Presence, Attachment, Origin: Ontologies of “Incarnates”

Abstract

Most attempts to define and explain a specific field of religion seem indifferent to the modes of instauration of the classes of being to which a religious dimension is ascribed. Either when they are lumped together under global terms (god, deity, spirit, demon) within a general theory of religion (sociological, cognitive or symbolic), or when they are particularized as context-dependent entities (jinn, master of game animals, chthonian deities), their respective properties are seldom compared. By considering a variety of modes of existence of what may be called “incarnates” (beings that exist only expressively), a comparative ontology of religious beings is attempted, as well as an analysis of the various mechanisms through which they acquire personhood and agency.

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