ABSTRACT
This chapter explains is a spirit seance a 'performance' and, over the past few years, the anthropological study of ritual has moved from seeing these kinds of enactments largely in terms of structures of representation to seeing them as processes of practice and performance. The focus on performance has appeal for those interested in the nature and power of ritual experience because it is concerned with the experience-near aspects of social phenomena. The performative perspective is also fundamentally concerned with something anthropologists have always found elusive and hard to deal with: the creation of presence. Performances-whether ritual or dramatic-create and make present realities vivid enough to beguile, amuse or terrify. They alter moods, attitudes, social states and states of mind. The spirit makes itself known by starting to sing a Gisalo song. Between songs the spirits talk with audience members and are requested to go off on errands, usually of healing.
