Obeah and Other Powers : The Politics of Caribbean Religion and Healing

This collection looks at Caribbean religious history from the late 18th century to the present including obeah, vodou, santeria, candomble, and brujeria. The contributors examine how these religions have been affected by many forces including colonialism, law, race, gender, class, state power, media represenation, and the academy. In Obeah and Other Powers, historians and anthropologists consider how marginalized spiritual traditions—such as obeah, Vodou, and Santería—have been understood and represented across the Caribbean since the seventeenth century. In essays focused on Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, and the wider Anglophone Caribbean, the contributors explore the fields of power within which Caribbean religions have been produced, modified, appropriated, and policed. The "other powers" of the book's title have helped to shape, or attempted to curtail, Caribbean religions and healing practices. These powers include those of capital and colonialism; of states that criminalize some practices and legitimize others; of occupying armies that rewrite constitutions and reorient economies; of writers, filmmakers, and scholars who represent Caribbean practices both to those with little knowledge of the region and to those who live there; and, not least, of the millions of people in the Caribbean whose relationships with one another, as well as with capital and the state, have long been mediated and experienced through religious formations and discourses. Contributors. Kenneth Bilby, Erna Brodber, Alejandra Bronfman, Elizabeth Cooper, Maarit Forde, Stephan Palmié, Diana Paton, Alasdair Pettinger, Lara Putnam, Karen Richman, Raquel Romberg, John Savage, Katherine Smith An (un)natural Mystic In The Air : Images Of Obeah In Caribbean Song / Kenneth Bilby -- Eh! Eh! Bomba, Hen! Hen! : Making Sense Of A Vodou Chant / Alasdair Pettinger -- On Swelling : Remedies And Rituals In Colonial Medicine / Alejandra Bronfman -- Atis Rezistans : Gede And The Art Of Vagabondaj / Katherine Smith -- Slave Poison/slave Medicine : The Persistence Of Obeah In Early 19th Century Martinique / John Savage -- The Trials Of Inspector Thomas : Policing And Ethnography In Jamaica / Diana Paton -- The Moral Economy Of Spiritual Work : Money And Rituals In Trinidad And Tobago / Maarit Forde -- The Open Secrets Of Solares / Elizabeth Cooper -- Rites Of Power And Rumours Of Race : The Circulation Of Supernatural Knowledge And Sacrifice Tales In The Greater Caribbean, 1890-1940 / Lara Putnam -- The Vodou State And The Protestant Nation : Haiti In The Long Twentieth Century / Karen E. Richman -- The Moral Economy Of Brujería Under The Modern Colony : A Pirated Modernity? / Raquel Romberg -- Afterword: Other Powers : Tylor's Principle, Father Williams' Temptations, And The Power Of Banality / Stephan Palmié. Diana Paton And Maarit Forde, Editors. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. "In Obeah and Other Powers, historians and anthropologists consider how marginalized spiritual traditions--such as obeah, Vodou, and Santería--have been understood and represented across the Caribbean since the seventeenth century. In essays focused on Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, and the wider Anglophone Caribbean, the contributors explore the fields of power within which Caribbean religions have been produced, modified, appropriated, and policed. The 'other powers' of the book's title have helped to shape, or attempted to curtail, Caribbean religions and healing practices. These powers include those of capital and colonialism; of states that criminalize some practices and legitimize others; of occupying armies that rewrite constitutions and reorient economies; of writers, filmmakers, and scholars who represent Caribbean practices both to those with little knowledge of the region and to those who live there; and, not least, of the millions of people in the Caribbean whose relationships with one another, as well as with capital and the state, have long been mediated and experienced through religious formations and discourses"--Publisher's website In Obeah and Other Powers, historians and anthropologists consider how marginalized spiritual traditions-such as obeah, Vodou, and Santería-have been understood and represented across and the Caribbean since the seventeenth century. In essays focused on Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, and the wider Anglophone Caribbean, the contributors explore the fields of power within which Caribbean religions have been produced, modified, appropriated, and policed. The "other powers" of the book's title have helped to shape, or attempted to curtail, Caribbean religions and healing practices. These powers include those of capital and colonialism; of states that criminalize some practices and legitimize others; of occupying armies that rewrite constitutions and reorient economies; of writers, filmmakers, and scholars who represent Caribbean practices both to those with little knowledge of the region and to those who live there; and, not least, of the millions of people in the Caribbean whose relationships with one another, as well as with capital and the state, have long been mediated and experienced through religious formations and discourses. Book jacket