Published Papers by Rogerio Brittes W. Pires
Cunha, Olivia M. G. da. "Maroon Cosmopolitics: Personhood, Creativity and Incorporation", Leiden: Brill., 2018
Life in a Saamaka village is surrounded by rules, from trivial activities such as harvesting frui... more Life in a Saamaka village is surrounded by rules, from trivial activities such as harvesting fruits to the most formal of public meetings, everything has to be done in the right way, “the way we are used to”. However, these rules seem to be constantly under discussion, there are frequent arguments about which are the rules and how to apply them to each situation. This chapter takes a look at Saamaka politics, trying to understand how deadlocks concerning rules are overcome and how consensus is reached. The main ethnographic are from funerary rituals, activities in which a proper conduct is most important, and thus rules are taken particularly seriously. Brief descriptions of the hierarchy of political offices in Saamaka and the rhetorics in the kuutu (council meetings) will be necessary, in order to understand how authority is conceived and performed, and how rules are established by transforming relationships with the past. The closing arguments contest the recurring description of Maroon polities as “states within a state” and present an alternative approach that takes further into account both Saamaka political philosophy and its inherent relationship with their own style of life.
Mana, 2017
Among the Saamaka Maroons (or Businenge) of Upper Suriname, despite growing monetization and thei... more Among the Saamaka Maroons (or Businenge) of Upper Suriname, despite growing monetization and their integration into the global capitalist economy, there are some types of exchange in which money is not supposed to circulate, at least not explicitly. In these exchanges, objects - revealingly, objects of foreign manufacturing - act in a way similar to “currencies”. The rejection by the Saamaka of money in certain spheres in which objects, persons, services and words circulate will lead us to the classic - and so often muddled - anthropological distinction between gifts and commodities. I will try to understand how the distinction between exteriority and the interiority is composed in Saamaka, and how money is marked as external, while “gifts”, such as rum and fabric, are made internal.
New West Indian Guide, 2018
Throughout the Guianas, people of all ethnicities fear one particular kind of demonic spirit. Cal... more Throughout the Guianas, people of all ethnicities fear one particular kind of demonic spirit. Called baccoo in Guyana, bakru in coastal Suriname, and bakulu or bakuu among Saamaka and Ndyuka Maroons in the interior, these demons offer personal wealth in exchange for human life. Based on multisited ethnography in Guyana and Suriname, this paper analyzes converging and diverging conceptions of the " same " spirit among several Afro- and Indo-Guianese populations. We argue that transformations in how people conceptualize bakulu reveal how supposedly radical moral differences are constructed within and between populations in the multi-ethnic Caribbean. More than figurative projections of monetized inequality or racial and ethnic prejudices, baccoo actively mediate how people throughout the Guianas think about and experience the everyday conduct of economic and racial relations.
Ilha, 2017
I connect a problem stemming from Maroon ethnography to concepts about the postcolony. In the Saa... more I connect a problem stemming from Maroon ethnography to concepts about the postcolony. In the Saamaka language, the main catachresis connecting time and space place the future behind and the past ahead, but when Saamaka people talk about progress such figures are inverted. My analysis of this duplicity tackles the entanglement of temporalities in the postcolonial age, and the idea of tradition as a contentious political arena where the relationship between pasts and futures are constructed.
Uma reflexão sobre a interação entre o cristianismo e outras práticas e saberes mágico- religioso... more Uma reflexão sobre a interação entre o cristianismo e outras práticas e saberes mágico- religiosos afro-americanos, na aldeia maroon saamaka Botopási, no Alto Suriname. Ao buscar entender como a filosofia moral saamaka lida com graves crimes como o assassinato, é aberta uma discussão sobre a agência sobrenatural do Deus criador, dos espíritos vingativos conhecidos como kúnu, das receitas mágicas chamadas óbia e de outras entidades e divindades. A importância da noção de crença, aparece com vigor neste pensamento, bem como uma visão particular da temporalidade e da intencionalidade das ações humanas e não-humanas.
Palavras chaves: Saamaka, Maroons, Cristianismo, Espíritos vingativos, Crença.
Killing, Dying and Believing in Botopási, Upper Suriname
A small reflection on the interaction between Christianity and other African-American magico-religious practices and knowledges in Botopási, a saamaka maroon village in Upper Suriname. While trying to understand how saamaka moral philosophy deals with serious crimes such as murder, we arrive in a debate on the supernatural agency of God, of the avenging spirits known as kúnu, of magical formulae called óbia and of other deities and entities. The idea of belief is key in this system of thought, as is a particular vision of temporality and intentionality of human and non-human actions.
Keywords: Saamaka, Maroons, Christianity, Avenging spirits, Belief.
Os conceitos de fetichismo sexual e fetichismo da mercadoria são tortuosas transformações de um c... more Os conceitos de fetichismo sexual e fetichismo da mercadoria são tortuosas transformações de um conceito anterior: fetichismo religioso. Este artigo foca tal transposição conceitual, tentando entender qual seu impacto sobre o conceito anterior. Busca também traçar conexões entre os fetichismos e examinar usos variados da(s) ideia(s) de fetiche no século xx. Daremos importância à continuidade entre a denúncia iluminista da “ilusão religiosa” e certa postura crítica das ciências humanas modernas. Por fim, notaremos tentativas teóricas de unir os fetichismos, seja através de análises das características comuns aos diversos objetos já taxados de “fetiches”; seja através da proposta de um fetichismo geral, sem qualificadores, que una as versões religiosa, sexual e capitalista sobre uma mesma rubrica.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Fetichismo religioso, fetichismo sexual, fetichismo da mercadoria, crítica.
Religious Fetishism, Commodity Fetishism and Sexual Fetishism: Transpositions and Connections
The concepts of sexual fetishism and commodity fetishism are roundabout transformations of a prior concept: religious fetishism. This article tries to account for this conceptual transmutation and for the effects the establishment of this new categories of fetishism had over their precursor. It additionally aims to outline connections among all three fetishisms and to examine the manifold uses of the idea(s) of fetish throughout the 20th century. We will focus on the continuities between the Enlightenment’s denouncement of “religious illusion” and the modern human sciences critical attitude. We will also point out a few theoretical attempts to unite all fetishisms, be it via the analysis of characteristics common to all objects tagged as “fetishes”, be it via the idea of a general, unqualified fetishism that unites the religious, sexual and capitalistic versions.
KEYWORDS: Religious fetishism, commodity fetishism, sexual fetishism, critique.
A ideia de fetiche religioso, fruto do encontro afro-europeu na costa da Guiné há cerca de quatro... more A ideia de fetiche religioso, fruto do encontro afro-europeu na costa da Guiné há cerca de quatro séculos percorreu um longo caminho, desde seu uso por viajantes e comerciantes, passando pela sua apropriação pela filosofia iluminista, sua radicalização e popularização no positivismo e no evolucionismo, até ser criticada, entrar em declínio e ser considerada estéril pela antropologia modernista. O objetivo deste artigo é lançar uma luz sobre tal trajetória, não de maneira desinteressada, mas dentro de um contexto contemporâneo de reavaliação da ideia de fetiche enquanto ferramenta heurística, o que sugere uma paralela reavaliação da história do conceito.
Palavras-chave: fetichismo religioso, fetiche, antropologia.
A Brief History of the Idea of Religious Fetishism, from its Emergence until the mid-20th Century
The idea of religious fetish, which emerged from the Afro-European encounter over four centuries ago, has a rich history, from its usage by travelers and merchants; through its appropriation by Illuminist thinkers; its radicalization and popularization during the Positivist and Evolutionist periods of western philosophy; until it rapidly declined after it was criticized and pronounced inadequate by modernist anthropology. The aim of this article is to examine the path this concept described. Not from a disinterested perspective, but within the current context of reevaluation of the fetish as a heuristic category, which suggests a parallel reevaluation of the history of the concept.
Keywords: religious fetishism, fetish, anthropology.
Estudos Feministas, 2018
Tomando como corpus de analise a revista sadomasoquista e fetichista norte-americana Bizarre, edi... more Tomando como corpus de analise a revista sadomasoquista e fetichista norte-americana Bizarre, editada entre 1946 e 1959 por John Willie, o presente artigo busca refletir sobre a relação entre o conteúdo da publicação e seus leitores, evidenciada sobretudo nas páginas de suas seções de correspondência. Após uma breve apresentação das práticas e da rede agrupada sob a sigla BDSM, buscaremos, nas páginas de Bizarre, diferentes modulações de agência de imagens, objetos e textos e seus efeitos sobre práticas, corpos e desejos sexuais tidos como'desviantes'. Tais modulações serão divididas a partir da ideias de excitação, imaginação, identificação e multiplicação, a partir das quais, serão esboçados debates com teorias sobre o fetichismo, a agência das imagens e a formação identitária.
Book Reviews by Rogerio Brittes W. Pires
Review (in portuguese) of Fesiten - the saamakatongo version of 1983's "First Time".
PhD Dissertation / Master Thesis by Rogerio Brittes W. Pires
Este trabalho é uma revisão bibliográfica da literatura antropológica sobre os conceitos de fetic... more Este trabalho é uma revisão bibliográfica da literatura antropológica sobre os conceitos de fetiche e fetichismo, dando ênfase especial a obras que deles se valem para pensar a religião e, mais especificamente, o uso de certos objetos mágico-religiosos por populações diversas. Graças à ligação da emergência da noção de fetiche ao encontro colonial afro-europeu na costa da Guiné durante as grandes navegações, a maior parte do material analisado se refere à África Ocidental ou às religiões afro- americanas. A idéia aqui é apreender simultaneamente a dispersão polissêmica das apropriações do conceito e as linhas que atravessam seus variados usos, dando-lhes relativa unidade, apontando para problemas teóricos recorrentes. Num primeiro momento observo a história da noção de fetiche desde a emergência no contexto guineense, passando pela sua conceitualização no iluminismo, positivismo e evolucionismo, até as críticas que levam o conceito a ser considerado um “mal-entendido” no início do séc. XX. Depois faço uma rápida passagem pelas apropriações marxista e psicanalítica do termo, que o transpõem para as esferas da economia e da sexualidade. Por fim, analiso obras contemporâneas que apontam para um movimento de reavaliação na antropologia do conceito de fetiche enquanto forma de pensar objetos em religiões (africanas ou não). Neste último momento foco em certos temas recorrentes na literatura: a própria história do conceito, sua dimensão crítica, a idéia de agência, a chamada “teoria do primeiro encontro”, e as dicotomias pessoas/coisas e matéria/espírito.
Palavras-Chave: Antropologia; Religião; Fetiche; Fetichismo; África Ocidental; Religiões Afro-Americanas
The Concept of Fetish in Anthropology: African Objects, European Regards
This dissertation is a review of the anthropological literature about the concepts of fetish and fetishism. It focuses primarily on works that apply the concept to the study of religion, and more specifically to the study of certain magico-religious objects of various peoples around the world. The idea of fetish emerged amidst the Euro-African encounter that took place on the coast of Guinea during the Age of Discovery, and the connection to this history still lingers, therefore most of the texts analyzed are about West Africa or Afro-American religions. The objective is to grasp simultaneously the polysemy, the dispersion of the various accounts of the concept, and the threads that tie them together, rendering the subtle unity of the concept by raising recurrent theoretical problems. The first chapter is an overview of the history of the fetish, starting with its emerge in the Guinean context, following its illuminist, positivist and evolutionist conceptualizations, and ending with the critical debate of the early 20 th century that label the concept a “misunderstanding”. The second chapter is a quick survey on the marxist and psychoanalytic transposing of the word fetish to the realms of economy and sexuality. The third and final chapter is an analysis of the works that suggest a contemporary anthropological reevaluation of the idea of fetish as a concept referring to religious objects (African or otherwise). During this last chapter I will focus on some recurring themes: the history of the concept itself, its critical dimension, the idea of agency, the so-called “first encounter theory”, and the dichotomies between people and things and between matter and spirit.
Keywords: Anthropology; Religion; Fetish; Fetishism; West Africa; Afro-American Religion
The present thesis is an ethnography of the Saamaka maroons, descendants of runaway slaves establ... more The present thesis is an ethnography of the Saamaka maroons, descendants of runaway slaves established in Upper Suriname in the 18th century. In particular, it is about Botopási, a Christian village, affiliated with the Moravian Church ever since its foundation 120 years ago. Local funerary practices are analysed at the core of the work: ceremonial exchanges, rituals that strive to please the dead and safeguard the living, means of controlling the distance and the agency of the spirits, and efforts that bring back joy to those who lost a loved one. Throughout the chapters, the thesis addresses several modi operandi of the dead, which may appear as ghosts, avenging spirits, ancestors, supernatural genitors. Both Saamaka political forms and the changes brought about by Christianity help us to reflect on variations in practices and beliefs surrounding death and other subjects. We may then be able to understand how people in Botopási face different types of transformations in their relationships dispersed through space-time: those brought about by an event of death as well as those brought about by conversion or other engagements with the living, the dead, spirits, gods, Saamakas, and outsiders.
Not Quite Published Papers by Rogerio Brittes W. Pires
Anais da 26a RBA, 2008
Resumo: O Marquês de Sade aparece na história da literatura e do Iluminismo como uma figura espec... more Resumo: O Marquês de Sade aparece na história da literatura e do Iluminismo como uma figura especialmente ambivalente: é o libertino patrono da liberdade, inspirador de vanguardas, inimigo da moral repressora do antigo regime; mas simultaneamente é o elaborador de uma obra que retira da desigualdade e das piores monstruosidades e torturas imagináveis seu gozo maior. O ponto chave está em sua idéia de liberdade, que envolve o domínio de todos sob os desejos de um libertino déspota. Como os adeptos atuais do BDSM (Bondage, Dominação e SadoMasoquismo) lidam com esta figura tão importante, vista por muitos como umas das principais fundadoras das práticas das quais se valem hoje em dia? Como a ética do SSC (São, Seguro e Consensual) desenvolvida nas redes de socialidade que hoje se autodenominam sadomasoquistas podem ser comparadas com o sistema filosófico sadeano? Essas questões guiam a reflexão do trabalho a ser apresentado, baseado em pesquisas de campo online e offline acerca do tema.
Na última década do século XVIII, o então governador do Grão-Pará, Francisco Coutinho, envia mili... more Na última década do século XVIII, o então governador do Grão-Pará, Francisco Coutinho, envia militares portugueses para missões de reconhecimento nas províncias do Grão-Pará e do Rio Negro, e nos territórios vizinhos pertencentes a outras nações europeias: as Guianas Holandesa, Inglesa e Francesa. A partir destas missões, foram elaborados documentos oficiais, descrições da região. Duas delas são particularmente ricas em informações sobre as colônias vizinhas: um diário de Francisco José Rodrigues Barata sobre uma viagem de Belém a Paramaribo passando pelo Rio Negro, Branco, Essequibo, Demerara e Berbice; e um conjunto de descrições da Guiana Francesa e das terras do Cabo Norte feitas por José Lopes dos Santos Valadim. O atual trabalho é uma apreciação geral destes dois documentos, indicando as contribuições que eles podem fornecer, enquanto fontes, para a historiografia do norte amazônico, sobretudo no que diz respeito às populações negras, indígenas e os litígios acerca das fronteiras coloniais.
Palavras-chave:
Amazônia
Guianas
Francisco José Rodrigues Barata
José Lopes dos Santos Valadim
Ensaio realizado enquanto pesquisador-doutorando no Programa Nacional de Apoio à Pesquisa - PNAP - Biblioteca Nacional, 2014.
Traduções / Translations by Rogerio Brittes W. Pires
Afro-Ásia, 2018
Tradução do artigo original de 1992
Papers by Rogerio Brittes W. Pires
New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids
Throughout the Guianas, people of all ethnicities fear one particular kind of demonic spirit. Cal... more Throughout the Guianas, people of all ethnicities fear one particular kind of demonic spirit. Called baccoo in Guyana, bakru in coastal Suriname, and bakulu or bakuu among Saamaka and Ndyuka Maroons in the interior, these demons offer personal wealth in exchange for human life. Based on multisited ethnography in Guyana and Suriname, this paper analyzes converging and diverging conceptions of the “same” spirit among several Afro- and Indo-Guianese populations. We argue that transformations in how people conceptualize bakulu reveal how supposedly radical moral differences are constructed within and between populations in the multi-ethnic Caribbean. More than figurative projections of monetized inequality or racial and ethnic prejudices, baccoo actively mediate how people throughout the Guianas think about and experience the everyday conduct of economic and racial relations.
Revista De Antropologia, Nov 11, 2014
Os conceitos de fetichismo sexual e fetichismo da mercadoria são tortuosas transformações de um c... more Os conceitos de fetichismo sexual e fetichismo da mercadoria são tortuosas transformações de um conceito anterior: fetichismo religioso. Este artigo foca tal transposição conceitual, tentando entender qual seu impacto sobre o conceito anterior. Busca também traçar conexões entre os fetichismos e examinar usos variados da(s) ideia(s) de fetiche no século xx. Daremos importância à continuidade entre a denúncia iluminista da “ilusão religiosa” e certa postura crítica das ciências humanas modernas. Por fim, notaremos tentativas teóricas de unir os fetichismos, seja através de análises das características comuns aos diversos objetos já taxados de “fetiches”; seja através da proposta de um fetichismo geral, sem qualificadores, que una as versões religiosa, sexual e capitalista sobre uma mesma rubrica. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Fetichismo religioso, fetichismo sexual, fetichismo da mercadoria, crítica. Religious Fetishism, Commodity Fetishism and Sexual Fetishism: Transpositions and Connections The concepts of sexual fetishism and commodity fetishism are roundabout transformations of a prior concept: religious fetishism. This article tries to account for this conceptual transmutation and for the effects the establishment of this new categories of fetishism had over their precursor. It additionally aims to outline connections among all three fetishisms and to examine the manifold uses of the idea(s) of fetish throughout the 20th century. We will focus on the continuities between the Enlightenment’s denouncement of “religious illusion” and the modern human sciences critical attitude. We will also point out a few theoretical attempts to unite all fetishisms, be it via the analysis of characteristics common to all objects tagged as “fetishes”, be it via the idea of a general, unqualified fetishism that unites the religious, sexual and capitalistic versions. KEYWORDS: Religious fetishism, commodity fetishism, sexual fetishism, critique.
Cadernos Do Lepaarq, Mar 10, 2014
Uma reflexão sobre a interação entre o cristianismo e outras práticas e saberes mágico- religioso... more Uma reflexão sobre a interação entre o cristianismo e outras práticas e saberes mágico- religiosos afro-americanos, na aldeia maroon saamaka Botopási, no Alto Suriname. Ao buscar entender como a filosofia moral saamaka lida com graves crimes como o assassinato, é aberta uma discussão sobre a agência sobrenatural do Deus criador, dos espíritos vingativos conhecidos como kúnu, das receitas mágicas chamadas óbia e de outras entidades e divindades. A importância da noção de crença, aparece com vigor neste pensamento, bem como uma visão particular da temporalidade e da intencionalidade das ações humanas e não-humanas. Palavras chaves: Saamaka, Maroons, Cristianismo, Espíritos vingativos, Crença. Killing, Dying and Believing in Botopási, Upper Suriname A small reflection on the interaction between Christianity and other African-American magico-religious practices and knowledges in Botopási, a saamaka maroon village in Upper Suriname. While trying to understand how saamaka moral philosophy deals with serious crimes such as murder, we arrive in a debate on the supernatural agency of God, of the avenging spirits known as kúnu, of magical formulae called óbia and of other deities and entities. The idea of belief is key in this system of thought, as is a particular vision of temporality and intentionality of human and non-human actions. Keywords: Saamaka, Maroons, Christianity, Avenging spirits, Belief.
New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids
Throughout the Guianas, people of all ethnicities fear one particular kind of demonic spirit. Cal... more Throughout the Guianas, people of all ethnicities fear one particular kind of demonic spirit. Called baccoo in Guyana, bakru in coastal Suriname, and bakulu or bakuu among Saamaka and Ndyuka Maroons in the interior, these demons offer personal wealth in exchange for human life. Based on multisited ethnography in Guyana and Suriname, this paper analyzes converging and diverging conceptions of the “same” spirit among several Afro- and Indo-Guianese populations. We argue that transformations in how people conceptualize bakulu reveal how supposedly radical moral differences are constructed within and between populations in the multi-ethnic Caribbean. More than figurative projections of monetized inequality or racial and ethnic prejudices, baccoo actively mediate how people throughout the Guianas think about and experience the everyday conduct of economic and racial relations.
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Published Papers by Rogerio Brittes W. Pires
Palavras chaves: Saamaka, Maroons, Cristianismo, Espíritos vingativos, Crença.
Killing, Dying and Believing in Botopási, Upper Suriname
A small reflection on the interaction between Christianity and other African-American magico-religious practices and knowledges in Botopási, a saamaka maroon village in Upper Suriname. While trying to understand how saamaka moral philosophy deals with serious crimes such as murder, we arrive in a debate on the supernatural agency of God, of the avenging spirits known as kúnu, of magical formulae called óbia and of other deities and entities. The idea of belief is key in this system of thought, as is a particular vision of temporality and intentionality of human and non-human actions.
Keywords: Saamaka, Maroons, Christianity, Avenging spirits, Belief.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Fetichismo religioso, fetichismo sexual, fetichismo da mercadoria, crítica.
Religious Fetishism, Commodity Fetishism and Sexual Fetishism: Transpositions and Connections
The concepts of sexual fetishism and commodity fetishism are roundabout transformations of a prior concept: religious fetishism. This article tries to account for this conceptual transmutation and for the effects the establishment of this new categories of fetishism had over their precursor. It additionally aims to outline connections among all three fetishisms and to examine the manifold uses of the idea(s) of fetish throughout the 20th century. We will focus on the continuities between the Enlightenment’s denouncement of “religious illusion” and the modern human sciences critical attitude. We will also point out a few theoretical attempts to unite all fetishisms, be it via the analysis of characteristics common to all objects tagged as “fetishes”, be it via the idea of a general, unqualified fetishism that unites the religious, sexual and capitalistic versions.
KEYWORDS: Religious fetishism, commodity fetishism, sexual fetishism, critique.
Palavras-chave: fetichismo religioso, fetiche, antropologia.
A Brief History of the Idea of Religious Fetishism, from its Emergence until the mid-20th Century
The idea of religious fetish, which emerged from the Afro-European encounter over four centuries ago, has a rich history, from its usage by travelers and merchants; through its appropriation by Illuminist thinkers; its radicalization and popularization during the Positivist and Evolutionist periods of western philosophy; until it rapidly declined after it was criticized and pronounced inadequate by modernist anthropology. The aim of this article is to examine the path this concept described. Not from a disinterested perspective, but within the current context of reevaluation of the fetish as a heuristic category, which suggests a parallel reevaluation of the history of the concept.
Keywords: religious fetishism, fetish, anthropology.
Book Reviews by Rogerio Brittes W. Pires
PhD Dissertation / Master Thesis by Rogerio Brittes W. Pires
Palavras-Chave: Antropologia; Religião; Fetiche; Fetichismo; África Ocidental; Religiões Afro-Americanas
The Concept of Fetish in Anthropology: African Objects, European Regards
This dissertation is a review of the anthropological literature about the concepts of fetish and fetishism. It focuses primarily on works that apply the concept to the study of religion, and more specifically to the study of certain magico-religious objects of various peoples around the world. The idea of fetish emerged amidst the Euro-African encounter that took place on the coast of Guinea during the Age of Discovery, and the connection to this history still lingers, therefore most of the texts analyzed are about West Africa or Afro-American religions. The objective is to grasp simultaneously the polysemy, the dispersion of the various accounts of the concept, and the threads that tie them together, rendering the subtle unity of the concept by raising recurrent theoretical problems. The first chapter is an overview of the history of the fetish, starting with its emerge in the Guinean context, following its illuminist, positivist and evolutionist conceptualizations, and ending with the critical debate of the early 20 th century that label the concept a “misunderstanding”. The second chapter is a quick survey on the marxist and psychoanalytic transposing of the word fetish to the realms of economy and sexuality. The third and final chapter is an analysis of the works that suggest a contemporary anthropological reevaluation of the idea of fetish as a concept referring to religious objects (African or otherwise). During this last chapter I will focus on some recurring themes: the history of the concept itself, its critical dimension, the idea of agency, the so-called “first encounter theory”, and the dichotomies between people and things and between matter and spirit.
Keywords: Anthropology; Religion; Fetish; Fetishism; West Africa; Afro-American Religion
Not Quite Published Papers by Rogerio Brittes W. Pires
Palavras-chave:
Amazônia
Guianas
Francisco José Rodrigues Barata
José Lopes dos Santos Valadim
Ensaio realizado enquanto pesquisador-doutorando no Programa Nacional de Apoio à Pesquisa - PNAP - Biblioteca Nacional, 2014.
Traduções / Translations by Rogerio Brittes W. Pires
Papers by Rogerio Brittes W. Pires
Palavras chaves: Saamaka, Maroons, Cristianismo, Espíritos vingativos, Crença.
Killing, Dying and Believing in Botopási, Upper Suriname
A small reflection on the interaction between Christianity and other African-American magico-religious practices and knowledges in Botopási, a saamaka maroon village in Upper Suriname. While trying to understand how saamaka moral philosophy deals with serious crimes such as murder, we arrive in a debate on the supernatural agency of God, of the avenging spirits known as kúnu, of magical formulae called óbia and of other deities and entities. The idea of belief is key in this system of thought, as is a particular vision of temporality and intentionality of human and non-human actions.
Keywords: Saamaka, Maroons, Christianity, Avenging spirits, Belief.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Fetichismo religioso, fetichismo sexual, fetichismo da mercadoria, crítica.
Religious Fetishism, Commodity Fetishism and Sexual Fetishism: Transpositions and Connections
The concepts of sexual fetishism and commodity fetishism are roundabout transformations of a prior concept: religious fetishism. This article tries to account for this conceptual transmutation and for the effects the establishment of this new categories of fetishism had over their precursor. It additionally aims to outline connections among all three fetishisms and to examine the manifold uses of the idea(s) of fetish throughout the 20th century. We will focus on the continuities between the Enlightenment’s denouncement of “religious illusion” and the modern human sciences critical attitude. We will also point out a few theoretical attempts to unite all fetishisms, be it via the analysis of characteristics common to all objects tagged as “fetishes”, be it via the idea of a general, unqualified fetishism that unites the religious, sexual and capitalistic versions.
KEYWORDS: Religious fetishism, commodity fetishism, sexual fetishism, critique.
Palavras-chave: fetichismo religioso, fetiche, antropologia.
A Brief History of the Idea of Religious Fetishism, from its Emergence until the mid-20th Century
The idea of religious fetish, which emerged from the Afro-European encounter over four centuries ago, has a rich history, from its usage by travelers and merchants; through its appropriation by Illuminist thinkers; its radicalization and popularization during the Positivist and Evolutionist periods of western philosophy; until it rapidly declined after it was criticized and pronounced inadequate by modernist anthropology. The aim of this article is to examine the path this concept described. Not from a disinterested perspective, but within the current context of reevaluation of the fetish as a heuristic category, which suggests a parallel reevaluation of the history of the concept.
Keywords: religious fetishism, fetish, anthropology.
Palavras-Chave: Antropologia; Religião; Fetiche; Fetichismo; África Ocidental; Religiões Afro-Americanas
The Concept of Fetish in Anthropology: African Objects, European Regards
This dissertation is a review of the anthropological literature about the concepts of fetish and fetishism. It focuses primarily on works that apply the concept to the study of religion, and more specifically to the study of certain magico-religious objects of various peoples around the world. The idea of fetish emerged amidst the Euro-African encounter that took place on the coast of Guinea during the Age of Discovery, and the connection to this history still lingers, therefore most of the texts analyzed are about West Africa or Afro-American religions. The objective is to grasp simultaneously the polysemy, the dispersion of the various accounts of the concept, and the threads that tie them together, rendering the subtle unity of the concept by raising recurrent theoretical problems. The first chapter is an overview of the history of the fetish, starting with its emerge in the Guinean context, following its illuminist, positivist and evolutionist conceptualizations, and ending with the critical debate of the early 20 th century that label the concept a “misunderstanding”. The second chapter is a quick survey on the marxist and psychoanalytic transposing of the word fetish to the realms of economy and sexuality. The third and final chapter is an analysis of the works that suggest a contemporary anthropological reevaluation of the idea of fetish as a concept referring to religious objects (African or otherwise). During this last chapter I will focus on some recurring themes: the history of the concept itself, its critical dimension, the idea of agency, the so-called “first encounter theory”, and the dichotomies between people and things and between matter and spirit.
Keywords: Anthropology; Religion; Fetish; Fetishism; West Africa; Afro-American Religion
Palavras-chave:
Amazônia
Guianas
Francisco José Rodrigues Barata
José Lopes dos Santos Valadim
Ensaio realizado enquanto pesquisador-doutorando no Programa Nacional de Apoio à Pesquisa - PNAP - Biblioteca Nacional, 2014.