This paper is oriented around moments of crises and kinship ambivalence within the home of a merchant family on the outskirts of a small town in central Sri Lanka. The problems explored play out in two registers. The first outlines relations between men that become problematic and result in disharmony at home and at work, while the second deals with a situation in which the house itself becomes the site of disorder and vulnerability. Bringing fractious relationships between men into conversation with an established literature on spirit possession in South Asia explores how families manage (haunted) houses in a way that centers around the ritual authority maha gedera. In so doing, it makes a case for the mutual interplay of relationality between people, houses, and ghosts that haunt. At another level, the article offers a critical reflection on kinship’s agrarian history (and political death) in Sri Lanka and considers the stylistic predilection for interpretive narratives of possession in anthropology.

中文翻译：

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从鬼屋到鬼屋

本文围绕斯里兰卡中部一个小镇郊区的一个商人家庭中的危机时刻和亲属关系矛盾的时刻展开。探索的问题在两个寄存器中发挥作用。第一个概述了变得有问题并导致家庭和工作不和谐的男人之间的关系，而第二个处理的是房屋本身成为混乱和脆弱的场所的情况。将男人之间的易怒关系与南亚有关精神占有的既定文献进行对话，探讨家庭如何以仪式权威maha gedera为中心的方式管理（闹鬼）房屋. 通过这样做，它为人们、房屋和出没的鬼魂之间的相互关系提供了一个案例。在另一个层面上，本文对斯里兰卡亲属关系的农业历史（和政治死亡）进行了批判性反思，并考虑了人类学中对占有的解释性叙述的风格偏好。