Erika Bourguignon

Erika Eichhorn Bourguignon (February 18, 1924 – February 15, 2015) was an Austrian-born American anthropologist known primarily for her work on possession trance and other altered states of consciousness. She was “considered the premier anthropological authority on trance, possession, and altered states of consciousness” and "one of the founders of the field of anthropology of consciousness." After receiving a B.A. from Queens College in 1945, She pursued many academic and other interests including creating a weekly radio show on world music, co-founding a women-in-development seminar, and serving as the first chair of Ohio State's Council on Academic Excellence for Women. The following year the family obtained visas to emigrate to the United States and arrived in New York City in October, 1939.

Career in anthropology

Early career

After returning from Haiti, Bourguignon began teaching at The Ohio State University. In 1956 she moved from assistant to associate professor, and in 1960 to full professor.

Later life

In 1990, two years after her husband Paul died, Bourguignon retired from university teaching. From 1990 until her death, Bourguignon supervised installations of exhibitions of the art work of her late husband, Paul-Henri Bourguignon. In addition to several shows in Columbus and other Ohio locations she exhibited his work in galleries in New York City, Sedona, Arizona, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Anthropological legacy

In addition to being considered the foremost anthropological authority on altered states of consciousness, Bourguignon was known "above all for her pioneering work on the relationship of religious trance to gender roles and social change."

Publications

Books 1968. Trance Dance (Dance Perspectives). Dance Perspectives Foundation. New York. (Excerpts reprinted, 1972, in The Highest State of Consciousness, John W. White, editor, New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, pp 331–343). (Reprinted, 2001, in Moving/History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader, Ann Dils and Ann Cooper Albright, editors, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, pp 97–102). 1973. Editor and contributor. Religion, Altered States of Consciousness and Social Change. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. 1973. With Lenora S. Greenbaum. Diversity and Homogeneity in World Societies. HRAF Press. 1976. Possession. San Francisco: Chandler & Sharp Publishers. Revised edition 1991. 1979. Psychological Anthropology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Italian translation 1983. 1980. Editor. A World of Women: Anthropological Studies of Women in the Societies of the World. New York: Praeger Publishers. 1998. With Barbara Hill Rigney. Exile: A Memoir of 1939: Bronka Schneider. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. 2012. With Edward Lense. Via Crucis: The Way of the Cross. Columbus: Igloo Letterpress.

Other (selected) publications 1954. “Dreams and Dream Interpretation in Haiti.” American Anthropologist 56: 262–268. 1956. “A Life History of an Ojibwa Young Woman.” In B. Kaplan ed., Microcard Publications of Primary Records in Culture and Personality I. Madison, WI: The Microcard Foundation. 1959. “The Persistence of Folk Belief: Some Notes on Cannibalism and Zombis in Haiti.” Journal of American Folklore 72: 36–46. 1965. “The Self, the Behavioral Environment and the Theory of Spirit Possession.” In Spiro, ed., 1965, Context and Meaning in Cultural Anthropology. New York: Free Press. 1967. “Religious Syncretism among New World Negroes.” In Whitten and Szwed, eds., 1970, Afro-American Anthropology: Contemporary Perspectives. New York: Free Press, pp 36–38. 1968. “World Distribution and Patterns of Possession States.” In R. Prince, ed., Trance and Possession States. Montreal: R.M. Bucke Memorial Society. 1969. “Haiti et l’Ambivalence Socialisee: A Reconsideration.” Journal de la Societedes Americanistes 58: 178–205. 1972. “Dreams and Altered States of Consciousness in Anthropological Research.” In F. L. K. Hsu, ed., Psychological Anthropology. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman. 1973. “Introduction: A Framework for the Comparative Study of Altered States of Consciousness.” In E. Bourguignon, ed., Religion, Altered States of Consciousness and Social Change. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. 1975. “Importante Papel de las Mujeres en los Cultos Afroamericanos.” Montalban 4: 423–38. 1977. With T.L. Evascu. “Altered States of Consciousness Within a General Evolutionary Perspective: A Holocultural Analysis.” Behavior Science Research 12: 197–216. 1983. “Women, Possession Trance Cults, and the Extended Nutrient-Deficiency Hypothesis.” With Anna McCabe and Susan McCabe. American Anthropologist 85: 413–416. 1985. “Religion and Justice in Haitian Vodoun.” Phylon 46: 292–295. 1989. “Multiple Personality, Possession Trance, and the Psychic Unity of Mankind.” Ethos 17: 371–384. 1991. “Hortense Powdermaker, the Teacher." Journal of Anthropological Research 47: 417–428. 1991. “A.I. Hallowell, the Foundations of Psychological Anthropology and Altered States of Consciousness.” Psychoanalytic Study of Society 16: 19–41. 1995. “Possession and Social Change in Eastern Africa: Introduction.” Anthropological Quarterly 68: 71–74. 1996. “Vienna and Memory: Anthropology and Experience” Ethos 24: 374–387. 2003. “Dreams that Speak: Interpretation and Experience.” In Dreaming and the Self: New Perspectives on Subjectivity, Identity and Emotion. J.M. Mageo, Ed. Albany: SUNY Press. pp 133–154. 2004. “Haiti and the Art of Paul Bourguignon.” Research in African Literatures 35: 173–188. 2013. “The Painter's Eye: Paul-Henri Bourguignon's Haitian Photographs.” American Imago 70: 357–383.