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Possession on the Borders: The "Mal de Morzine" in Nineteenth-Century FranceAuthor(s): Ruth HarrisSource: The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 69, No. 3 (Sep., 1997), pp. 451-478Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2953593Accessed: 30/05/2010 00:44

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Possession on the Borders:The "Mal deMorzine" n Nineteenth-Century rance*Ruth HarrisNew College, Oxford

A few Parisianphysicianswill soon stretch ncredulity o the pointof claimingthat the possessed and witches arenothing but frauds.That is going too far. The majorityare sick under the sway of anillusion.J. MICHELET,La Sorciere,1862)

In 1857, a series of psychic tormentsandbodily seizureserupted n Morzine,a Savoyardcommune of some two thousandmigrantmasons and seasonalworkers n the high countryof the Chablais.The crisisbegan whenyoungandadolescent girls claimed to see the Virgin Mary,but this transitory nterac-tion with the Mother of God had neither the beatific nor the awesomequali-ties normallyassociatedwithcontemporary isionary experience.Rather hanheavenlysmiles andbodily rapture, hey instead had alarmingconvulsive at-tacks,had no messageto relay,and relishedblaspheming he Eucharistduringtheirseizures. The women believed themselvespossessed as a result of a maldonne,a witch'scurse,andthey soughtto counterattackhroughmagic, mag-netism, andpilgrimage, going far from theirvillage worldin searchof relief.Theirerrant ife beganwhen they felt abandonedby theirparishpriest:AbbePinguetand his minions hadwillingly exorcised thembeginning n 1857, con-vinced suchexpedientswould rid the communityof the "devils,"but the situa-tionchangeddramaticallyn 1860 whenFranceannexedSavoyandthe author-ities pressured hepriestto stophis "superstitious"ractices.He retractedbothhis belief in theirpossession and his willingness to exorcise, and from thatmoment the intensityof the mal grewrapidly.'The degree of attention lavished on the girls and women-numberingaround wohundredat the end of 1861 -is evidencedby thephysicianswhom

* This articlecould not have been completed without the help of JacquelineCarroy,who generously made availableall her primarydocuments;special thanks are due toCarolineFord, RobertNye, LyndalRoper,Nicholas Stargardt,Megan Vaughan,andananonymousreviewer of the Journal of Modern History,as well as to lain Pears for hisusual tirelessaid.1 C. L. Maire,Les posse'es de Morzine,1857-1873 (Lyon, 1981), pp. 44, 63-64.[TheJournal of ModernHistory 69 (September1997):451-478]? 1997by The Universityof Chicago.0022-2801/97/6903-0002$02.00All rights reserved.

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452 Harristhe Savoyardauthoritiesand laterthe Frenchadministration ummoned o in-vestigate the strangeepidemic.A local medicalman, who diagnosedthe out-breakas demonopathy n 1857, was followed by DoctorArthaud,a Lyonnesephysician, who made the more up-to-datediagnosis of "hystero-de'monopa-thie"around he end of 1860.2But the resistanceof the mal to orderlycontroland treatmentseemed to require a more interventionistpolicy, and in 1861Adolphe Constans,a Parisianalienistwith courtconnectionsand the inspec-teur ge'ne'ral es asiles des alie'ne's, rrived o repressthe furious public dis-plays.3Unwillingmerely to observe andanalyze,Constansused all his consid-erable power to expel the afflicted from Morzine, to intern some in publichospitals, and to use both a smalldetachmentof infantryand a new post of thegendarmerie o maintain order.By 1863, it appearedthat his methods hadworked,and most of theMorzinoises,seemingly cured,wereallowedtoreturn.However,when the bishop, MonseigneurMagnin,visited the village the fol-lowing year,the mal reappeared n more violent form: some ninety womenflew into mad convulsions,attackingandinsultinghim and pleadingdesper-ately for a collective exorcism.4The outbreakbroughtConstansand the infantryback to the village, causingmanyof thewomen to flee through he mountainpasses intoSwitzerland, ear-ful of being deportedlike criminals to the New World. But the terrifiedre-sponse of the afflicted was misplaced.After this secondoutbreak,morerubtlemeasuresof "education morale"were introduced,with the foundationof alibraryand the institutionof a regime of lectures and dances intended toprovidesome "enlightened"diversion and "soothing"distraction.Through amixtureof subsidy andcoercion-which ended with billeted soldiershelpingvillagers with theharvest-as well as thecontinuedhospitalizationof thepos-sessed, Constans and his successors forced the mal underground.5 y 1873,only a few lone sufferersremained,womenwho experienced heirconvulsions

2J. Arthaud,Relation d'une hystero-demonopathiepidemiqueobserve'e Morzine(Lyon, 1862).3 See his Relation sur une e'pidemie 'hystero-demonopathien 1861 (Paris, 1863).4 See CharlesLafontaine n LeMagne'tiseurMay 15, 1864); the articles n Courrierdes Alpes (May 21, 1864), reprinted n Le Monde (May 22, 1864); and the reprintedletter n L'unionmedicale (July 2, 1864).-"Rapport de gendarmerie" May 30, 1867), Archives Departementales,which re-

marked:"Parmi es 120 filles de Morzine environqui sont parties ces jours-ci, pourallereffeuiller les vignes en Suisse, il y a unecinquantainede maladesenviron," figurewhich points to the persistenceandintensityof the disorder.The "Rapport u DocteurBroc,"one of Constans's uccessors, gives a brighterpictureonAugust 12, 1867,Arch.Dep., claiming that the majorityhad reverted to a simple hysterical state.Althoughsome still went on secret pilgrimages and had crises at home, the seizures no longeroccurred n public and neverduringreligious services.

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Possession on the Borders 453in private gnominy,6 king out a meagerand marginalexistence either n Mor-zine itself or in neighboringSwitzerland.7Such a synoptic account gives only the slightest taste of the events sur-rounding he mal. I limit myself to this brief introductory escriptionbecauseof the narrative weep already provided by Jacqueline Carroyand LaurenceMaire.8Their nformativeand perceptivevolumes concentrateon the key maleactors-priests, physicians,andadministrators-and seek to uncoverthe dif-ferenttactics employed to help, control, and transform he women under theirsupervision.Published n the early 1980s, these works show the markof Mi-chel Foucaultand,to a lesser extent, of Michel de Certeauon historicalschol-arship, ocusing on the impactof discursivestrategies,especially medical ex-pertise, in containingand transforming he epidemic.While they both beginby elucidating problems of witchcraftand possession in the local world andseek to uncover ts religious roots, they arechiefly concernedwith the mal asa key case studyin the coercive secularizationof peasant society,with a par-ticularinterestin demonstratinghow the diagnosis of hysteriawas centraltothatprocess.I intendin this article to questionnot only the vision of secularizationbutalso the broaderconceptualcategoriesof "tradition" nd"modernity"hat un-derpin t. Although sympathetic o the plightof the villagersand interested nlocal religious beliefs, both CarroyandMaire nonethelesstend to see witch-craft andpossession as expressionsof traditional ulture and their manifesta-tion as the last gasp of a dyingworld.Indeed,Mairegoes so far as to liken themal to Luddism, and she sees it as an attemptto restore a lost civilizationthrougharchaicrituals.9 n contrast, will show how the fears and seizures ofthe Morzinois werepartof a changinganddevelopingpeasantcosmology thatdrew on the dilemmasof nineteenth-centuryociety.I rejectthebipolar,staticconcepts of "tradition" nd "modernity"n favorof an account thatgrapples

6"Rapport de gendarmerie,"September 14, 1869, Arch. Dep. The gendarme de-scribed two women, one forty-eight years old and the other thirty-seven,who livedalone and in the worstpoverty.The first, JosephteChauplannaz, till had crises lastingthree-quarters f an hour and was instructedby the mayornever to speak of them toanyone.7See the pathetic letter, in misspelled French,of January4, 1870, written to theprefect by JeanneBerger.Abandonedby her husbandand seeking shelter in Geneva,she wrote asking for the meansto get through he winter and to keep her children.8 See JacquelineCarroy,Le mal de Morzine: De la possession a V'hysterie Paris,1981), and Maire,Lespossedes de Morzine;other works include A. Baleydier,Apro-pos d'un mal myste'rieux Morzine (audience solennelle de la rentree du 2 octobre)(Chambery,1949); and Dr. HenriBouchet, Relation sur l'epidemie de Morzine (Lyon,1899).9See Maire,Lesposse'ees de Morzine, p. 118.

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454 Harriswith collective distressby not dismissingwitchcraftandpossessionas anachro-nistic relics.'0 I will show how possession in both its linguistic andits bodilydimensions expressed the tension between, on the one hand, the desire forexotic urban affluence and, on the other, guilt over the loss of the village'sspiritual,psychological, and economic integrity.Religion and "superstition"were thus hardly a brakeon peasant mentalitiesbut, rather,mediatedthe con-flicts between the village and the nation.In addition o this historiographical einterpretation, aim to providea fun-damentalcritiqueof the discourse analysisthatunderpinspreviousstudiesofthe mal de Morzine. Suchwork shows the women as if gripped n a discursivevice, squeezedbetweenthe articulated xigencies andexpectationsof family,religion, medicine, and the state. What is surprising,given this approach o theproblem, s how little energy has been spent on examining he discursiveworldof the women themselves; occasionally,their statementsduringtheir posses-sion crises are recountedand an anthropologicalgloss is paintedon the lan-guage of collective distress,with Mairetentativelysuggestinga protofeministbid for emancipationencoded in the actionsof the afflicted women. She sug-gests, without arguing directly,that the women created their own discursiveresponse to authority hrough witchcraft and possession and that they wereultimatelyconstrainedby the morepowerfuldiscoursesthatmarginalizedandsilenced them.Although the linguistic interpretation rovides a powerful account of themal, I will argue that it neglects central eatures.The mal was too emotionallydisruptiveand above all too physicalto be understood ully in these terms,andit is these unstable,sometimes violent, and above all painful dimensionsthatIintendto underscore.The persistenceof possession, and the enduringconvul-sive experience, meant that sufferers could not articulate heir distress;theyremained ocked in a culturaldrama n which the defining power of languagewas largelyabsent. I will show insteadhow the mal opens a window onto theunconsciously aggressivefantasies of the women againstmenfolk who werenot "good enough" o rid themof their"devils"and purge the parishof witch-craft.As will be seen, the afflicted not only resistedthe demandsof husbands

" In making this argument,I owe much to a developing revisionisthistoriographythat, by and large,has concentratedon questionsof political and social acculturation,as well as on problemsof regionaland national dentity.See, e. g., CarolineFord,Creat-ing the Nation in ProvincialFrance (Princeton,N.J., 1993);P. M. Jones, ThePeasantryin the FrenchRevolution (Cambridge, 1988); Michel Lagree, Culturesen Bretagne,1850-1950 (Paris, 1994); and the recent synthesisby James R. Lehning, Peasant andFrench: CulturalContact in Rural France during the NineteenthCentury Cambridge,1995). I depart,however, from this trend with my special interest in the parallel,butrelated,sphereof subjectiveand collective meaning and experience,which the mal andpossession crises reveal.

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Possession on theBorders 455andfathersbutalso condemneddoctorsfor their nadequacyand cursedpriestsfor having spiritualpowerstoo punyto exorcise the mal."1Nonetheless,whilethe mal enabledthem to renouncepatriarchal uthority emporarily,t did notoffera meansof resolvingvillage tensions; ndeed, it only servedto strengthenthe prestigeandauthorityof outsiders ntervening n theiraffairs.This studywill begin by examiningthe mal in its village context,includingthe impactof changingsocial conditionsand Frenchannexation.It will con-tinue by investigating he fantasies of fear,evil, remorse,and longing voicedby the "devils,"analyzingwhy both the witches and the "devils"were male,andshowinghow unstablegenderrelationswereat the heartof thepsychologi-cal drama.The final section will examine why, emulatingthe menfolk whoemigrated o findwork,the afflicted left the village in search of exorcistsandmagnetizersto cure them. This quest for men more powerful than those athome, I will argue,left the village in disarrayand ultimately, f unwittingly,opened the door to the manipulationsof Constansand the Frenchstate. BothConstansandthe womenidentifiedsome of the sameproblems,but his author-itariansolutionswererarelyto their iking.While suchmeasuresappeasedthevillage and"integrated"Morzineinto the Frenchnation, theydid not alleviatethepsychic distressor bodily misery.RELIGIONAND THE VILLAGECOMMUNITYThe communeof Morzine sits in the high countryof the southernChablais nthe far cornerof theAulphvalley, separated rom Switzerlandby only a singlemountain.Difficult of access, it sits perchedon the banks of the Dranse and atthe time includedseveraldispersedhamlets.Likemanyvillages in Savoy,Mor-zine dependedon emigration o sustainits expandingbut impoverishedpopu-lation.From the eighteenthcentury,when subsistenceon the land becamein-creasinglydifficult,Savoybecamefamous for its migrantworkers-peddlers,chimneysweeps, masons,carpenters,and laterfactoryworkers.'2By the timeof themal, the streamof emigrantshadbecome a flood,withthe men andboysof Morzine eavingfor Geneva and Lausanne o workin thebuildingtrades.A

11Constansdescribes n Relation,p. 53, how neithermedical interventionwas of anyuse and how priests in particularwere singled out for not being "assez saints pouravoiraction sur les demons."When the bishop arrived, he womencalled him a "Loupd'Eveque"who did not have "le pouvoir de guerir a fille, non il ne peut debarrasserafille du diable."See "Rapportdu sous-Prefetau Prefet surles evenementsqui se sontpassesle 30 avrilet le ler mai,"Arch.Dep. The prefecthimself was struckby one of theraging women who had no respect forhis authority; ee Rapportde l'Abbe Chamoux al'Eveque, 1866,Archives Diocesaines.12 See AndrePalluel-Guillard t al., La Savoie de la Re'volution nosjours, XIXe-XXsiecle (Rennes, 1986), pp. 150-54.

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456 Harriscensus of 1854 gave Morzinea populationof 2,284 inhabitants; he total menabsent from the village varied between 400 and 500, with the majorityonlyreturningbriefly aroundthe Christmasholidays. The peak of this cycle (andthe maximumsize of the village) occurredaround he time of the outbreakofthe mal. Later n the 1860s the populationbeganto decline, evidencethatthecycle of leaving and returningwas finallybrokenby the decision to settle else-wherepermanently."3The community subsistedon a meager mountainagriculture hat producedbarley-corn,oats, and potatoes.Scarce resources were spenton bread, whichincreasedthe burdenof debt and forced ever more men onto theroadto Swit-zerland.Otherwise,the community dependedon livestock, the key resourcethat,when threatenedby illness, unleashedthe witchcraft ears that hauntedthe village. The tendingof animals exacted a heavyburden,as villagerswentup to chalets, firstin April to feed the animalson the spring grass, and thenagain in Juneduringthe cheese making.In the valley,however,June sowingand summercultivatinghad to continue.The loss of half of the most activemen meant that the women were obliged to do more and more of these tasksalone, whereonce a strictgender complementarity ad ruled work and house-hold relations.

The end to thisfragileequilibriumbroughta severechangein psychologicaland socialrelations.ForMorzine, ike othervillages in theChablais,wasmadeup of large patriarchal lans that encouragedendogamousunions;men whocontravenedcustom by marrying"outside"were regardedwith bitternessbythe youngwomen of theparish,andthe "foreign"bride was often treatedwithhostility.'4The emphasison "marryingn" underscored he priority given tolocal affiliation n maritalunionsthatfosteredtheperception hat all goodnessshould be containedwithin theparishand the mountains hatencircled it. TheMorzinoislived as a group,garnering heirmeagerlivelihoodfrom managedcommunalproperty, upplyingwood, shelter,andeven scarce labor for everymemberof the village.Emigration husstrained his society to thelimit,breaking he strictdivisionbetween"us"and "them" hat had hithertostructured he villagers'social andpsychic worlds. As fathersandbrotherswere rarelypresentto impose disci-pline, Morzine's traditionswere maintainedby women and children, whosecontinued ife in the village came to symbolizethe ideal of domesticatedroot-edness, despite the growinghardships his life demanded.While "free" romtheirmenfolk, theywere also overworkedandincreasingly nsecure. The lossof so manyof theactive men meantthatyoungwomen were unable to establish

13 Maire, Les possedees de Morzine (n. 1 above), p. 28.14 See A. Van Gennep, "Les fiangailleset le mariage en Savoie," n La Savoie, vuepar les e'crivains t les artistes, ed. A. Van Gennep (Paris,n.d.), pp. 343-80.

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Possession on theBorders 457their ownfoyers and were obliged insteadto labor in theirrelations' house-holds to survive. Womenbecame simultaneouslymore central to the villagecommunityandincreasinglyconstrainedby its demands,while men werekeyin negotiatingexternalchallenges butgrowing marginal o life insideMorzine.Themal reversedall theseveritiesto the point of caricature.As I will show,it was above all these insecure, oftenunmarriedwomen who left the village insearchof a cure;and,far frombeing a refuge from the sinful world, Morzineitself became the site of danger.Evidence of this belief could be dramatic: negirl carriedawayfromMorzine told herbearershe would be able to walktheminutetheycame to Montriond anadjacentcommune),and she promptlydidso, going on throughthe mountainpasses into Genevato find relief from afamous magnetizer.15 Neighborstoo began to shun the village when in 1864the inhabitantsof Montriond,who usually made an annualprocession withtheirlivestock to receivecommunalblessing in the church,"did an about turnat the edge of their territory,not daringto put their feet onto the lands ofMorzine."6Themal took theform it didbecause of theimportance f religion in shapingcollective identity.An episcopalenquiryof 1845 had noted the fervor andthedevotionalregularityof the Morzinoisand,moregenerally,of the parishesofthe high mountains.Investigatorspointedto the frequencyof confession andcommunion,even among men, the fervorof prayer, he observance of feastdays,thelove of theHoly Sacrament nd theBlessedVirgin,as well as enthusi-astic participationn religiousconfraternities, specially those of the Rosaryand the Eucharist.17While these two organizationshad roots in the Counter-Reformationand were headedby the clergy,the Morzinois were even moredevotedto theConfraternityf St.Esprit, hevillage'soldestpenitentorganiza-tion with early medieval roots and one of the oldest surviving institutionsofits kindin Savoy.Thepenitentsbelieved in its prophylacticpowers andsoughtthe aid of prieststo ring bells, bless or exorcisefarms andstables,andprotectthem againstclimatic disaster.Moreover, he confraternityorganizedfuneralmeals anddistributedalms, actingas a focus for village sociability.In sum, it

15 Constans(n. 3 above), p. 60.16 "Rapports e gendarmerie,"May 7 and9, 1864, Arch.Dep.17 RogerDevos, "Quelquesaspects de la vie religieuse dansle diocese d'Annecy aumilieu duXIXe siecle (d'apresune enqu&ede MgrRendu),"Cahiersd'histoire (1966),pp.49-83. Afterthe Revolution, he clergy saw HauteSavoieas once again in the frontline, with the regionresistingnot only Protestantism ut also the seductions of revolu-tionary doctrine.The diocese of Annecy and Geneva had priestsback in every parishchurchby 1820 and by midcenturyhad addedanother1500 to its ranks;see PaulGui-chonnet,"Duconcordata l'annexion 1802-1860),"in Geneve-Annecy:Histoiredu dio-cese, ed. HenriBaud (Paris:1985), pp. 191-222; andPalluel-Guillard t al., pp. 184-201. Formore on the vicissitudes of the Savoyard hurch,see thehagiographybyAbbeF.-M.Guillermin,Viede Mgr LouisRendu,EvequedAnnecy (Paris,1867).

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458 Harrismanaged the supernatural-especially the highly valued cult of the dead-and the social life of theparish n a manner hat satisfiedthe religious require-ments of the laity.18The religious life of the Morzinoiswas thus made up of two interminglingstrands.One, representedby the Confraternity f St. Esprit,was the religionofpopularritual, which included devotionto local saints, talismans, and villageprocessions. The other was shapedby Counter-Reformationmissionaries,bythe traumaof Protestant onversionand Catholic reconquest.Savoyin generaland the Chablais n particularwas thepays par excellence of St. FrancoisdeSales' evangelism,securingItalyfrom contamination ndbuildinga fortressofCatholicpower againstCalvinistGeneva. 9Thislegacy offeredtheMorzinoisa"religionof fear,"20n obsession with hellfire and damnation,sin and guilt.Local nineteenth-century lerical reformers bemoaned the continuation ofthese associationsby decryingthe stagnantandunyieldingattitudesof thepar-ish clergy, with one describingtheirrigorismas "gloomy, wearying,scrupu-lous, uneasy,'21 type of Catholicpiety that mirrored he Protestant everityon the other side of the mountains.Such attitudesoften engenderedanticleri-calism,for thepriestscontrolledthe sacraments,monitoredpenitencethroughconfession, andhence determinedwho could take the Eucharist.22 hey wereable to withhold or to offer religious consolationand, as I will show, it wasoften priestly harshness, ntransigence,or inadequacy hat would most enragethe Morzinoisesduring heir crises.An equally important lementof religious sensibilitywas the belief in magicandsorcery.For,while lamentationover the entrenched"superstitions" f therural poor was a leitmotif of medical, ethnographic,and sometimes clericalwritingin many regionsof France,23he Chablaisseemedparticularly uscep-tible because it borderedon the Vaud,the region thatproducedthe earliest

18 The centralityof the confratemity s describedby A. Van Gennep, En Savoie, duberceau a la tombe (Paris, 1916), pp. 198-217.19Henri Baud, "Le defi protestantet les debuts de la contre-reforme 1536-1622),"in Baud, ed., pp. 98-128. For the seventeenth-century ccount of this (re)conversion,see P. Charlesde Geneve,Les trophe'esacre'sou missionsdes capucinsen Savoie (Lau-sanne, 1976).20 JeanDelumeau, Sin and Fear: The Emergenceof a WesternGuilt Culture,13th-18th Centuries, rans.Eric Nicholson (New York, 1990), pt. 3.21 Palluel-Guillard t al., p. 190.22 For more on the rigorismof the early nineteenth-centuryonfessional, see PhilippeBoutry,Pretresetparoisses au pays du Cure' 'Ars, 3d ed. (Paris, 1986), pp.405-8.23 See JudithDevlin, The SuperstitiousMind: FrenchPeasants and theSupernaturalin the NineteenthCentury New Haven,Conn., 1987), for anoverviewof peasantbeliefandthe way "orthodox"Christianitywas constantlythreatenedby the vitality of more"popular" onceptions.

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Possession on theBorders 459mythologyof witchcraft n the fourteenthcentury.24 s will be seen, in theireffortsto combatthemal theMorzinoisseemed all too willingto substantiatepictureof atavisticresurgence,25ndforthis reasonthey attracted hedisgustedcriticism of a Parisian ike Constans.THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAL: Witchcraft and PossessionIt was against this background hat the mal erupted,intensifying until it at-tractedthe full-scale attentionof the state. There was, however, no straight-forwardevolution,anduntangling hevariousaccountsof cause and effect andseparating he narratives f witchcraftandpossession is oftenimpossible. It iseven difficult to know when the mal started.One crucialevent,however,oc-curred n the springof 1857, whenAbbe Favre,the vicaire of theparishunderPinguet'sdirection,took his young female parishionerson retreat o preparethem for theirfirstcommunion.Favreseemedto embodythe unyieldingreli-gion that so worriedclericalreformers.He talkedoften of Satan, believed inblackmagic and evil spirits,26ndterrorized he girlswithhis depictionof thetreasonousJudas.27 eportsof himthushinted at a priest who exhorted,bored,and terrifiedby turns.

He paid special attentionto one girl, PeronneT., who became centraltosubsequentevents. She began to have spasmodicconvulsionsduring his les-sons and,althoughknown to be overjoyedat the prospect of herfirstcommu-nion, remarked hatFavrehad vexed and wearied her to distraction.28 ater,with anotherten-year-old,she claimed to have had a letter from the Motherof God. Letters that came into the village from the outside world, properly24 For this dating,particularlyn relation o the Sabbath,see CarloGinsburg,"Deci-

phering the Witches' Sabbath," n Early ModernEuropean Witchcraft:CentresandPeripheries, ed. B. Ankerloo and G. Henningsen (Oxford, 1990), p. 122. See alsoE. WilliamMonter,Witchcraftn FranceandSwitzerland:TheBorderlandsduring theReformation Ithaca,N. Y., 1976), esp. chap. 1; and the older works of JeanGuiraud,Histoire de l'inquisitionau MoyenAge (Paris,1914), pp.235-60; JeanMarx,L'inquisi-tionen Dauphine':Etudesur le developpement t la re'pression e I'he're'siet la sorcel-leriedu XIVe iecle au debutduregne deFranVoiser (Paris, 1914); andA. VanGennep,Le Folkloredes Hautes-Alpes:Etudedescriptiveet compare'e epsychologiepopulaire(Paris,1948), 2: 72-85.25 VanGennepsought to prove the historical andgeographical inks in Incantationsmedico-magiques n Savoie (Annecy,n.d.), p. 15.26 See the"Rapport e l'AbbeVallentien. .'. L'Evequed'Annecy,Mgr.Magnin," an-uary20, 1869,Arch.Dioc.27 "Rapport e l'Abbe Chamoux,"1866, Arch.Dioc.28 See "Rapport e l'AbbeVallentien";he words she reportedlyused were "Cetabbeme fatigue."

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460 Harrisstamped and delivered, were central events in this tightly woven community,evidence of the importanceof the recipients:"Onesees these girls raise theirhands,as if to receive letters,break he seal, thenreadwith a mixtureof groans,tears, smiles, or satisfactionaccordingto whetherwhat theyread is happyorsad. At thatmoment, they fall to the groundand foam [at the mouth]in analarming ashion. The slightest idea of churchprayer ends them into frightfulcontortions."29 rom the outset their physical and psychic distress was dis-ruptive, as the pair fell into convulsions, utteredprophecies-correctly pre-dicting,for example,who else would fall preyto the mal-and surrenderedothe male "devils" nside them.Thereasons adduced or PeronneT.'s suscepti-bility were her infatuationwith the tableturningand spiritrappingso popularin the 1840s and 1850s3?and hertraumaticwitnessingof the near-drowning fa young girl in March1857.31Nor was the idea of demonic influence particu-larly foreign:a young girl from the nearbyparishof Essert-Mornand ad falleninto convulsions a few years earlier and was taken to Besancon to be exor-cised.32This account of the early stages of the mal is remarkable or the way thedescriptionof Marianencounter s so quicklydismissedin favorof possession.Indeed, there were enough similarities between Morzine and villages wherevisionaries had apparitionsof the Virginto suggest that the mal might havedeveloped differently.A decade earlier,two young shepherdsin the" eigh-boring mountaincountryof the Dauphine saw the Virgin Mary at La Salette;BernadetteSoubiroushad her visions in 1858 in the Pyrenees, and over a de-cade later the girls of Marpingen n the Saarlandhad a similar experience.33Morzine sharedwith these otherexamplesmany geographicaland sociologicalfeatures.Three cases occurredin poor, overpopulatedupland areas; all four

29 On voit ces filles lever les mains, comme pour recevoir des lettres, on les voitrompre le cachet, puis lire avec un melange de gemissements, de pleurs, de ris, desatisfaction selon que ce qu'elles lisent est heureux ou malheureux.Dans le momentactuel, elles tombentparterre et ecumentd'une maniere alarmante.La moindre ideede prierede l'Eglise les jette dans les contorsionsaffreuses.Lettre de Abbe Pinguetal'Eveque (signed also by Favreet Sinvel, vicaires), May 22, 1857, Arch. Dioc.

30 See Thomas A. Kselman, Death and the Afterlife in Modern France (Princeton,N.J., 1993), pp. 143-62; and Nicole Edelman, Voyantes,gue'risseuses t visionnairesen France (1785-1914) (Paris, 1995), esp. pp. 108-58. It is important o note thatAllanKardec,one of the leading lights of spiritism,not only visited Morzine during he out-breakbut also wrote about t as an example of the veracityof his doctrines.31 Constans n. 3 above), p. 23. Indeed, throughouthemal women threwthemselvesinto the Dranse in some reliving of this traumatic, uicidal experience.32 "Rapport e L'abbeChamoux,"1866, Arch. Dioc.33 See J. Stem, ed., La Salette, Documents authentiques,2 vols. (Paris, 1980-84);R. Laurentin, d., Lourdes:Dossier des documentsauthentiques Paris, 1958), esp. vol.1; and David Blackboum, Marpingen:Apparitionsof the VirginMaryin BismarckianGermany Oxford, 1993).

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Possession on theBorders 461happenedon the borderlands ndinvolvedchildrenof similarages; andMar-pingen andMorzineshareda crisis of out-migration hatwas the most salientfeature of theirvillage communities.34 ll were deeply markedby local tra-ditions of Marianpiety, increasinglyoverlaidin midcenturyby the Church-sponsoredvariety.The poorworshipped he Motherof God in local sanctuar-ies, treasuringmiraculous mages discoveredby theirearlymodem forebears;at the sametime, theywere increasingly utored n the dogmaof the Immacu-lateConceptionpromulgated n 1854andwerepartof amovement o inculcatea special love of the Virgin as a model for daughterlypurity and motherlyvirtue.35But for all these similaritiesand, above all, a sharedreligious culture thatbelievedin supernaturalntervention,hepriestsandvillagersof Morzinewerequicklyable to distinguishpossession from Marianapparitionby referencetolong-standingreligious and folkloric traditions.Unlike the visionaries of LaSalette,Lourdes,andMarpingen, he girlsof Morzinesaw no "lady n white";not only was there no ravishingsighting, but in addition the Virgin did notappear n heraccustomedhaunts,on the mountain, n a grotto,or in the forestawayfrom theparishchurch.Moreover, he visionaries sufferedno immediateill effects from her appearance;BernadetteSoubirous was even temporarilyrelieved of her many ailments.Nothing could be more different in the caseof Morzine.From the outset, the girls experienceddebilitatingseizures;theirpropheciesrelayedno generalmission; and the Virginwas quickly replacedby a cast of male charactersvariouslydescribed as "devils,""demons,"andthe "damned." inally,"mischievous" xperimentationwiththespiritworld, aswell as the recentevidence of traumatic vents,all suggestedthe influence ofevil rather han of good.For example,PeronneT.'s afflictionwas contagious,her maladyspreadingto olderwomen.Moreover, hechildrenastonished hevillagersby theirfright-ening acrobatic eats of contortionandphysicalprowess.36Otherevents con-firmedthe presence of evil, andvillagersremembered hat, even before 1857,therehad been uncannyhappenings-above all, thedeathof livestock.Animaldeathswere often seen as an early andominous indicationof witchcraft,andso seriouslydid Constans ater takethis "superstitious" elief that he insisted

34 Blackbourn,Marpingen,esp. chap. 2; Lourdesalso had a similarcrisis, but oneinvolvingmorepermanent migration o SouthAmerica;see Jean-Frangois oulet,LesPyre'ne'esu XIXesiacle (Toulouse,1987), 2:90-91.35 On the cult of the Virgin in the nineteenthcentury,see G. Miegge, The VirginMary: TheRomanCatholicMarianDoctrine(London,1955), pp. 107-33; MarinaWar-ner,Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and Cultof the VirginMary (London,1976), pp.236-54; for the images of Mary, see L'image de piete en France,1814-1914 (Paris,1984), pp. 97-99.36 Constans,pp. 28-29.

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462 Harrison the need for post mortems to "prove" o the villagers that the animals' de-mise resulted from nothing more than the unhygienic and overcrowdedstateof the stables.37Moreover, hroughout he many yearsof the mal, animals, iketheirhumanmasters,seemedpossessed, with horsesrefusingto go wheretheywerebidden and calves acting ike goats,jumpingon mountain ocksandprec-* 38oipices."Whatever he cause of themal, the normallypious, docile, andhardworkingdispositionsof the affected girls and women evaporatedunder its influence.Responsibility for their behavior was firmly placed on the "devils" (lesdcmons)-on rareroccasionsreferred o as the "damned"les damne's)-whotook over theirbodies, spoketheirwords,and commanded heir actions.Thesetwo descriptive erms give some clue as to the spiritualuniversethese womeninhabited.They seemed unconcernedwith the theological distinctionbetween,on the one hand,the "devils,"allenangelsfrom theoriginalrevoltagainstGodand,on the other,the "damned,"ouls who returned romhell to torment heliving. They used both categories, seemingto mix them andtheircharacteris-tics interchangeably.Sometimes their afflictionresembled the activitiesof "devils,"demonstra-ting such classic symptomsof possession as physical contortionsandanabilityto talkin foreign tongues.Althoughnevernamed,39he "devils"neverused thehighly localized patois, speaking insteadin French and German, a polyglotcapacitythatreflected herealityof life in theborderlands.They spoke throughthe possessed womenin Latin,the languageboth of exorcists and of the devil,who couldinvertword orderandmock thepriests.The Germanno doubtcamefrom forays into Switzerland,while smatteringsof Latin came from sermonsand exorcisms. The use of "good"Frenchwas perhapsthe most suggestive,since it was first the languageof revolutionary iberationbutwas increasinglyalso being appropriated y forces of occupationandrepression.40At the same time, these "devils"bore a more thanpassingresemblancetothe errant souls from purgatory who, throughoutFrench peasant culture,playedon thefeelings of the living by returningrom theirnetherworld oplead

37 Letterfrom Constans o the prefect, July 29, 1864, Arch.Dep.38 "Lettredu Brigade de Morzine de la Gendarmerie mperialeau Chef d'escadronde la Gendarmerie e la Haute-Savoie," uly 29, 1865, Arch. Dep.39 Unfortunately,t is uncertain f theywere anonymousor if observerssimplyfailed

to recordtheir names.40 Many authorsmention the differentlanguages spoken,but few as thoroughlyasConstans,pp. 88-96; while atother ntervalshe points to the ignoranceof thevillagers,in this instance he is obliged to acknowledge that lessons were taught in French andthat all children spoke the language fluently from seven or eight years of age. Therewerealso a few words nArabic,as well as a devilwho spokewith anAuvergnataccent.

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Possession on the Borders 463formassesand ndulgencesto speedtheirway to heaven.4'Suchrequestscouldbe made with courtesy,but others pressed their cases menacingly,noisilyhaunting he living until theywere satisfied.42n nearbyLanguedoc,girls andyoung womenwerefrequently hetargetsof suchvisits,43 ndwhenBernadetteSoubirousfirstsaw her vision, local women were convinced that she was re-ceiving a visit from a recentlydeceased woman.44Nor was this the only waythat beings from the other world visited their erstwhilecompanions.As theexample of PeronneT.demonstrated, he girls and women of Morzinepartici-patedin thevoguefor tableturningandspiritrappingandwere no strangers othe disruptivedemandsof the spiritworld.Althoughthese "devils"hadlittle individuality,manyhad a genericidentityas semidomesticatedwanderersor as foreignersnot belongingto the commu-nity.One hunter,who spoke througha possessed girl, describedhimself as aman who detested the Frenchand cursed the priestsas hypocriteswho wouldsoonjoin him in hell. Therewas no remorsefor badbehavior,only a celebra-tion of blood lust: "Ahunterwalks aheadwith the soundof the horn andthebarkingof the dogs,"with a full game bag, liquor,white bread,and meat.45Above all, he praised the pleasureof living in the body of the woman,urgingher to the samewildness,which she actedout by imitating hebarkingdog andthe sounds of the ass, horse, bull, pig, andlamb-virtually the entiremenag-erie of Savoyard ulture.46Othersalso camefrom the semidomesticatedworld:one was a shepherd,47 type of traveler een as havinga specialknowledgeofstars, moon, and sun and who possessed a talent for healing. There is someevidence to suggest that a groupof Swiss shepherdsregularlyappeared n theregionto practicetheir medicinalarts and thatthese men combined anexotic,foreign,and Protestantpresencewith magical practice.48 thirdwas a woods-man, whose way of life also combined domestic and wild features, as hescratcheda living fromthe forestby selling wood, tendingherds for familiestoo poor to rent pasturage,and making charcoal. One girl insisted that this

41 Kselman(n. 30 above),pp. 111-24.42 See CharlesJoisten,"Lesetresfantastiquesdans le folklore de l'Ariege,"ViaDom-itia 9 (1962): 25-48.43 Forthecontinuationof suchtraditions, ee Jean-Pierre inies,Figuresde la sorcel-lerie languedocienne(Paris,1983), esp. pp. 205-41."4Laurentin, ed. (n. 33 above), 1: 143-45, 153-54.45"Rapport de gendarmerie," une 13, 1864 (a statement akenby Dr. Kuhn, Con-stans'ssuccessor, n the gendarmes'presence),Arch.Dep.46 For similar kinds of eruptions,see Lyndal Roper,Oedipus and the Devil: Witch-craft,SexualityandReligion in Early ModernEurope(London,1994), pp. 190-91.47 "Lettrede l'Abbe Blandin,vicaire ... Morzine,"September1, 1864,ArchDioc.48 Devos (n. 17 above), p. 78.

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464 Harrisdevilhadmutilatedherwith his axe.49All threeof thesecharacters eemed tiedto a marginal f not semilegal existence andto occupationsthatwere increas-ingly underthreat.The hunterwas most likely a poacher,using the forest tokill gamethatbelonged to others;shepherdswereknownto bringherds acrossthe frontier llegally to escape taxes; and woodsmenoften eked out an illicitliving in forests that were no longer communal propertybut increasinglyowned andmanagedby richproprietors.50While these "devils"celebrated their deeds, othersexpressedremorseforsins thathadcondemnedthem to hell, showing an astonishingdegreeof con-formity to the rigorsof Counter-Reformationeaching.Again, on the wholethese sinnerswere not from Morzine,but strangersor outsiders. One devilfromAbondance(a neighboringcommune) was licked by eternalflames forhaving "eatenmeat on Friday."5'One woman who had eight "devils"gavevoice to a Frenchmanwho died at fifty-two:"I missed mass, disobeyedmyparents,went to the veille'e,playedcards with libertines,blasphemed,saidbadthings aboutreligion and priests.... I am justly damned."52 his catalog ofmisbehavior n fact summed up well how the women behavedduringtheirwinter gatherings.Any good Catholic might regretsuch misconduct,but inMorzinesuch remorse was linkedto the evils of bewitchmentand an intensefear of hell. The two kindsof devils showeddifferentrelationships o sin, theformerreveling in transgression, he lattertormentedby commission of theslightestinfractionagainstreligiousorthodoxy.Amongthe many subversiveactivities of the "devils"weretheirrejectionoflocal food, describedby Constansas miserablebread,"potatoesof badquality;saltedand smokedmeat,often contaminated;he residues of milk; and a badcheese, hard and heavy, called tomme."53 Instead, they demanded cripplinglyexpensive alternativesassociated with luxurious city life, such as sugaredblack coffee and chocolates. They sat at veille'es-seen, in this instance, assubversivebecause they encouraged ndividuals to impoverishtheirfamiliesby drinking-and showedimmoralityby playing cards.54 heirdemands aterbecameso extremethattheywantedthe samefood athome thattheyhadeatenat government xpense when in hospital,55 nd, if theirfamilies protested, he

49 Constans(n. 3 above), pp. 26-27.50 For the story of these struggles in the Pyrenees, see Peter Sahlins, ForestRites:TheWarof theDemoiselles in Nineteenth-Century rance(Cambridge,Mass., 1994).51 C. Chiara,Les Diables en Morzineou les nouvellesposse'ees (Lyon,1861), p. 14.52 "Lettrede I'AbbeBlandin, vicaire'aMorzin?,"September1, 1864, ArchDioc.53 Constans,p. 5.54 Ibid.,pp. 48-50.55 The distress of the families is evident in "Rapportde gendarmerie,"October 15,1863, andagainin "Rapport e gendarmerie,"anuary15, 1867,Arch.Dep.

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Possession on theBorders 465convulsionsbeganagain, alwaysprecededby anepigastriccrisis in whichtheyfelt as if they wouldexplode.

As in many village cultures,food and identitywere symbolically linked.Survival n overpopulated illages dependedon thewillingness to sell the bestfoodstuffs for cash and to keep appetitesconstantly n check.Again, the malinverted his patternwhen the womendemandedprohibitedalternatives. n sodoing, they subvertedandmocked; theyinsisted on eau-de-vie,the classic giftof the bridegroom o the fatherof the bride and a symbol of masculineex-change. The otherfoodstuffswere the preserveof therichandproductsof thecity,andby demanding hemtheylinkedthemselveswith the sinful life of theurbanworldbeyondthe mountains.Such behaviorrequiresinterpretation, lthoughmaking sense of the lan-guage andbodily experienceof these suffering women takes us beyondcon-ventional historical analysis. Anthropologists ike Janice Boddy who haveworkedon the Zarcultin the Sudanhaveanalyzedsimilarphenomena n termsof a refined version of discourseanalysis.56Women'sdevilishejaculationsaredescribedas an "anti-language"hatexpresseddisquietandlonging, invertingandreassessing daily life fromthe perspectiveof the underprivileged.She ar-gues that the unique power of an "anti-language" erives from its "muted"qualities,for subversive eelings andideas arepresented n an idiom of com-pleteirresponsibility: ftereachoutburst, hewomen distancethemnselvesromtheirstatementsandbehaviorand are able to return o normal ife while cre-ativelyforgingnew identities of self andcommunity.It is tempting o applya similaranalysisto thepossessedwomen of Morzineand to see them as expressinga subversivediscourse hatdestabilized hehege-monic ones that constrained hem. The Morzinoises were able to transgressthe moralandgenderorderof theircommunitywithout sanctionas theyblas-phemed,refused to work, and actedlike the wildest of men. Thus, the hunterbarked,whinnied,andsnortedso thatallwho knew thewomanwereconvincedthatthe "devil,"not she, was responsible.Moreover,such an "anti-language"would havepermitted hem to confront he worldbeyondthe mountains,sincethe devils were foreignersandstrangerswho relativizedthe women'spositionat home. They commentedunabashedlyon the women'stormentsand desiresby actingout their azy, brutish,repentant,or self-flagellating antasies.In thiskind of interpretation,he "devils"'commentaryon village life createda poet-ics of transgression ndrelativity.57hewomen could be seen as mythical"bri-

56 See her impressive Wombsand Alien Spirits: Women,Men, and the Zar Cult inNorthernSudan(Madison,Wis., 1989), esp. pp. 156-59.57 Ibid., pp. 301-9, as well as Peter Stallybrassand Allon White, ThePolitics andPoetics of TransgressionLondon, 1986).

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466 Harriscoleurs"58 who used the debris of historical experience, religious training, andstorytelling o construct heirdemon world.Wandering ews, the damnedburn-ing in hell, the life and times of hunters and journeyers-all would have en-abled the possessed to remakethemselves and recast village morality.This seductive approachto the understandingof the possession crisis ofMorzine, however, alls dangerously hortof grasping henegative,disruptive,and physically violent features of the mal. While the theory of an "anti-language" heds light on the creativeand imaginativepossibilities of such phe-nomena-particularly in regard o relativizingMorzineto the world outside-it denies the painful elements that sustained he mal for so long. For the rebel-lion took on a physically compulsiveform that was as much self-destructiveasit was subversive.Visitors commentedon the women'swide range of physicalsymptoms, he seizures, the feelings of suffocation,andthe stomachdisorders;other sufferershurtthemselveswhen their"devils"mutilated hem with axes,or when they beat themselves against the furniture; till others screamedinagony when the "demons" nside them made them trembleconvulsively.59Moreover,the possession crisis unleashed a hatred of men that had bothliberatingand self-defeating consequences. Wives refused to sleep with hus-bands,and daughters eveled n theirwillingnessto challengepatriarchal irec-tives. Forexample, duringa veille'e,one girl reportedlymockedherfriend forreceiving a paternalbeating, remarking,"You are really stupid; if my fatherhad done as much to me, I would have killed him."60Such understandablegesturesof defiance, however,could be accompaniedby more destructivebe-havior.Repeatedlythe possessed women soughtto provehow ineffectivetheirmenfolk wereby parading heir "devils"as their new masters,therebydimin-ishing men who were alreadyemasculatedby economic pressuresandemigra-tion. Moreover, he mal broughtfamilies to the brinkof destruction.Fathershad to search for cures among doctors in Geneva and Lausanne, among theCapuchin missionaries at St. Maurice-en-Valais,and even as far away asEinsiedeln in Switzerland.6'These journeys involved tremendousoutlays ofmoney,which this impoverished ommunitycould ill afford.As will be seen, these expedients gave the possessed a brief vacation,buttheydidlittle to remedythe women'sgrievancesor to restorea sense of gendercomplementarity.Nor were fathersand husbands he only ones to be mocked;all local men of authorityand influencewere swept aside and deemed "notgood enough."Abbe Favre andhis ineffectual exorcisms were derided. Other

58 See ClaudeLevi-Strauss,TheSavage Mind(Chicago, 1966), pp. 21-22.59Constans(n. 3 above), p. 52.60 Ibid., p. 49.61 Ibid.,pp. 27-28.

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Possession on theBorders 467men with soundermotives and morepower like the bishop were spaton anddefiled.Finally,the few able-bodiedmen who did not leave the community nthe months of migrationwere, as will be seen, accusedof witchcraft.Forsev-eralyears,civilized interactionamongthevillagersended,andthe lack of localsolutions eftopenthepossibilityof moreauthoritariannes devised by outsid-ers like Constans.Perhapsnowherewas thebreakdownn village solidaritymoreevidentthanduringthe accusationsof witchcraft.In theory,witchcraftandpossession aredistinct phenomena.Witchcraft mplies a voluntary pact with evil and thespreadof misfortunethrough spells and curses;possession, in contrast,pre-sents a passive and victimized subject nto whom the demons enter.62 he for-merphenomenonrestson the knowledgeandactiveperpetration f sin, whilethe latterdisengages the moralresponsibilityof the subject.The happeningsin Morzineobscuredsuch distinctions, or the villagersbelieved that all theirmisfortunes, ncludingthe susceptibilityof the women to possession,resultedfrom theevil designs of a witch who had ensnared heentireparish.Witchcraftandpossession werethuslinked in Morzinethrough erritory,63ith cracks ofvulneiabilityappearing verywhere n theparish n a varietyof forms: animalsdied, accidentsoccurred,andgirlsbecamepossessed,with thelastonly one ofthe many plaguesbroughtby the witch'sgreatpower.After the early crisis initiatedby the communionlessons, the mal spreadwhen village women accusedwitches-often unnamed-of evil intent.Clau-dine G. said thatone of the witches prowled aroundher house withoutherbeing able to see or hearhim;64MarieCh. knew a sorcererhadbewitched herby the way he caughthereye;65Fran9oiseB. lapsed into convulsionswhen anunknownmanspiedon herand heranimals n the stable and thentransformedhimself into a bird.66A witch made Suzanne B. eat his bread,forcingher to

62 In practice,however,possession was more thanthis brief definitioncan convey;itwas a highly complex social performanceandpsychological state,and in famous ex-amples could destabilize social values and genderroles. For the classic example, seethedocumentspresentedby Michel de Certeau,LaPossessionde Loudon Paris,1990);for the dynamics of power involved in the recordingandinterpretation f the languageof possession, see Michel de Certeau,L'e'criture e l'histoire (Paris,1975), pp.250-73.63 See JeanneFavret-Saada, eadlyWords:Witchcraftn theBocage, trans.CatherineCullen (Cambridge,1980), p. 196. Favret-Saada hows how witchcraftbelief implieda vision of the subject without Cartesiandualism, an idea of the self that made nodistinctionsbetween mind and body,progenyand property, he last category encom-passing both animalsandterritory. he speaksonly of familialdomains,while Morzineshowed how an entireparishmightbe contaminated.64Arthaud,Relation d'une hystero-demonopathien. 2 above), p. 24.65 Ibid., p. 28.66 Ibid., p. 29.

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468 Harrisingest his evil influence, while a differentFran9oiseB. dranka glass of winein the companyof a witch and claimed to be vomiting it up a year later.67 hetales seem to reworkreligious mythologyandritual:sharingbread was not ameans of spiritual communion, but the ingestion of evil; wine was not theblood of redemption,butapoisonthatcouldneverbe ejected. The womanwhoworked n the stable-suggestive of thewarmthof the manger-was spiedonin a voyeuristic ashion by a bird-mannot at all like the dove of the holy spirit.Whatis interestinghere is how closely tied to the liturgythe witches' actionswere;like the "demons"who missed mass and ate meat on Friday, heirbehav-ior seemedutterlypredictable-simple inversion antasiesthatreferred epeat-edly to orthodoxChristianbelief.

The Morzinoiswere obsessed with identifyingthe evildoer responsible.Ini-tially,theybelieved the trouble aywith the shadowyand elusive figureofAbbeCottet,once a priestin the parish.They rememberedhow they had thwartedhis earlierattempts o completea new chapel,promptinghim to retaliatewiththe words, "I will stick in a thornin [Morzine]that will not be pulled outvery quickly,"68metaphor hatsuggesteda naggingandpainful nflammation.Virtuallyall subsequentaccountsrelatedthe mal to this imprecation.69n sus-pecting Cottet,the villagers were acknowledging hatpriestshadspecial pow-ers, which came not merely from the transubstantiationf the Host but alsofrom their constantcontact with the supernatural.f good, theycould be reliedon to protectanimals,fields,and householdsfromdisturbance,o ease thewayof shepherdsandtravelers,and to expel evil spirits.70 he hereticalnotion thatimplied that the powerof the sacramentswas tied to the virtue or sinfulnessofthe priest keenly affectedthe villagers' perceptionof Cottet,who was seen asinclined to use his powersfor evil.The villagers sought strong countermeasuresn the form of sorceryto re-lease themselves from his spells. At an uncertaindate early in the story butbeforeConstans'sarrival n 1861, a groupof armedvillagers went in the deadof night to a ruinedchapel-the unfinished edifice of Abbe Cottet's ambi-tions-by a lake near Montriond, six or eight kilometers from Morzine.There, they eviscerated a dog, took out its liver, savagely ran it througheigh-teen times with a sabre and thenburiedit in the middle of the chapel amidst

67 Ibid.,pp. 33, 40.68 "Rapport e l'Abbe Chamoux,"1866,Arch. Dioc.69They had risked his wrath,no doubt,because they would have had to contributeboth money and labor to the project, and the new chapel would have shifted power,influence, and scarce resources from Morzine. For the competition among priestsfornew chapels, see Palluel-Guillard t al. (n. 12 above), p. 191.70 Fora discussionof priestlypowerin anotherperipheral ndpious regionof France,see SandraOtt, The Circle of Mountains:A Basque ShepherdingCommunityOxford,1981), pp. 94-96.

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Possession on theBorders 469curses.7'The eighteenblows were meant to represent he days left in Cottet'slife; they were disappointedwhen the priest survived,demonstrating he de-monic strength hat enabled him to repel suchpowerfulcountermagic.

Unlike theevents describedabove,this episodedrewon a rich fund of secre-tive,magical practicethatdivergedsharply romthe liturgy. n theregion, vil-lagersprotectedthemselves againstspells by burying iving snakesunder thethresholdsof houses, boiling nails in special vinegars, orheating a pot until itwas red hot and thenstriking t, hoping thereby o deflect the witch'spower.72Even in this magical arena,however, piety and sorcery often went hand inhand; magical incantations, or example, parodiedthe Ave Maria, while thecrucifix andholy waterwere the most widely used talismansagainstevil spir-its. Gue'risseurs-sorciers oulddivinethe saintresponsible orparticularmal-adies andthenproposea series of offeringsto placatesupernaturalageso thatthe bewitched could be "released."73Whateverhis initialresponsibility,t soon becameevident that Cottetcouldnot be the sole cause of the problem. As the symptomscontinued to growworselong afterhe hadleft, new causeswere adduced or theirpersistence.Inparticular,villagers concentratedon the dissolution of their treasuredCon-fraternityof St. Esprit n 1860 and the transferof its assets to a secularbureaude bienfaisancein the last moment of Savoyardadministration.74hey wereconvinced that their afflictionwas due to its destructionandconsequently n-vited a local magnetizer nto their midst to combat theirtroubles. This manarrivedwith twelve disciples and for five months went from house to house,boardingandlodgingat theexpenseof the afflictedfamilies.75The symbolismhere was explicit:theconfraternitywas identifiedwith Christand the apostles,andin housingthese men theMorzinoishopedto restorethe spiritualbalanceof the parish.76Alongside this action was the perceived need to combat those neighborsseen as the beneficiariesof the confraternity'sxtinction,whetherunderSavo-yardor laterunderFrenchadministration. ccordingly, he accusationsshiftedfromAbbes Cottet and Favreandcameto rest on those holding special powerin the village, the notaryin charge of propertytransactionsand the miller,Chauplanaz.Thekey objectof hatred,however,was JeanBerger,a cobblerand

71 Constans(n. 3 above),pp. 40-41.72A. VanGennep, Le Folkloredes Hautes-Alpes:Etudedescriptiveet comparee depsychologiepopulaire (Paris, 1948), 2:92-93.73 PhilippeTerreaux,La Savoie adis et naguere (Paris,n.d.), p. 133.74 For Cavour's cclesiasticalpolicy, see R. Aubert, Le Pontificat de Pie IX (1846-1878) (Paris,1952), pp. 76-80.75 "Rapport e l'Abbe Chamoux,"1866, Arch. Dioc.76 Little is known of themagnetizerexcept thathe was convictedof charlatanism ndimprisoned or five yearswhen his ineffectivenessagainst the mal was proven.

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470 Harristhe mayor'sadjoint whose influence had increased with annexation.Bergerissued, for a fee, certificatesthat testified to the health of animals takenintoSwitzerland,was paid for official seals, and, underFrenchadministration, oldfor a fee the hated livrets d'ouvrier that were so vital to migratingworkers: nother words, he controlled the process of leaving and returning hat was soessential to the village's continuedsurvival.Berger maintainedhe acted honestly, bringingthe benefits of the new ad-ministration o the village.77The villagers, however,accused him of fraudoverbuildingworks and saw his claims as merely a cover for personal ambition.Moreover, hechurchseemed to agree and, angryat the dissolutionof the con-fraternity nd for otheraffronts, ocal priestsdenied him confession.78Berger'sFrench oyaltiesafter 1860 sealed his reputation;t was only a step further osee his declarationsas an indicationof the sort of disloyaltythata witch wouldbe sureto possess. Eventually, he authoritieswere forced to give him policeprotection rom themurderous mpulsesof the villagers who, with pitchforks,axes, andsticks, triedto kill him.79At firstglance, the witch accusationsseemed to share all the characteristicsof the sixteenthand seventeenthcenturies,with animaldeath, llness, and mis-fortune followed by individualand collective efforts to forestallthe witches'power.80But such superficial similarities are deceptive. At Morzine, nine-teenth-centuryensions were revealedby the accusations,as powerfulmen-first a vengeful priest and later representativesof the state within the localcommunity-became the targetsof hatred.For in the early modernperiod,older women were most likely to be accusedof blighting crops, killing live-stock, anddeformingbabies with blackmagic.For a brief momentduring hemal such a traditional igure almost appeared,when one of the girls at thecommunion lesson spoke of an old (unnamed)womanfrom the neighboringcommune of Gest as the likely sourceof evil. She neverappearedagainin thenarrative,however.Villagers instead transferred heir anger againstthose whobenefitedfrom political change and were held responsiblefor upsettingthealreadydelicate spiritualand economic balance of the community.This im-

77"Lettre de justification ecrite par Jean Berger au sous-prefet,"April 11, 1862,Arch. Dep.78 BrigadierCommandantFourcade, "Rapport res confidentiel," anuary28, 1864,Arch. Dep., relatedhow a priest at the Mission of St. Mauricehadrefused Berger abso-lution, taking him to task for not believing in witchcraft, accusing him of workingagainst the St.-Espritand of being a spy for a secret society, possibly a reference toliberal-leaninggroupsassociated with anticlericalism.79Constans,pp. 43-44.80 Robin Briggs,Communities f Belief: Culturaland Social Tension n EarlyModernFrance (Oxford, 1989), esp. pp. 83-106. Formore, see RobertMandrou,Magistratsetsorciers en Franceau XVIIsiecle (Paris, 1968).

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Possession on the Borders 471portantshift shows how wrong it is to see witchcraft n Morzine as a throw-back; the villagers built on a centuries-old traditionbut invested witchcraftwith new and differentpsychic and social anxieties.THE SEARCH FOR A CURECentral o thevillagers' perceptionof the afflictionwas the idea that the entireparishwas contaminatedand thatbeyondits borders mprovementcould befound.Therewere two importantandintertwinedconsequences of this belief.First, the afflictedenteredthe migratoryworld previously restricted o men;they were permitted he luxuryof traveland affordedthe opportunity or ad-ventures.Second, they acted out an aggressive fantasytowardthe men-fa-thers,husbands, priests, physicians-at home, constantly insisting that theywere "notgood enough"to alleviatethe mal. Even those who treated hem onthe outside were generallyinadequate o the task, so that Morzine seemed tolive in a constantstate of crisis.In their searchfor relief, the afflicted used overlapping emedies;the docu-ments reveal no linearmovementfrom one expedientto the next, but ratherrecordcertainmomentswhen avarietyof particulartrategieswerebeing used.From the earliestdaysof the mal, the afflictedbegged the priestsat home notonly to saythe conventionalblessingfor loci et animaliumbut also to exorcisebeasts, property,and people.8'Exorcism was the obvious first step, and therecords show that by 1861 several of the afflicted had already experiencedovera dozen such ineffective interventions.Theyturned o thepriestsbecauseexorcismwas, in a sense, anordinarypartof life, encounteredatbaptismwhenthe priestordered he devil to leave thenewborn'sbody and makeway for theholy spirit.82Local churchmen,such as Abbe Pinguet, performedsemipublicand collective exorcisms andonly stoppedwhen, as mentionedearlier,Frenchpressuremade this courseno longerviable. The controversialAbbe Favrealsoconducted suchcollective rites in 1858, andcontemporary eportsrecounttheharrowingphysical expulsionof the"devils":"ateach exorcismthepeoplerollon the ground,make [others]hear the mewing [of cats] and feel suffocatedbya lumpin their throatswhich makes themvomit;there is then a panting,likethe yapping [of a dog]."83Their bodies invadedby a bestial evil, they wereunable to ingest the Eucharist,and in this mortal combat the "devils" were

81 "Lettrede I'Abbe Vallentienau Prevot," anuary20, 1869,Arch. Dioc.82 See theentryon "exorcism"which discusses the"exorcismespreparatoires ubap-teme," n theDictionnairede the'ologie atholique (Paris,1912), 5:1778-79.83 [A] chaqueexorcisme les personnesse roulentpar terre; ont entendredes miaule-ments, se sententcommesuffoqueesparunglobule qui leurmonte au cou, les provoquea vomir,suit une respirationprecipitee,qui ressemble'aune sorte dejappement.AbbeVallentien,"Recitretrospectifde L'AbbeVallentien,"Arch. Dioc.

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472 Harrismore powerful than the local priests.84Those afflicted deserted their priestsearlyon in the story (although he exactdate is uncertain),going to thenearbybourg of Samoens and then to the Capuchinmissionaries at St. Maurice-en-Valais where twenty-sevenof them were exorcised.85When these measuresdid not work, the clergy were accused of not being"good enough," heirpowersunderminedby weakness or sinfulness.The af-flicted sought ever more powerfulpriests and pinned great hopes on thepasto-ral visit of Monsignor Magnin in 1864. A French governmentappointeeofSavoyard rigin,Magninhadsoughtreconciliationwith thesecularauthorities,but Constans'suse of the armyto quell the mal and the physician'shigh-handedattitude oward heclergy quicklysouredrelations.86Magnin'sdesireto defendthe faithful and to exercise his moral andspiritualauthority,87owever,did notmean he was willing to exorcise. He was convinced that the mal was mentalillness, not diabolicalpossession,and had resisted the parishioners' ntreaties.When he arrived,he Morzinoisseemedcalm,88 ut seven oreightwomen werein convulsionsby the timehe came to the churchand, later,between sixty andeighty were rolling around n the cemetery,screaming nsults athim when herefused to exorciseone sufferer:"Wolfof a bishop,we must tear out his eyes;he hasn't he power to cure the girl;no, he cannot rid the girl of the devil."89On his refusal to exorciseher,they set on him inside the church,kicking andinsulting him, spitting in his face, and finally ripping off his pastoralring.

84 For more on exorcism, see Roper (n. 46 above), pp. 171-80.85 "Lettrede Berard,missionnairede Saint Frangoisde Sales ... l'eveque,"June20, 1861, Arch. Dioc.86 See "Lettrede Constans ... .a l'Eveque,"May 20, 1861,Arch.Dioc., in whichCon-stansaccuses the local clergy of superstitiousbelief, andMagnin'sangry replyof May16, 1864, Arch. Dep.; for Constans'sconciliatoryresponses see his letters of July 30

andAugust 9, Arch.Dioc.87 Whereasthe Second Empirehad broughtcollaborationbetweenchurchand state,these relations souredin 1859, both from internal clerical scandals and from the in-creasinglydivisive Romanquestion.The eclipse of the churchby the secularauthorityin the later stages of the mal reflected, on a local scale, this national shift in policy,particularly mportant n bringing Catholic Savoy to heel. Forbackground, ee Aubert(n. 74 above), pp. 80-97, 108-23. See also ReneRemond,L'anticle'ricalismen France(Brussels, 1985), pp. 9-10; and Alec Mellor, Histoire de l'anticle'ricalismeranVais(Tours, 1966), pp. 232, 287-91. For clerical scandals, see CarolineFord, "Guerryvs.Picpus: Religion, Propertyand the Politics of Anticlericalism n Nineteenth-CenturyFrance" (unpublished typescript, Departmentof History, University of British Co-lumbia).88 "Rapport u Sous-Prefetau Prefet sur les eve'nements ui se sont passes le 30 avrilet le ler mai-3 mai 1864,"Arch. Dep. See also CharlesLafontaine n Le magnetiseur(May 15, 1864); the articlein the Courrierdes Alpes (May 21, 1864), takenup by Lemonde(May 22, 1864); and the article n L'union medicale (July 2, 1864).89 "Rapport u Sous-Prefetau Prefet,"May 3, 1864, Arch. Dep.

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Possession on the Borders 473Perhapsmore thanany other, his event tilted local power away rom the bishopto Constans.Whilereligiouspreoccupations ominated herantingsof thepossessed,andthe remediestheychose oftendependedon the consolationsof the church, heafflictedeasily deserted ts ranks o go in searchof secularhealers.They chosemost notably the prince of European magnetism,CharlesLafontaine, wholived in Genevaduringthese years. In journeyingto him, they demonstratedtheirwillingness to trynew remedies,as well as theirknowledgeof the latesttherapeutic ashions. He saw the mal as the result of exaltedreligious feelinggone awry,and he blamed Favrefor his exorcismsthat,he believed,hadonlyintensifiedthe disorderby confirming he superstitious ears of Satan.

With this "enlightened" erspective,he examined the case of VictoireVuil-let, who demonstratedall the symptomsof the disorder:head- and stomach-aches, feelings of suffocation in the epigastric region, nervous tremblings,somnambulic rances,and wild behavior.When she appearedn his consultingroom she screamed,bent her body in such a contortedmannerthat her headtouchedher feet, suspendedherself from the back of a chair "in a positionimpossible to describe,"90nd then jumped on all the furniture.Lafontainesoughtto calm herthrougha magnetictranceand the applicationof magneticwater. He placed a handon her hand and the other on her stomach and "allthese marvelssuddenly stopped,and we were merelywith a sick personwhomoaned and twisted in convulsions which we were able to stop almost in-stantly."9'He finished the first treatmentby inducinga somnambulic tate andafter thirtyminutes released her into calm consciousness. He repeatedthistreatment or two weeks and claimed its complete efficacy,both for her andfor five others.We may doubt his claims, and Lafontainehimself acknowledgedthathispurported uccessdidnot terminate hemal, since the superstition hatreignedin the mountainskeptit alive.His accountof his work gives little sense of howtheMorzinoisesviewed his operations.They probablyrecognizedanauthoritywho, despite the lack of priestly garb, impressedthem with his commandingpersonality (all contemporary ecords attest to his charisma)and the occultqualityof his expertise.However, ike thepriestswho exorcised,his approachwas overtly physical. He did not use the sign of the cross, preferring nsteadthe movementsof greatpasses thatswoopedaround he subjectand persuadedher to enter a trance.The waterwas magneticrather han holy, seemingly pos-sessed of physical qualitiesthat actedon the disturbedand"hysterical" rgan-ism. Both priestand magnetizertouched and exhorted, using props and ges-

90CharlesLafontaine,L'art de magne'tiser, u le magnetismeanimal considre' sousle point de vue the'orique, ratique et the'rapeutiqueParis, 1866), p. 348.91Ibid., p. 349.

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474 Harristures of remarkable imilarity and resonance.Indeed, the afflictedmay verywell have appreciatedLafontaine'smethods because they remindedthem ofmorefamiliarreligiousrites. Bothpriestandmagnetizerrehearsed heirmovesaccording o a sexualscript, heirmasculineauthority ontrastedwiththe alter-natively ragingor quiescentfemale presenceostensiblyundertheircontrol.None of these expedientsproducedanythingbut temporary elief, and thecrisis prompted he administrationn Paris to interveneon two separateocca-sions. Like the magistratesandecclesiastics of the sixteenth and seventeenthcenturies,Adolphe Constansarrivedendowed with the powers bestowed onhim by centralizingauthoritiesandwith a briefto restoreorder;2 the reactionof the villagers in both eras was to fly to the hills and resist. But here thesimilarities end. Counter-Reformation fficials often sought not to reconvertbut to impose for the first time Christianpracticesandbeliefs on a populationinnocent of church dogma and ritual.93 n contrast, Constans brought thethoughtprocessesof modem positivismandadministration ndsought to im-pose themin anenvironmentwhereneither raditionnorreputation anctionedhis authority.94Constans confronted what he saw as a case of hystero-demonopathy ndused retrospectivediagnosis to place the mal in a historicalcontext.Workingwithin an establishedpsychiatricgenre,he saw Morzine as partof a traditionof pathologicalreligiousexperience,as he showedthe similaritiesbetweenthephysical convulsions manifestedthroughout hat traditionand comparedtheisolation of convents o thewhiteseclusionof thehigh Alps.95Buthe also madeimportantdistinctions,comparing hediabolicalutterancesof, forexample,thenuns of Loudun-educated women of high social standing-with the banaland brutalexclamationsof the peasantfolk of Morzine.96His disdain for thelocal poor was not mere disgust, however;he was also making a point abouthistorical evolution. It was not, in his view, surprising hat the sixteenthandseventeenthcenturies had a surfeit of such pathologicalmanifestations,asthey were partof a particular poch and its spiritualpredilections.However,

92 Mandrou n. 80 above),chaps. 2, 3.93 See Jean Delumeau, Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire, trans. JeremyMoiser (London,1977), pp. 203-27, andSin and Fear (n. 20 above), pts. 2, 3.94 Forthe historyof the emergenceof an influentialcadre of alienists, see JanEllenGoldstein, Consoleand Classify:TheFrenchPsychiatricProfessionin theNineteenthCentury New York,1987). See also her work thatimpingeson ideas of collective be-havior in early psychiatrictheory: JanGoldstein,"'MoralContagion':A ProfessionalIdeology of Medicine andPsychiatry n Eighteenth-andNineteenth-Century rance,"in Professions and the FrenchState, 1700-1900,,ed. Gerald L. Geison (Philadelphia,1984), pp. 181-222.95Constans(n. 3 above), p. 13.96 Ibid., p. 106.

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Possession on the Borders 475he was visibly affrontedthat such "superstitious"deas shouldpersist in themid-nineteenth entury.He saw the mal as a dangerous xampleof their anach-ronistic survival,and he sawFrance'sannexationof Savoy as an opportunity oimpose his view of psychic and physical health.Such an approachshowed the yawning gap in understandingbetween thevillagersand the plenipotentiary.Otherattitudes,however,show a strange n-tersection of belief. For example,in using the theory of degeneration-fullyelaborated n 1857 by Auguste Morel-Constans sought an explanation ofhow noxious environmental ndhereditary haracteristics ouldbe transmittedto succeeding generations.97While Morel's work had concentratedon the ur-ban environmentof factoryworkers n Rouen, Constans appliedsimilarprin-ciples to the mountains,pointingto the qualityof the food, the coldnessof thewater,and the frigidityof the climate in general,which in his view was tooharsh or a healthyphysiologicalequilibrium.Such an assessmentof local con-ditions was notdissimilar o those "voiced"by the afflictedwho sought tempo-raryrelief by fleeing theirpays, demandingthe luxuriesof urban foodstuffsand enjoyingthe fare providedby hospitals.Both Constans and the afflictedthus madecomparisionsbetween Morzine and the "modem"world,and bothfound the village lacking.With these common points theiragreementended,however.Constanscondemnedtheir belief in witchcraftandpossession as ar-chaic, while the afflicted groped towardexpressingnineteenth-century on-flicts throughreligious traditionshe despised.Moreover,Constans's"solutions"could be dramaticallypunitive.He wasalmosta caricature f thenineteenth-centuryecularizingphysician,represent-ing thattraditionn its coerciverather han ts tolerantguise. Indeed,his thera-peutic rationalewas perhapsharsher n its implicationsthan thatproposedbythe local clergy. Had it worked,exorcism would have provideda means ofexpelling the "devils"both from the physicalbodies of the women and fromthe contaminated erritoryof the parish.In contrast,Constansdemandedthesuppressionof the "demons"and insisted thatthey were an integralaspectofthe maladyrather han a discreteforeign agentthat could be spewedforth andthusejected.I amhardlysuggestingthat exorcism hadno physicalorpsycho-

97 B.-A. Morel, Traitedes dege`ne`rescenceshysiques, intellectuelles et morales de1'especehumaineet des causes quiproduisentces varie'tesmaladives(Paris, 1857).Forworkthatdeals with the history of the idea of degeneration, ee R. Nye, "Degenerationand the Medical Model of CulturalCrisis in the French Belle Epoque," n PoliticalSymbolism n ModernEurope,ed. S. Drescheret al. (New Brunswick,N. J., 1982), pp.19-41; I. Downbiggan,"Degenerationand Hereditarianismn French Mental Medi-cine, 1840-90,9 in TheAnatomyof Madness: Essays in the Historyof Psychiatry,ed.W F Bynumet al., 3 vols. (London,1985-88), 1:188-232; andmy Murdersand Mad-ness: Medicine, Lawand Society in the Fin-de-Siecle (Oxford, 1989), pp. 51-79.

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476 Harrislogical costs, but it might havebrought he relief of blaming the "devils."98ncontrast,Constans'sanalysisof demonopathyand hysteriafocused on the ill-ness's pervasive, nescapablequality and the individual's and local society's)responsibility or it.Above all, Constansgeneratedmore fear, as women fled across the moun-tainsto escape the infantryor were forcibly detained n nearbyhospitals untilthey were "cured."Even he ultimately recognized the need for a more subtlepolicy. He redrewMorzine'sboundariesand had an important mperialroadbuilt that channeledmovementin new directions, literally transforming heterritoryof the mal.99With these physical changescame a shift in social wel-fare;he provided pensions for the needy'00and even subsidizedthe familieswhose womenfolk were hospitalized.'0' New clergymen, whom Constanshoped would oppose the demonic andmagical beliefs of the parishioners nthe confessional, arrived n the village to unite administrativeand religiousauthority.'02als, music societies, and a librarywere introduced o sootheandenlighten, while the soldiers billettedin the village ultimatelytransformed hevillage economy by paying for their room and board and helping with theharvest.CONCLUSIONWith Constans, the women finally found a male figure who, if not "goodenough"to cure the mal, was certainlypowerful enoughto transform t. Theafflicted of Morzine-impoverished, physically exhausted,and emotionallydistraught-did not consciously invite Constans's ntervention.Here I wouldlike to stress the difference between theirpowerfulunconscious fantasiesofaggressionand the unsoughtconsequencesof their realization.The afflicted

98 For a contemporary xample of these preoccupations,see Mart Bax, "Women'sMadness in Medjugorje:Between Devils andPilgrimsin a YugoslavDevotional Cen-tre,"Journalof MediterraneanStudies 1 (1992): 42-54.99See "Rapport u gendarmerie," eptember20, 1864, Arch Dep. The extentof thechangeshe wroughtcanbe divinedfromthe following: Constans's ettersto theprefecton September28, 1864, andOctober 11, 1864, and the confidentialreport o the sous-prefect on October22, 1864.100 etter fromConstansto the prefect, September28, 1864, Arch. Dep. In this mis-sive, he asks the prefectto arrangea pension for a soldier from Morzine who lost hissight while on leaverather hanon duty,knowingfull well that they would need to gobeyondthe letterof the law to enable the injuredman to take up his place in the In-valides.101Onewayin whichthishelpwasgivenwasby offeringsix months' eaveto soldiersfrom Morzinewho came from afflicted amilies, enabling hem to keep thefamily econ-omy going. See "Rapport e gendarmerie," uly 26, 1865, Arch Dep.

102 "Lettrede Constans a 'Eveque, May 20, 1861, Arch. Dioc.

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Possession on the Borders 477were too absorbedby their mmediatemiseryto considertheiraimsdispassion-ately, and they caused havoc by accusing men of witchcraftand inadequacy.hardlywish to suggest that their underlyinggrievanceswere without ustifica-tion. Rather, amarguing hattheonly availableoutlet for theirrageand hatredwas destructivebehavior,which not only intensified their suffering but alsomade it difficultto renegotiatevillage genderrelations.Understandinghiscomplex psychological dynamic s central o questioningthe Foucauldianorthodoxy which has hithertounderpinned he study of themal; Constans's"triumph"was not merely the installationof a new discursive"medico-administrativepparatus" ut was equally the fulfillment of an un-conscious, inchoate,and oftendangerouslyaggressiveemotionalprocess.Thewomen of Morzinedesired two irreconcilableaims:first,the maintenanceandrestitutionof the collective spiritualand social solidarityof the village, and,second, the relativization of village morality through greater mobility andopenness to the outside world. The conflicts that these divergent desiresarousedresulted in psychic misery andphysical torment, n self-punishmentforperceived ransgressions, ndin enragedaccusationsagainstmenunableto"fix" heirpain. Constansmanipulatedhis instability,deepenedtheprocessofemasculation hroughhis reformistmeasures,and imposedthe outside worldwithoutrespectingvillage mores.Thepychologicaldramaof themal thus offers otherpossible interpretationsof peasantdistress n the nineteenthcentury.On one level, the languageof thepossessed enables us to listen to the muted voices that relativized he village'sposition vis-'a-visthe outside world. The hunter'sburlesque,the woodsman'showls, the shepherd's ry,all may have laid the groundwork or forging newidentities for women seeking to change their lives. In this expressive task,witchcraftandpossession showed the transformative otentialof religiousbe-lief and the interpretive owerof peasant mentalities,both of which hastenedrather han forestalled"modernity."Moreover, hey demonstrate he extent towhich such changes occur not merely throughthe impactof institutionsandmediatorssuch as male clergy, nuns,andteachers,but also throughcollectiveculturalprocesses undergoneby people forced to confront the erosion of oldpatternsof life and the consequencesof permanent ransformation.'03On another evel, the mal highlightsthe unarticulateddimensions of ruraldistress and demonstrates he very real limitations of even a sophisticateddiscursive approach. Despite the insights it offers, the notion of an "anti-language"cannotcomprehend he physical disruptionandpsychologicalmis-ery thatwere the cardinal eaturesof the mal. It deepenedandenduredabove

103 For the key role of intermediaries nd relationsbetween the center and periphery,see, e. g., Blackbourn,Marpingen n. 33 above); and Ford, Creating he Nation in Pro-vincial France (n. 10 above).

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478 Harrisall because such distresscould not be expressed n language,for there was noavailable diom to generatenarrativesable to give suchpain broadermeaning.Understandinghe "irrational"spectsof collectivehatredandviolence, there-fore, demandsan imaginativesympathy or varieties of misery thatcannot bereduced to mere"discourse"and a focus on bodily andpsychic experience inwaysthatepisodes such as the mal permit.Finally,by concentrating n this"irrationality,"y whichI meancompulsivephysicalresponses andunconsciouspsychologicalmotivations, could be ac-cused of unwittinglyreinforcingan older,and often repudiated, radition hatsees peasanteruptionsas illogical, incoherent,physicallyviolent, anddanger-ously "primitive." hardlywish to usher in once againthe old stereotypes ofpeasantsavagery.Rather,I hope my analysisof the mal providesa differenttone andemphasisby showinghow suchpopularprotest can be neither senti-mentalizedas the last gasp of a traditional ociety nor regardedas the heroicincarnation f earlyfeminism.Thepictureof culturalchange thatthemal sug-gests was neither a self-conscious marchtowardmodernitynor a desperateclinging to tradition. n Morzine there was an awarenessof the inevitabilityofchange, but the evolution was accomplishedthrough painful lurches fueledequallyby unarticulated ear of andhope for the future.