El caballo que se volvió lobo. Análisis del fenómeno de "posesión espontánea"

Abstract

The article refers to an involuntary and distressing variety of possession in Dominican vodú, emically referred to as caballo lobo. From the local perspective, the amount of an individual’s spiritual power (fuerza espiritual) is essential to working with the spirits. If a person lacks power his/her “reason” (cerebro) is not ready (preparado) for being possessed which leads to unwanted and “wild” possessions where the “horse” is transformed into a caballo lobo (wolf horse). A wolf horse suffers from motor deficiencies, breaks down and tosses to and fro, loses conscience, experiences pain or shows other socially “non acceptable behavior”. In order to control such behavior an initiation is recommended to the affected person. The initiation process aims at “taming” the misterios and strengthening the spiritual power of the affected human insofar that he/she is able to deal with them. The phenomenon is analyzed from a psychodynamic and a praxeological perspective. In conclusion, caballo lobo may be either caused by spontaneous dissociation as a consequence of internal conflict (I), be ex-post “constructed” to evoke the idea of true spiritual election (II), or learned as a result from repeated interaction with the cultural environment of vodú (III)