Spirited Things

The Work of "Possession" in Afro-Atlantic Religions

By: Paul Christopher Johnson (Editor)

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Paperback | 7 May 2014 | Edition Number 1

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344 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
2.33 x 1.52 x 0.21

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This groundbreaking collection of essays by a group of cutting-edge scholars of religions of the Black Atlantic explores both the genealogy of spirit possession and the theories of political economy and governance from which it emerged, and the empirical production of spirit possession practices. Johnson's introductory chapter, which traces the rise of the idea of possession in the commercial and political encounters between Europeans and Africans, is followed by eight ethnographic chapters on Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and North America. These chapters explore the ritual production of mediated spirits in a context framed not only by specific things for example, the plantation, the Catholic church, the sea, 19th century theater, gemstone mining, land called heritaj, the telegraph, the phonograph, the languages of European masters, the Pentecostal church, the senses of the human body, and so onbut also by the context of slavery, which transformed persons into things.

Industry Reviews

"Spirited Things is an ambitious and provocative work that casts a brilliant light over one of the more complex and critical issues in anthropology. It brings spirit possession into the heart of anthropological theory, revealing its central place in the 'genealogy of modernity.'" (Stefania Capone, National Center for Scientific Research and School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences)"

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