Animal Deities, Domestication, and the Purpose of Control in Contemporary Singaporean Mediumship

Abstract

This article considers how to study the meanings of control in religious life and multispecies relations. In it, I examine how contemporary Singaporean deity mediums, who describe themselves as subject to an absolute form of control while possessed, interpret what this control should be like. By treating mediums’ self-described subordination as analogous to that of domestic animals’ relations to humans, I explore common problems with control shared between religious and multispecies studies. In doing so, I examine core issues that point to how control can be more effectively conceptualized and analyzed by paying attention to the ways religious practices shape the interpretation of purpose. The article contends that any effective theory of control must explore how what it means to be controlled is embedded in the ways that different religious traditions perceive the purposes of the relations that make the subjects of control interpretable to themselves and others.