‘Gestures that do’: Spiritist manifestations and the technologies of religious subjectivation and affect
This article explores theoretically and ethnographically how gestures ‘do’ within Spiritist religious practices. According to the emic Spiritist notion of ‘manifestations’, certain gestures can bridge between material and spiritual realms and the various dimensions of the self. Embodying the moral e...
| Published in: | Journal of material culture |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage Publ.
[2017]
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| In: |
Journal of material culture
Year: 2017, Volume: 22, Issue: 4, Pages: 385-405 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | This article explores theoretically and ethnographically how gestures ‘do’ within Spiritist religious practices. According to the emic Spiritist notion of ‘manifestations’, certain gestures can bridge between material and spiritual realms and the various dimensions of the self. Embodying the moral economy and dispositions of Spiritism, such gestures are thereby investigated as affective and practical technologies for constituting the religious subject within Spiritism without passing by belief and cognition. Based on close ethnographic accounts and visual documentation of the work of Puerto Rican healers, the author traces the performative illocutionary power of gestures during cleansing, divination, healing and possession rituals. Finally, she proposes ‘inter-gesturality’ as a way to address the power relations behind gestural ‘quotations’ and to trace the embodied interrelationships that have shaped in the past and are shaping in the present the religious significance of gestures, the emotions they elicit, the religious subjectification processes they constitute and the spiritual healing they can promote. |
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| ISSN: | 1460-3586 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of material culture
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/1359183517725548 |