Review: The Avatar Faculty: Ecstatic Transformations in Religion and Video Games, by Jeffrey G. Snodgrass

Abstract

Book Review| November 01 2023 Review: The Avatar Faculty: Ecstatic Transformations in Religion and Video Games, by Jeffrey G. Snodgrass The Avatar Faculty: Ecstatic Transformations in Religion and Video Games. By Jeffrey G. Snodgrass. University of California Press, 2023. 262 pages. $85.00 hardcover; $29.95 softcover; ebook available. William Sims Bainbridge William Sims Bainbridge Independent Scholar Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (2023) 27 (2): 118–120. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.118 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation William Sims Bainbridge; Review: The Avatar Faculty: Ecstatic Transformations in Religion and Video Games, by Jeffrey G. Snodgrass. Nova Religio 1 November 2023; 27 (2): 118–120. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.118 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentNova Religio Search Given that the term avatar has long been used to describe the role taken in multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft (WoW), this book is significant for examining rather deeply how the term originated in the Hindu religious tradition of India, conceptualized as spirit possession or spiritual therapeutics. The text chiefly reports on highly focused ethnographic research Jeffrey Snodgrass performed on a particular community in the Rajasthan state of northern India, analyzing deeply and in its cultural context the spirit possession of a woman the author names Bedami, in conflict with her husband, given the name Ramu. A secondary element, however, examines computer games played in India. Depending on the reader’s goal, this book will seem either informative, inspirational, or incomplete. Snodgrass analyzes the case of Bedami and Ramu in several ways, for example in terms of their very personal disagreements and within the context of tension between their... You do not currently have access to this content.