Embodied alternative identities. Bearing witness to a world that might have been

In all cultures, embodied alternative identities provoke powerful reactions among those who observe and interact with them. Although these entities are invariably understood to reflect intense subjective experiences, they represent much more than a public expression of a pathologic mental disorder. They form an integral part of the meaningful, highly complex, symbolic systems that both inform and reflect the local cultures in which they emerge. Consequently, an understanding of just how these entities learn to understand themselves may be the cross-cultural key to an understanding of just what they are.