Papers by Paul Christopher Johnson
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2006
Secretism" refers to the active invocation of secrecy as a source of a group's identity, the prom... more Secretism" refers to the active invocation of secrecy as a source of a group's identity, the promotion of the reputation of special access to restricted knowledge, and the successful performance or staging of such access. This essay examines a case in which a secretist religion became a public force. The case is that of Haiti and the religion of Vodou, as it was merged with political objectives by François Duvalier during his tenure as "president-for-life" from 1957 to 1971. Duvalier represented himself in his discourse as being possessed of the historical spirit of the revolutionary hero Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and in his style impersonated the Vodou Gede spirit, Baron Samedi. Since his death he has by some reports himself become a spirit, Loa 22 Os. Whereas much previous work has endeavored to explain states' control of secret religions, this essay considers secretist religion's capacity for infiltrating procedures and esthetics of the State and its uses in totalitarian rule.
The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy
Debates do NER, 2021
A agência ativada por meio de trocas com os santos não está simplesmente presente ou ausente, mas... more A agência ativada por meio de trocas com os santos não está simplesmente presente ou ausente, mas se manifesta de acordo com a forma das configurações materiais e sociais dos santos e do estado de ânimo evocado pela manifestação de determinado santo. Neste ensaio, retomo a história de uma santa afro-brasileira, conhecida como Escrava Anastácia, e a forma como diferentes grupos étnico-raciais a representam, de acordo com diferentes efeitos sociais. Abordo a forma como os santos se manifestam e assumem determinado estado. O temperamento é inseparável da "presença" das entidades intangíveis. Neste ensaio, aproveito essas disjunções radicais entre as formas pelas quais um mesmo santo se manifesta - Anastácia como mártir sofredora, como companheira serena, como objeto erótico - para reconsiderar a manifestação dos santos na intersecção entre forma e temperamento. Enfocando os santos e sua personalidade, retomo termos conhecidos, como vontade e agência. Pensar por meio do temper...
Afro-Latin American Religions
Afro-Latin American Studies
Secretism and the Apotheosis of Duvalier
“Secretism” refers to the active invocation of secrecy as a source of a group’s identity, the pro... more “Secretism” refers to the active invocation of secrecy as a source of a group’s identity, the promotion of the reputation of special access to restricted knowledge, and the successful performance or staging of such access. This essay examines a case in which a secretist religion became a public force. The case is that of Haiti and the religion of Vodou, as it was merged with political objectives by Francois Duvalier during his tenure as “president-for-life” from 1957 to 1971. Duvalier represented himself in his discourse as being possessed of the historical spirit of the revolutionary hero Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and in his style impersonated the Vodou Gede spirit, Baron Samedi. Since his death he has by some reports himself become a spirit, Loa 22 Os. Whereas much previous work has endeavored to explain states’ control of secret religions, this essay considers secretist religion’s capacity for infiltrating procedures and esthetics of the State and its uses in totalitarian rule. The hypnotic power exerted by things occult resembles totalitarian terror: in present-day processes the two are merged.
Joining the African diaspora: Migration and diasporic religious culture among the Garífuna in Honduras and New York
Automatisme : les mécanismes de la religion en France et au Brésil
ASDIWAL. Revue genevoise d'anthropologie et d'histoire des religions, 2016
Cet article porte sur l’attrait « religieux » de l’automatisme. A la fin du XIXe siecle, le langa... more Cet article porte sur l’attrait « religieux » de l’automatisme. A la fin du XIXe siecle, le langage, les idees et figures de l’ «automatisme » (automatique, automate, automatisme) prolifererent. Cet ensemble reunissait differents domaines jusqu’alors separes, de la personnnalite individuelle a la mecanique industrielle, et de la psychiatrie aux theories sur la religion et sa pratique. Il contribua a produire une distinction fondamentale entre des acteurs que l’on considere «automatiques » et ceux qui, au contraire, seraient «libres » : voyageurs cosmopolites vs. automates supposes, depourvus de volonte. En ce sens, le monde «automatique » accoucha de deux «freres jumeaux » : l’un capable de se deplacer «autour du monde » a travers des reseaux toujours plus rapides de transports mecaniques ; l’autre incarnant la fixite, la repetition mecanique irreflechie de corps denues d’intentions. La comparaison des multiples versions de l’ «automate-humain » laissait toutefois entrevoir que, combien meme toutes ces figures semblaient caracterisees par une meme absence d’agentivite, elles pouvaient neanmoins sembler pourvues d’une etrange humanite, ou quasihumanite. Ces presques-humains, corps sans volonte ou representes comme tels, pouvaient aussi devenir des objets de devotion. Les corps automatiques, ou les humains imagines a l’aune de l’automate, pouvaient en effet susciter plus que de la pitie et du mepris, et devenir attrayants, voire, etre adores.
Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 2019
Dans le Candomble bresilien comme partout ailleurs dans les Ameriques africaines, les photographi... more Dans le Candomble bresilien comme partout ailleurs dans les Ameriques africaines, les photographies ont des caracteristiques non seulement visuelles, mais aussi haptiques, voire meme olfactives. Parce qu’elles sont des choses autant que des images, les photographies permettent une mediation entre, d’une part, un outre-lieu et un autre temps – une scene ou une personne situee dans un lieu et un temps differents de celui dans lequel la photographie est regardee – et, d’autre part, l’ici et le maintenant. Elles jouent ce role en tant qu’objet qui attire mon regard, pese dans ma main, occupe une place dans un dossier, pese sur le clou qui le fixe au mur et, dans certaines conditions, mediatise et transporte la presence des dieux et des etres humains. Je m’interroge donc ici sur la facon dont photographie et rituel ont jadis converge, et convergent encore aujourd’hui, pour permettre aux dieux d’apparaitre.
Ethnos, 2017
Let me offer a few opening premises in consideration of these essays on ‘possession’. First, comp... more Let me offer a few opening premises in consideration of these essays on ‘possession’. First, comparison is basic to thought, constant and inevitable. Second, comparison arranges likeness and differ...
Journal for the Study of Religion, 2018
The essay defines and explores the dimensions of 'fakecraft'. It unpacks authenticity in relation... more The essay defines and explores the dimensions of 'fakecraft'. It unpacks authenticity in relation to problems of identity, the aura of the original, and commodification. It then shows how notions of authenticity and the fake generate centers and peripheries in the study of religion. The essay explores how traditions of African descent in the Caribbean and Brazil have long been marginalized in the study of religion as lacking depth or authenticity. The essay then takes up a specific example of fakecraft and its prolific work, namely in early modern Christianity's process of purification and self-definition through evaluations of demonic possession as 'real' or 'fake', terms that were then applied to the west coast of Africa. In the broadest terms, the article argues that fakecraftdiscourses of the real versus the merely mimeticis basic to religion-making.
Journal de la société des américanistes, 2018
]. 1. For Mott (1993), Rosa was perhaps the earliest African-born author in Brazil. She wrote at ... more ]. 1. For Mott (1993), Rosa was perhaps the earliest African-born author in Brazil. She wrote at length about her visions in terms that eventually called authorities' attention. In
Religions of the African Diaspora
A Companion to Diaspora and Transnationalism, 2013
Theorizing Africana Religions
Journal of Africana Religions, 2014
These edited proceedings of a 2013 symposium at Northwestern University are organized around the ... more These edited proceedings of a 2013 symposium at Northwestern University are organized around the question of how to theorize the study of Africana religions across wide expanses of time and space. An international body of scholars representing the fields of history, religious studies, anthropology, American studies, sociology, African studies, classics, and African American studies gathered in a two-day event to consider the past, present, and future of their shared commitment to understanding the religions of African and african-descended people. Scholars discuss the challenges of and opportunities for the study of Africana religions from ancient to modern times, across Africa and its diaspora.
Spirited Things
The word "possession" is trickier than we often think, especially in the context of the... more The word "possession" is trickier than we often think, especially in the context of the Black Atlantic and its religions and economy. Here possession can refer to spirits, material goods, and, indeed, people. In Spirited Things, Paul Christopher Johnson gathers together essays by leading anthropologists in the Americas to explore the fascinating nexus found at the heart of the idea of being possessed. The result is a book that marries one of anthropology's foundational concerns - spirit possession - with one of its most salient contemporary ones: materiality. The contributors reopen the concept of possession in order to examine the relationship between African religions in the Atlantic and the economies that have historically shaped-and continue to shape-the cultures that practice them. They explore the way spirit mediation is framed both by material things-including plantations, the Catholic church, the sea, and the telegraph-as well as the legacy of slavery. In doing so, they offer a powerful new concept for understanding the Atlantic world and its history, creation, and deeply complex religious and political economy.
Marx and Religion
Encyclopedia of Global Religion
Diaspora
Encyclopedia of Global Religion
Public Candomblé
Secrets, Gossip, and Gods, 2002
Uploads
Papers by Paul Christopher Johnson