Taking a broad interpretation of supernatural to include anything beyond nature, Global Perspectives on the Liminality of the Supernatural examines the liminality of often-overlooked types of supernatural beings in light of the themes of death and gender. It gives the reader a tour of the continents and takes them out into space, looking at popular culture and mythologies to propose answers to fundamental anthropological questions about humanity, the concept of dead, and how we relate to our own genders when using the supernatural to understand them.

Rebecca Gibson is lecturer of anthropology at Virginia Commonwealth University and author ofDesire in the Age of Robots and AI: An Investigation in Science Fiction and Fact.

James M. VanderVeen is professor of anthropology and assistant director of the University Center of Excellence in Teaching at Indiana University South Bend.

Part I. Korea: Zombies and Other Supernatural

Chapter 1. A (Wo)Mans Touch: Doomsday Book as Critique of Metropolis

Liz W. Faber

Part II. China: Demonic Possession and Spiritual Vampires

Chapter 2. Gender, Death, and the Supernatural in The Untamed (Chen Qing Ling): A Danmei Genre Pop Cultural Phenomenon.

Lucy Yuan Qin and Kong F. Cheong

Part III. Russia: Trans Rebirth

Chapter 3. A Real Woman is an Iceberg, and a Real Man is Made: Gender, Failure, and Death in Post-Soviet Cinematic Space

Lev Nikulin

Part IV. Australia: Aboriginal Vampires

Chapter 4. The Yara-ma-yha-who, Real Vampires, and Aboriginal Erasure: The Retold Vampires of Australian Horror Fiction

McKenzie Lynn Tozan

Part V. The Caribbean: Animism and Why the Dead Walk at Night

Chapter 5. When Opposites Impact: The Remarkable Duality Present in the Taíno Belief System

James M. VanderVeen

Part VI. Afrofuturism: Astral Projection and Hyperempathy

Chapter 6. Dying to Live in Octavia ButlersKindred and Breonna Taylors America: Discourses of Policing, Misogynoir, Runaways, and Zombies

Jamie A. Thomas

Chapter 7. Death and Disability in Octavia E. ButlersKindred andParable of the Sower

Kathryn E. Heffner

Part VII. Moving from the Real World to the Matrix: Cyborg and the Supernatural Power of Love

Chapter 8. Bodies in Pods: Masculine Domination, Sexuality, and Love inThe Matrix Franchise

Brian Brutlag

Part VIII. A Galaxy Far, Far Away: Star Wars, Jedi, and the Force

Chapter 9. Half Man, Half Machine: Transhumanism and the Cyborg Through a Fictional Lens

Freya Fenton

Part IX. The Imperial Radch: The Humanity of Corpse Soliders

Chapter 10. Blood Stays Inside Your Arteries, Dlique: Aliens, Cyborgs, Death, and Tea Ceremonies in Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch Trilogy

Rebecca Gibson