Recursivity and the Self-Reflexive Cosmos

Tricksters in Cuban and Brazilian Spirit Mediumship Practices

in Social Analysis
Author:
Diana Espírito Santo University College London gimmefish@yahoo.com

Search for other papers by Diana Espírito Santo in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2016.600104
Keywords:
cosmology; Espiritismo; metamorphosis; recursivity; selfreflexivity; spirits; Trickster; Umbanda
Restricted access

All currencies in US Dollar

PayPal Logo

Abstract

In this article, I explore how the cosmologies of two popular spirit possession cults—Espiritismo in Cuba and Umbanda in Brazil—exhibit forms of recursivity and self-reflexivity. Taking my cue from Don Handelman’s notion that the cosmos often contains its own logic of self-becoming, I argue that in these ethnographic cases, recursivity results from the interplay between, on the one hand, the spirits’ expression of their autonomy from living beings and, on the other, the spirits’ contingency for their effectiveness on human belief, representation, perception, and action. In Espiritismo and Umbanda, spirits intervene in human affairs unpredictably, throwing new light on anthropological and native conceptualizations of reflexivity.

Contributor Notes

Diana Espírito Santo received her PhD in 2009 from University College London, writing on concepts of knowledge and personhood in Cuban spirit mediumship practices. Since then she has studied notions of cosmological change in the Afro-Brazilian religion of Umbanda in Brazil. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Programme at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. She has recently authored Developing the Dead: Mediumship and Self-hood in Cuban Espiritismo (2015) and has edited three books, including The Social Life of Spirits (2014, with Ruy Blanes).

  • Collapse
  • Expand

Social Analysis

The International Journal of Anthropology

Cover Social Analysis
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
19
Keywords:
cosmology; Espiritismo; metamorphosis; recursivity; selfreflexivity; spirits; Trickster; Umbanda
Print Publication Date:
01 Mar 2016
Online Publication Date:
01 Mar 2016
Copyright:
© Berghahn Books 2016

  • Bastide, Roger. 1971. As Religiões Africanas no Brasil. Vol. 2. Trans. Eloisa Capellato and Olivia Krahenbuhl. São Paulo: Livraria Pioneira Editora.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Boddy, Janice. 1989. Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men, and the Zar Cult in Northern Sudan. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

  • Bolívar, Natalia. 1990. Los Orichas en Cuba. Havana: Editorial Ciencias Sociales.

  • Brown, David H. 2003. Santeria Enthroned: Art, Ritual, and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  • Brown, Diana DeG., and Mario Bick. 1987. “Religion, Class, and Context: Continuities and Discontinuities in Brazilian Umbanda.” American Ethnologist 14, no. 1: 73–93.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Capone, Stefania. 2010. Searching for Africa in Brazil: Power and Tradition in Candomblé. Trans. Lucy L. Grant. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

  • Combs, Allan, and Mark Holland. 1996. Synchronicity: Through the Eyes of Science, Myth, and the Trickster. New York: Marlowe.

  • Descola, Philippe. 1996. In the Society of Nature: A Native Ecology in Amazonia. Trans. Nora Scott. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Figarola, Joel J. 2006. La Brujería Cubana: El Palo Monte. Santiago de Cuba: Editorial Oriente.

  • Garoutte, Claire, and Anneke Wambaugh. 2007. Crossing the Water: A Photographic Path to the Afro-Cuban Spirit World. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Giumbelli, Emerson. 2010. “Presença na recusa: A Africa dos pioneiros Umbandistas.” Esboços 17, no. 23: 107–117.

  • Giumbelli, Emerson. 2013. “Amerindian and Priest: An Entity in Brazilian Umbanda.” Pp. 179–197 in The Social Life of Spirits, ed. Ruy Blanes and Diana Espírito Santo. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Goldman, Marcio. 2007. “How to Learn in an Afro-Brazilian Spirit Possession Religion: Ontology and Multiplicity in Candomblé.” Pp. 103–120 in Learning Religion: Anthropological Approaches, ed. David Berliner and Ramon Sarró. New York: Berghahn Books.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Handelman, Don. 1998. Models and Mirrors: Towards an Anthropology of Public Events. New York: Berghahn Books.

  • Handelman, Don. 2004. “Introduction: Why Ritual in Its Own Right? How So?” Social Analysis 48, no. 2: 1–32.

  • Hayes, Kelly E. 2011. Holy Harlots: Femininity, Sexuality, and Black Magic in Brazil. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  • Højer, Lars. 2009. “Absent Powers: Magic and Loss in Post-socialist Mongolia.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 15, no. 3: 575–591.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hyde, Lewis. 1998. Trickster Makes this World: Mischief, Myth, and Art. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

  • Jung, C. G. 1972. “On the Psychology of the Trickster Figure.” Trans. R. F. C. Hull. Pp. 195–211 in Paul Radin, The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology. New York: Schocken Books.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Kapferer, Bruce. 2004. “Ritual Dynamics and Virtual Practice: Beyond Representation and Meaning.” Social Analysis 48, no. 2: 35–54.

  • Kapferer, Bruce. 2005. “Sorcery and the Beautiful: A Discourse on the Aesthetics of Ritual.” Pp. 129–160 in Aesthetics in Performance: Formations of Symbolic Construction and Experience, ed. Angela Hobart and Bruce Kapferer. New York: Berghahn Books.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Mageo, Jeanette M. 1996. “Spirit Girls and Marines: Possession and Ethnopsychiatry as Historical Discourse in Samoa.” American Ethnologist 23, no. 1: 61–82.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Millet, José. 1996. El Espiritismo: Variantes Cubanas. Santiago de Cuba: Editorial Oriente.

  • Negrão, Lísias Nogueira. 1996. Entre a Cruz e a Encruzilhada: Formação do Campo Umbandista em São Paulo. São Paulo: Editora da Universidade de São Paulo.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ochoa, Todd R. 2010. Society of the Dead: Quita Manaquita and Palo Praise in Cuba. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  • Ong, Aihwa. 1987. Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline: Factory Women in Malaysia. New York: State University of New York Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Palmié, Stephan. 2002. Wizards and Scientists: Explorations in Afro-Cuban Modernity and Tradition. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

  • Pedersen, Morten Axel. 2001. “Totemism, Animism and North Asian Indigenous Ontologies.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 7, no. 3: 411–427.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Pedersen, Morten Axel. 2007. “Talismans of Thought: Shamanist Ontologies and Extended Cognition in Northern Mongolia.” Pp. 141–166 in Thinking through Things: Theorising Artefacts Ethnographically, ed. Amiria Henare, Martin Holbraad, and Sari Wastell. London: Routledge.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Praet, Istvan. 2009. “Shamanism and Ritual in South America: An Inquiry into Amerindian Shape-Shifting.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 15, no. 4: 737–754.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Prandi, Reginaldo. 1991. Os Candomblés de São Paulo: A Velha Magia na Cidade Nova. São Paulo: Huicitec.

  • Schieffelin, Edward L. 1985. “Performance and the Cultural Construction of Reality.” American Ethnologist 12, no. 4: 707–724.

  • Severi, Carlo. 2002. “Memory, Reflexivity and Belief: Reflections on the Ritual Use of Language.” Social Anthropology 10, no. 1: 23–40.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Stoller, Paul. 1989. Fusion of the Worlds: An Ethnography of Possession among the Songhay of Niger. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • van de Port, Mattijs. 2005. “Circling around the Really Real: Spirit Possession Ceremonies and the Search for Authenticity in Bahian Candomblé.” Ethos 33, no. 2: 149–179.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo. 1998. “Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian Perspectivism.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 4, no. 3: 469–488.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Willerslev, Rane. 2007. Soul Hunters: Hunting, Animism, and Personhood among the Siberian Yukaghirs. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

Metrics

All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 326 129 25
Full Text Views 32 9 0
PDF Downloads 30 9 0