with several levels of sophistication. During the pearling period, each small family unit usually had its "dedicated" dream interpreter, usually a grandmother considered most trustworthy and spiritually guided. Within a neighbourhood or larger family unit, the designated interpreter was the woman judged to be the most competent, with the most sophisticated interpreters often known far beyond their own farij. They qualified because of their "eloquence, wisdom, social respect, a commanding personality, devoutness, the possession of a repertory of colloquial proverbs and a large inventory of folk dream lore as WELL as a widespread reputation and recognition in the community.

The women operated so-called dream majalis, in which each had her regular clientele. Monetary COMPENSATION was received only in rare cases, but all interpreters would accept expressions of appreciation, such as gifts and food items. They contributed to the preservation and reaffirmation of traditional community values on at least three different levels. First, they confirmed the worldview of the local community by rendering positive and supportive dream interpretation to its practices and values. Second, the dissemination of dream-related lore among women and men was essential for the maintenance of authority of the dream interpreter and the strengthening of its female superiority. Third, the presence of children in the majalis secured the intergenerational transmission of dream-lore and continuity.

Dream interpretations required a particular context and a specific client, which allowed the interpreter to tailor an explanation to the needs and personal context of the dreamer. Knowledge of the dreamer's personal context ENABLED the interpreter to offer practical advice relevant to the individual situation of the dreamer, including male dreamers whose dreams were narrated to her. Of course the male dreamers who wished their dreams to be interpreted, had to first disclose the narrative of the dream to a female family member who would then visit the dream interpreter on their behalf.

One of the dream interpreters who is still active in Bahrain, but wished to remain unnamed, informed me about the method "A woman came to me to seek dream interpretation for her husband. I knew since quite some time that he was not treating her well and that he used to shout at and sometimes beat her. In his dream, he visited his dead father. When his father saw him, he kept staring at him with a frozen and serious expression. The husband got worried and wanted to know the reason for this frightening look of his father. He asked his wife to come and see me. I told her to tell her husband that his father disapproved of the way he treated her, that his serious look disapproved of his son's anger, and that his frozen stare condemned his son's physical violence toward his wife. I added that it was a warning from his father for him to become a loving and understanding husband."

Since women were exclusively in charge of dream-lore during the pearling period, they had a strong power base that helped counter the traditional Islamic male dominance in legal rulings. Through the interpretation of dreams, the interpreter was able to establish women's rights and the idea of fair treatment of women in her community. Dream-lore became a tool used to "reprogram" value systems of traditional communities that restricted or subjected women in various ways; moreover, it constituted a subtle counter-hegemony in a male-dominated society. Today dream interpretation has found other ways and different media channels, and is no longer a female DOMAIN.

However, I wonder if dwindling number of dream majalis is a result of satisfaction with alternative means of dream interpretation or rather a consequence of more broadly established women's rights in the contemporary Bahraini society

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=280301

Felt presence, a sensation that ‘‘someone is there’’, is an integral part of our everyday experience. It can manifest itself in a variety of forms ranging from most subtle fleeting impressions to intense hallucinations of demonic assault or visions of the divine. Felt presence phenomenon outside of the context of neurological disorders is largely neglected and not well understood by contemporary science. This paper focuses on the experiential and expressive qualities of the phenomenon and attempts to bring forth the complexity and the richness of possibilities
for inter- and intrasubjective awareness represented by these experiences. Are these simply misperceptions and hallucinations heightened and enforced by the mystical or superstitious mind? Or are these entities projections of our own ‘‘selves’’, elements of self-estrangement? How are such experiences shaping our understanding of ourselves and of others? And finally, what is the interplay between intersubjective, private experiences and private or public spaces of dwelling?

Journal of the Anthropology of the Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia (ACME)

Published in association with, and the financial support of, Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités, CNRS

ISSN: 2211-5722

Special Issue: The Anthropology of Dreams and Dreaming Among Muslim Communities
Volume 2, Issue 1, Summer 2014 (July-August)

CO N T E N T S

Articles

- Guest Editor’s Introduction
Iqbal Akhtar (Florida International University, USA)

- Virtual Encounters with Hizir and other Muslim Saints: Dreaming and Healing at Local Pilgrimage Sites in Hatay, Turkey
Jens Kreinath (Wichita State University, USA)

- Sacred Sites, Severed Heads and Prophetic Visions
Claire Norton (St Mary's University, UK)

- Flashes of Ultimate Reality: Dreams of Saints and Shrines in a Contemporary Pakistani Sufi Community
Robert Rozehnal (Lehigh University, USA)

- Dreaming Baba, Resituating Memory: Popular Sufi Shrines and Historiography of Contemporary East Punjab
Yogesh Snehi (Ambedkar University, India)

- Dreaming, Dream Sharing and Interpretation as Women’s Power in Northern Morocco
Araceli Gonzalez-Vazquez (Collège de France, France)

    Secular arabic traditions have emphasized the potential of dreams to foretell the future.  Sometimes the prediction is seen as obvious and on other occasions elaborate systems of symbolic translations were consulted such as the tenth century Oneirocriticon of Achmet.
    In Islam, many of the foundations of the Koran were revealed to Muhammad in dreams. Muhammad ordered the practice of adhanthe daily call to prayer from the minarets and a central ritual of Islam to this day after one of his followers dreamed of it. The split of Islam into the conflicting factions of Sunni and Shi'ite was based partly on a dream of Mohammed, which the Sunnis used to justify their rights as his successors.
    The autobiographies of Muslim rulers often contain extensive dream diaries and examples of decisions obstensibly based on dreams.  When the Shah of Iran was deciding whether to seek a loan from Russia, he dreamed that a famous theological figure dressed in primitive Muslim garb approached the Shah and threw at his feet a sack containing gold and silver.  The interpretation of this dream was that the Shah shouldn't make any new loans with unbelievers but should trust that fellow servants of the faith would restore his finances. Sadam Hussein reported dreaming that Allah told him to enter and take back Kuwait just before the first Gulf War. Before the second Gulf War, he reported a dream that a snake came upon his path but he chopped off it’s head with a sword which he interpreted to mean western invaders would be vanquished.
    Because of this emphasis on dreams as foretelling the future rather than arising from the past, Arabs who are having PTSD nightmares of an event occurring each night--such as Kuwiati survivors of the Iraqi invasion or Iraqi survivors of the American invasion--experience even more anxiety over whether this will indeed occur again than dreamers in other cultures.
    The positive side to this emphasis on dreams foretelling the future happens when oppressed people dream of positive outcomes.  These are a source of much inspiration in arab society, while in western traditions they would be dismissed as "wish fulfillment" without the beneficial impact.
    We  collected dreams associated with events of the Arab Spring and discuss how they inspired and guided those taking part, and what dreams right now may have to offer the reshaping of the Arab world.

[AMAZON LINK BELOW TO BOOK ITSELF -- TOC and book intro in downloadable .pdf]  Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreams: The Evolution, Function, Nature, and Mysteries of Slumber explores the evolution, nature, and functions of sleep and dreams. The encyclopedia is divided into two volumes and is arranged alphabetically by entry. Topics include nightmares and their treatment, how sleep and dreams change across the lifetime, and the new field of evolution of sleep and dream. While this book includes ample material on the science of sleep and dreams, content is drawn from a broad range of disciplinary contexts, including history and anthropology.

[AMAZON LINK BELOW TO BOOK ITSELF -- TOC and book intro in downloadable .pdf] 

"It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it." --John Steinbeck Scientific research confirms what people have always known: answers, ideas, and inspiration do come to us in dreams. Harvard psychologist and world-renowned dream specialist Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., offers this rich collection of examples of how the world's most creative practitioners in art, music, film, science, literature and other fields have used the revelations of their dream life to inform their work. Dr. Barrett offers insights showing us how to encourage lucid, meaningful dreaming, and how to apply the meanings of our dreams to solving problems--from the everyday to the extraordinary. This is the stuff dreams are made of. In the visual arts, Jasper Johns couldn't find his unique artistic vision until he dreamed it in the form of a large American flag. Salvador Dali and his colleagues built the startling new genre of surrealism out of dreams. Kubla Kahn dreamed the design for his stately pleasure dome; thousands of years later, Lucy Davis, chief architect at a major firm, continues the tradition of dreaming designs into life in her extraordinary buildings. Film is a fertile avenue for dreams: "Twice I have transferred dreams to film exactly as I had dreamed them," confides director Ingmar Bergman, as have Federico Fellini, Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Robert Altman, and John Sayles. From Mary Shelley's terrible nightmare, which became Frankenstein, to Stephen King's haunting dream as a little boy, which led to his first bestseller, countless writers have consulted the Committee. Musicians from Beethoven to Billy Joel and Paul McCartney have whistled the Committee's tunes. In science, physiologist Otto Loewi dreamed the medical experiment that earned him the Nobel Prize. In sports, Marion Jones dreamed she'd broken a world record, then brought the dream to life. Gandhi translated his dream of resistance into a movement that changed the world. Since Freud, we take it for granted that our dreams reflect our past. In The Committee of Sleep, Barrett reveals how dreams can also tell us about our future potential--and how to reach it.

"Organizer: Dr. Valerio Cappozzo
"Like medieval bestiaries, dream-books constitute compelling tools to investigate the collective imagination of the Middle Ages.  These manuals, such as the widely circulated Somniale Danielis, were usually structured so that key terms in the text corresponded to the subject of the dream, while the key-words were arranged alphabetically with a concise interpretation of its symbol.  The system established both quick and easy access to terms, symbols, and their meanings, and functioned as a convenient guide to the interpretation of dreams.  It serves, too, as an important tool for understanding medieval literary as well as other dreams, and for identifying and describing traditional dream topoi. Our session analyses the origin and circulation of dream symbology as transmitted in dream-manuals, in both manuscript and early printed sources.  It also concentrates on how dream symbols developed and changed, in their transfer across religious texts and imagery, literature, and the visual arts, into settings and contexts (including genres other than the literary and media other than the book) where they reveal new layers of meaning.  In such ways, dream-books and their study may function as portals to the medieval past.""

This article may be individually cited under its original titles: Boucher, N., (2008). Dream to Ride Out the World . . . and Beyond: Movement, Travel and Dream in Occidental and Indigenous Ontologies.
Across urban studies there is an increasing preoccupation with the forms of articulation that link a multiplicity of cities across a region often known as the ‘Global South’. How do cities such as Jakarta, São Paolo, Dakar, Lagos, Mumbai, Hanoi, Beirut, Dubai, Karachi, for example, take note of each other and engage in various transactions with each other in ways that are only weakly mediated by the currently predominant notions of urbanism? What might be the lines of connection and how do different cities recognize and experience the textures of their different histories and characters? Six urbanists are assembled here to write in conversation with each other as a way to embody possible collaborative lines of inquiring about these issues.

Although the actual dreaming experience of the Byzantines lies beyond our reach, the remarkable number of dream narratives in the surviving sources of the period attests to the cardinal function of dreams as vehicles of meaning, and thus affords modern scholars access to the wider cultural fabric of symbolic representations of the Byzantine world. Whether recounting real or invented dreams, the narratives serve various purposes, such as political and religious agendas, personal aspirations or simply an author’s display of literary skill. It is only in recent years that Byzantine dreaming has attracted scholarly attention, and important publications have suggested the way in which Byzantines reshaped ancient interpretative models and applied new perceptions to the functions of dreams.

This book - the first collection of studies on Byzantine dreams to be published - aims to demonstrate further the importance of closely examining dreams in Byzantium in their wider historical and cultural, as well as narrative, context. Linked by this common thread, the essays offer insights into the function of dreams in hagiography, historiography, rhetoric, epistolography, and romance. They explore gender and erotic aspects of dreams; they examine cross-cultural facets of dreaming, provide new readings, and contextualize specific cases; they also look at the Greco-Roman background and Islamic influences of Byzantine dreams and their Christianization. The volume provides a broad variety of perspectives, including those of psychoanalysis and anthropology.

Contents:

    Prologue
    Dreaming in the Life of Cyril Phileotes, Margaret Mullett
    The morphology of healing dreams: dream and therapy in Byzantine collections of miracle stories, Stavroula Constantinou
    Ecstasy as a form of visionary experience in early Byzantine monastic literature, Bettina Krönung
    The heavenly city: religious and secular visions of the other world in Byzantine literature, Carolina Cupane
    A little revelation for personal use, Christine Angelidi
    Prokopios’ dream before the campaign against Libya: a reading of Wars 3.12.1-5, Ilias Anagnostakis
    Dream narratives in the Continuation of Theophanes, George T. Calofonos
    The historiography of dreaming in medieval Byzantium, Paul Magdalino
  The dream-key manuals of Byzantium, Steven M. Oberhelman
    Byzantine and Islamic dream interpretation: a comparative approach to the problem of ‘reality’ vs ‘literary tradition’, Maria Mavroudi
    Fluid dreams, solid consciences: erotic dreams in Byzantium, Charis Messis
    Gender ambiguity in dreams of conversion, prophecy and creativity, Barbara Tedlock
    Psychoanalysis and Byzantine oneirographia, Catia Galatariotou
    Index.

About the Editors:

    Christine Angelidi is Research Director Emerita at the Institute of Historical Research of the Hellenic National Research Foundation, Greece.
    George T. Calofonos is Research Associate at the Institute of Historical Research of the Hellenic National Research Foundation, Greece."