The Ontogeny of Dolls: Materiality, Affect, and Self in Afro-Cuban Espiritismo
Objects are fundamental components of cosmology in Afro-Cuban religions; they serve to represent, pay homage to, and feed a constellation of covetous spirits. In a moral universe of practitioners materiality allures and potentially corrupts; it grounds personal and collective ritual agency; mediates...
| Autore principale: | |
|---|---|
| Tipo di documento: | Elettronico Articolo |
| Lingua: | Inglese |
| Verificare la disponibilità: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Caricamento...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Pubblicazione: |
Taylor & Francis
[2019]
|
| In: |
Material religion
Anno: 2019, Volume: 15, Fascicolo: 3, Pagine: 269-292 |
| (sequenze di) soggetti normati: | B
Kuba
/ Spiritismo
/ Sincretismo afroamericano
/ Materialità
/ Bambola
/ Ontogenesi
|
| Altre parole chiave: | B
Cuban creole spiritism
B Materiality B Selfhood B Dolls B Affect |
| Accesso online: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Riepilogo: | Objects are fundamental components of cosmology in Afro-Cuban religions; they serve to represent, pay homage to, and feed a constellation of covetous spirits. In a moral universe of practitioners materiality allures and potentially corrupts; it grounds personal and collective ritual agency; mediates thoughts-feelings; materializes the immaterial; and invariably transcends all these dichotomies and becomes gods, parts of people, concepts. In this article I wish to understand "things" as continuous with the unfolding of selfhood, but more contentiously, with and as affects. Drawing on my long-time research with practitioners of Cuban Creole espiritismo in Havana, for whom "representation" objects are essential to the development of spirits, muertos, and thus extended selves, I argue that the dolls and figurines that mediums regularly fabricate and care for are less "representational" than they are affective forms themselves. Dolls are not symbols for feelings-for-spirits made material or registers of affective perception towards one's muertos; in a very real sense they are affects that may grow roots and bloom. In the ethnography I will describe these relations as a system of affectively invested selfhood, one that encompasses the very muertos in question. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1751-8342 |
| Comprende: | Enthalten in: Material religion
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2019.1603067 |