Do Spirits Have a Place at the Negotiating Table?

In recent decades the field of conflict resolution has increasingly acknowledged culture, worldview, and localized peace-building mechanisms, as integral components of conflict analysis and practice techniques. Nonmaterial beings, like spirits, comprise a significant component of many global worldviews but have not yet been analyzed as a phenomenon by the conflict resolution field. The research question explored in this paper is whether spirits could contribute to conflict resolution as actors in their own right. Content analysis is used to explore cases from Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Mozambique, the United States, and Sri Lanka. I will demonstrate ultimately that spirits should be regarded as actors, much as humans are, in conflict contexts where they have relevant influence.