A cross-cultural comparison of spiritualist belief systems

• Main Author: McAlhaney, James
• Other Authors: Coffin, James L.
• Format: Others
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Spiritualism.
• Online Access: http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/handle/handle/183475; http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/475282

This study compares spiritualist belief systems found in Africa, China and the United States. The purpose is to determine the functions these belief systems serve for their adherents and to isolate the features common to all three systems and find possible explanations for the similarities.Original fieldwork was conducted at Camp Chesterfield, Chesterfield, Indiana to obtain data for the chapter on the United States. The fieldwork and data of other scholars was utilized for the chapters on China and Africa.Belief systems from these three culture areas are described in terms of history, social and economic environment, cosmology, and ritual. Similarities in cosmology and ritual are then discussed. Functions, ritual aspects, and cosmology common to all three areas are identified. Diffusion as a possible cause of the similarities is eliminated in favor of psychological/physiological experiences with are universally possible, even if never actualized, to all human beings.