Thinking with ngangas: what Afro-Cuban ritual can tell us about scientific practice and vice versa
"Inspired by the exercises of Father Lafitau, a Jesuit priest and proto-ethnographer of the "New World" who compared the lives of the Iroquois to the ancient Greeks, Stephan Palmié embarks on a series of unusual comparative investigations. What do organ transplants have to do with nga...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Book |
| Language: | English |
| Subito Delivery Service: | Order now. |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Chicago London
The University of Chicago Press
2023
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| In: | Year: 2023 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Cuba
/ Afro-American syncretism
/ Ritual
/ Natural sciences
/ Comparative research
/ Knowledge production
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| RelBib Classification: | AA Study of religion AG Religious life; material religion AZ New religious movements KBR Latin America |
| Further subjects: | B
Religion and science
B Black people (Cuba) Religion B Anthropology of religion |
| Online Access: |
Table of Contents Blurb Literaturverzeichnis |
| Summary: | "Inspired by the exercises of Father Lafitau, a Jesuit priest and proto-ethnographer of the "New World" who compared the lives of the Iroquois to the ancient Greeks, Stephan Palmié embarks on a series of unusual comparative investigations. What do organ transplants have to do with ngangas, a complex assemblage of mineral, animal, and vegetal materials, including human remains, that serve as the embodiment of spirits of the dead? Where do genomics and "ancestry projects" converge with divination and oracular systems? What does it mean that Black Cubans in the US took advantage of Edisonian technology to project the disembodied voice of a mystical entity named ecué onto the streets of Philadelphia? Can we consider Afro-Cuban spirit possession as an extreme form of historical knowledge production? By writing about Afro-Cuban ritual in relation to Western scientific practice, and vice versa, Palmié hopes to challenge the rationality of Western expert practices, revealing the logics that bring together enchantment and experiment. Throughout, Palmié is also levelling a specific anthropological challenge: he takes issue with the much-discussed "ontological turn," especially with those thinkers who promote notions of radical alterity and utter incommensurability. Instead, Palmié suggests that radical comparison with "boundary objects" can offer something new to the ethnographic enterprise"-- |
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| Item Description: | Includes bibliographical references and index |
| ISBN: | 0226825922 |