Bodies are never fixed and stable, but transform over time, and in different contexts. This applies to both human bodies and to the bodies of nonhumans, including spirits, ancestors, and ghosts. All bodies may be considered to exist in a variety of conditions, matters, and elements. They can be conceptual-ized as hot or cold, fluid or dry, volatile or solid, open or closed, etc., depending on factors, such as the social and ecological environments they are embedded in, or the individual’s life stage. Bodies may change according to their immediate, distant, or transcendent surroundings. They may be actively or unconsciously manipulated and modified by social actors (including humans, spirits, animals, objects, deities, etc.). They may also visualize, materialize, and performatively (re-)create the power relations and asymmetrical dependencies that humans and nonhumans experience, and are influenced by, in their everyday lives.
This conference focuses on the bodies and embodiments of spirits, their (im-)materialities, and the bodily transformations, which they may be subject to in different socio-cultural contexts. It draws at-tention to the embodied experiences of asymmetrical dependencies among humans and spirits and to how the sensory experiences of interdependence are negotiated in their interactions.