You are here

Back to top

The Avatar Faculty: Ecstatic Transformations in Religion and Video Games (Ethnographic Studies in Subjectivity #16) (Paperback)

The Avatar Faculty: Ecstatic Transformations in Religion and Video Games (Ethnographic Studies in Subjectivity #16) Cover Image
$29.95
Usually Ships in 1-5 Days

Description


The Avatar Faculty creatively examines the parallels between spiritual and digital activities to explore the roles that symbolic second selves—avatars—can play in our lives. The use of avatars can allow for what anthropologists call ecstasy, from the Greek ekstasis, meaning "standing outside oneself." The archaic techniques of promoting spiritual ecstasy, which remain central to religious healing traditions around the world, now also have contemporary analogues in virtual worlds found on the internet. In this innovative book, Jeffrey G. Snodgrass argues that avatars allow for the ecstatic projection of consciousness into alternate realities, potentially providing both the spiritually possessed and gamers access to superior secondary identities with elevated social standing. Even if only temporary, self-transformations of these kinds can help reduce psychosocial stress and positively improve health and well-being.

About the Author


Jeffrey G. Snodgrass is Professor of Anthropology at Colorado State University.

Praise For…


"Scholars and social scientists of religion will find much of interest in this book, because it explores the increasingly uncertain borders of 'religion,' when secularization may be obscuring the meaning of the concept without actually satisfying the human need for sacred norms and profound meanings."
— Nova Religio

"For those interested in gaming, ranging from scholars to designers to players, it provides new perspectives to think through ideas like immersion, and insights to help structure digital avatar experiences that are more health-promoting than health-eroding."
— Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry

Product Details
ISBN: 9780520384361
ISBN-10: 0520384369
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication Date: January 10th, 2023
Pages: 280
Language: English
Series: Ethnographic Studies in Subjectivity