Making spirits : materiality and transcendence in contemporary religions / edited by Diana Espirito Santo and Nico Tassi.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Espirito Santo, Diana, editor.

Tassi, Nico, editor.

Series:

Library of modern religion ; 20.

Library of modern religion ; 20

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Anthropology of religion.

Ceremonial objects.

Mediums.

Religious articles.

Ritual.

Symbolic anthropology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (272 p.)

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : I.B. Tauris, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The analysis of religion has often placed an emphasis on beliefs and ideologies, prioritizing these elements over those of the material world. Through the ethnographic analysis of a variety of contemporary religious practices, Making Spirits questions the presumed separation of spirit and matter, and sheds light on the dynamics between spiritual and material domains. By examining the cultural contexts in which material culture is central to the creation and experience of religion and belief, this volume analyses the different ways in which the concepts of the material and spiritual worlds

Contents:

Introduction / Diana Espirito Santo and Nico Tassi

Part I. Spirits in the making. Materiality, cosmogony and presence among Cuban spirits and mediums / Diana Espirito Santo

Conchas, candles and flowers in the creation of the Concheros' religiosity / Susanna Rostas

'We worship nature' : the given and the made in Brazilian Candomblé / Roger Sansi

Part II. Transformations. Knowing what has been done : the techniques of ritual 'objects' among the Abelam (East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea) / Ludovic Coupaye

Objects, bodies and gods : a cognitive ethnography of an ontological dynamic in the Xangô cult (Recife-Brazil) / Arnaud Halloy

Divinity and experiment : conversion in a Japanese jam jar / Philip Swift

Part III. Matter and spiritual power. Things we grow with : spirits, matter and bodies in La Paz, Bolivia / Nico Tassi

Forms of fetishism in Kinshasa : historical insights and contemporary practices / Joe Trapido

Making matter matter : the Santo Daime ritual of feitio / Andrew Dawson.

Notes:

Papers from a conference held in 2009.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-7556-2575-7

0-85772-262-X

OCLC:

855969871