(In)vissible cohexistences among afro-caribbean, divine and human bodies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5433/2176-6665.2020v25n3p640Keywords:
Anthropology, Kinship, Religion, Body, CaribbeanAbstract
In the village of Old Bank (located on the Atlantic coast of Panama), experiences and narratives about relatives, spirits and wizards interact with two Christian doctrines (Methodist and Adventist), both present in the village for over a hundred years and both linked to the same historic process by which the Afro-Caribbean ancestors of the local population first came to Old Bank. Based on my 14-month ethnographic research, I investigate the way locals relate to God: this agency that, although (in)visible, is strongly present in their lives, including their bodies. Focusing on people who are baptized in one of the local churches, I argue that they produced an intentional transformation in their lives and bodies, altering the way they relate to spirits, wizards and relatives - whose presence is also intense in local life and bodies, especially during the funeral rituals called nain nait. In this context, I reflect on the native concepts of body and personhood, investigating how the coexistence between (non)human, (im)material, (in)visible agencies and its contribution to anthropological debates about kinship, materiality, agency and religion in the Caribbean.References
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PITTS, Walter. ‘If you caint get the boat, take a log’: cultural reinterpretation in the Afro‐Baptist ritual. American ethnologist, v. 16, n. 2 p. 279-293, 1989.
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REINHARDT, Bruno. Soaking in tapes: the haptic voice of global Pentecostal pedagogy in Ghana. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London, v. 20, n. 2, p. 315-336, 2014.
ROBBINS, Joel. Becoming sinners: christianity and moral torment in a Papua New Guinea society. Berkeley: Univ of California Press, 2004.
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SCHNEIDER, David M. American kinship: a cultural account. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.
SMITH, Raymond T. The negro family in British Guiana: family structure and social status in the villages. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, 1956.
SNOW, Peter. What happen: language socialization and language persistence in a Panamanian Creole village. 2004. Tese (Doutorado Linguística) - Universidade da Califórnia, Berkeley, 2004.
VILAÇA, Aparecida. Making kin out of others in Amazonia. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London, v. 8, n. 2, p. 347-365, 2002.
BODDY, Janice; LAMBEK, Michael. Introduction. In: BODDY, Janice; LAMBEK, Michael (org.). A companion to the anthropology of religion. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2015. v. 25.
BIALECKI, Jon. No caller ID for the soul: demonization, charisms, and the unstable subject of Protestant language ideology. Anthropological Quarterly, Washington, v. 84, n. 3, p. 679-703, 2011.
BIELO, James S. Anthropology of religion: the basics. London: Routledge, 2015.
BONGIANINO, Claudia. Os nain nait são nossa festa: tradição e reflexividade em um funeral afro-caribenho. In: CUNHA, Olívia M. G. da. CASTRO, Carlos Gomes de (Org.). O Caribe e o Outro: etnografias da relação. Editora da UFRJ. No prelo a.
BONGIANINO, Claudia. The invisible presence of God and other Afro-Caribbean kindred in Old Bank, Panama. In: DECKERMAN, Josh. TORRES, Aline; MACEDO, Victor Miguel Castillo de Macedo. (Org). Oxalá: Afro-Latinx Futures, Imaginings, and Engagements, SUNY series, AfroLatinx Futures. No prelo b.
BONGIANINO, Claudia. How to listen to an Afro-Caribbean landscape. VIBRANT, Brasília, v. 17, p. 1-21, 2020.
BONGIANINO, Claudia. Fronteiras materiais e espirituais: exibindo a coexistência entre deus e outros parentes afro-caribenhos em Old Bank, Panamá. Revista Campos, Curitiba, v. 20, p. 20-40, 2019.
BONGIANINO, Claudia. Deus e outros parentes invisíveis em Old Bank (Bocas del Toro, Panamá). 2018. Tese (Doutorado Antropologia Social) – Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2018.
BONGIANINO, Claudia. Crescendo pessoas, relações e lugares: experiências cabo-verdianas sobre família e mobilidade. Cadernos Pagu, São Paulo, v. 45, p. 111-133, 2015.
BONGIANINO, Claudia. Tornar-se afro-caribenho. Ensaio bibliográfico sobre família e mobilidade no Caribe. Revista Teoria e Cultura, Juiz de Fora, v. 9, p. 63-76, 2014.
BONGIANINO, Claudia. Malas de sonhos e saudade: família e mobilidade entre cabo-verdianos na Itália. Métis: História & Cultura, Caxias do Sul, v. 11, p. 257-280, 2012.
CANNELL, Fenella. The christianity of anthropology. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London, v. 11, n. 2, p. 335-356, 2005.
CARSTEN, Janet. Introduction. In: CARSTEN, Janet (org.). Cultures of relatedness: new approaches to the study of kinship. Edinburgh: Cambridge University Press, 2000. p. 1-38.
CRAPANZANO, Vincent. Serving the word: literalism in america from the pulpit to the bench. New York: New Press, 2000.
ENGELKE, Matthew. A problem of presence: beyond scripture in an African church. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
FERRARI, Florencia. Figura e fundo no pensamento cigano contra o Estado. Revista de Antropologia, São Paulo, v. 54, n. 2, p. 715-745, 2011.
INEC - INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE ESTADISTICA Y CENSO. Census and cartography. Ciudad de Panamá: INEC, 2009-2010.
FONSECA, Claudia. Apresentação-de família, reprodução e parentesco: algumas considerações. Cadernos Pagu, Campinas, v. 29, p. 9-35, 2007.
LAMBEK, Michael. Afterword: what's love got to do with it?. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, London, v. 5, n. 1, p. 395-404, 2015.
LOBO, Andréa. Tão longe, tão perto: organização familiar e emigração feminina na Ilha da Boa Vista – Cabo Verde. 2007. Tese (Doutorado em Antropologia Social) - Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, 2007.
MARQUES, Ana Claudia. Considerações familiares ou sobre os frutos do pomar e da caatinga. R@U, São Carlos, v. 6, n. 2, p. 119-129, 2015.
MONTERO, Carla Guerrón. From temporary migrants to permanent attractions: tourism, cultural heritage, and afro-antillean identities in Panama. Tuscaloosa: University Alabama Press, 2020.
MUEHLEISEN, Susanne; MIGGE, Bettina (org.). Politeness and face in Caribbean Creoles. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing, 2005.
OLWIG, Karen Fog. Women, ‘matrifocality’ and systems of exchange: an ethnohistorical study of the Afro-american family on St. John, Danish West Indies. Ethnohistory, Durham, v. 28, n. 1, p. 59-78, 1981.
PITTS, Walter. ‘If you caint get the boat, take a log’: cultural reinterpretation in the Afro‐Baptist ritual. American ethnologist, v. 16, n. 2 p. 279-293, 1989.
PRICE, Richard. Studies of Caribbean family organization: problems and perspectives. Dédalo, São Paulo, v. 7, n. 14, p. 23-59, 1971.
REINHARDT, Bruno. Soaking in tapes: the haptic voice of global Pentecostal pedagogy in Ghana. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London, v. 20, n. 2, p. 315-336, 2014.
ROBBINS, Joel. Becoming sinners: christianity and moral torment in a Papua New Guinea society. Berkeley: Univ of California Press, 2004.
SAHLINS, Marchall. What kinship is and is not. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013.
SCHNEIDER, David M. American kinship: a cultural account. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.
SMITH, Raymond T. The negro family in British Guiana: family structure and social status in the villages. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, 1956.
SNOW, Peter. What happen: language socialization and language persistence in a Panamanian Creole village. 2004. Tese (Doutorado Linguística) - Universidade da Califórnia, Berkeley, 2004.
VILAÇA, Aparecida. Making kin out of others in Amazonia. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London, v. 8, n. 2, p. 347-365, 2002.
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Published
2020-12-29
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BONGIANINO, Claudia Fioretti. (In)vissible cohexistences among afro-caribbean, divine and human bodies. Mediações - Revista de Ciências Sociais, Londrina, v. 25, n. 3, p. 640–657, 2020. DOI: 10.5433/2176-6665.2020v25n3p640. Disponível em: https://ojs.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/mediacoes/article/view/41289. Acesso em: 24 aug. 2024.
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Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
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