The Cultural Politics of Obeah: Religion, Colonialism and Modernity in the Caribbean World

ISBN-13: 9781107615991 / Angielski / Miękka / 2017 / 375 str.

Diana Paton

Opis

A study of the importance of debates about obeah, and state suppression of it, for Caribbean struggles about freedom and citizenship.

Recenzje

'Diana Paton's recently published book, The Cultural Politics of Obeah: Religion, Colonialism, and Modernity in the Caribbean World, helps us understand how the 1904 Obeah Act is not only still in existence in the Caribbean, but also active … This rich text shows how the crime of obeah emerged as a homogenizing tool used by police, prosecutors, and governments to consolidate a wide range of healing practices deemed subversive and uncivilized … The Cultural Politics of Obeah does an excellent job demonstrating how racial hostilities have been mobilized as obeah for different reasons at different moments. Through a range of historical detail it demonstrates how anti-obeah legislation has defined racial governance where obeah is an artifact of colonial law. Rather than a singular practice or object of knowledge, it shows how obeah must be understood as a hostile term.' Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús, Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology

Spis treści

Introduction; 1. The emergence of Caribbean spiritual politics; 2. Obeah and the slave-trade debates; 3. Creole slave society, obeah, and the law; 4. Obeah and its meanings in the post-emancipation era; 5. Obeah in the courts, 1890–1939; 6. Obeah prosecutions from the inside; 7. Protest, development, and the politics of obeah; 8. The postcolonial politics of obeah; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.