Synopses & Reviews
"Todd Ochoa's important text immediately transposes us into a Kongo-Cuban sacred world of summoned ancestral forcesLucero, Sarabanda, Mama Chola, et al. The dead are honored on altars in ways that represent a profound creolization of the 'medicines of God' (minkisi), core elements of the classical religion of the kingdom of Kongo. Ochoa makes clear that Palo is a world faith with all the depth, narrative excitement, and cultural vitality that such a status implies. I enthusiastically recommend this book."Robert Farris Thompson, author of
Tango: The Art History of Love and Aesthetic of the Cool"The subtle accomplishments of this intensive work are evident in the empirical richness, in its attention to the intertwinings of performance, materiality, and power, and in the deeply engaging voice that resonates throughout the manuscript. This is a singular achievement and will provide the first thoroughgoing account on Palo in English, written with a keen ethnographic sensibility, but much more broadly accessiblepoetic and lucid, interpretive and grounded, challenging and engaging."Don Brenneis, UC Santa Cruz
"Ochoa takes us swimming into the unseen sea populated by the dead in Kongo-Cuban traditions. This nuanced and penetrating study reveals how the dead are divinity's potential, the generative spark that animates the many branches of what Ochoa terms 'African-inspired' practices. Evocative and masterfully written, I could hardly put the book down. It's sure to be a necessary text in any course on Afro-diasporic religions, Caribbean theology, and on ethnographic method and writing."Elizabeth McAlister, author of Rara!: Vodou, Power, and Performance in Haiti and Its Diaspora
Review
“[Ocheas] work is unlikely to be superseded. . . . Highly recommended.”
Review
and#8220;Engaging, theoretically sophisticated and ethnographically rich.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;[This] exploration of Egyptian dream life is a unique, if not compelling, one.and#8221;
Synopsis
Tracing the rise and development of the Ghanaian video film industry between 1985 and 2010,
Sensational Movies examines video movies as seismographic devices recording a culture and society in turmoil. This book captures the dynamic process of popular filmmaking in Ghana as a new medium for the imagination and tracks the interlacing of the mediumand#8217;s technological, economic, social, cultural, and religious aspects. Stepping into the void left by the defunct state film industry, video movies negotiate the imaginaries deployed by state cinema on the one hand and Christianity on the other.
Birgit Meyer analyzes Ghanaian video as a powerful, sensational form. Colliding with the state film industryand#8217;s representations of culture, these movies are indebted to religious notions of divination and revelation. Exploring the format of and#147;film as revelation,and#8221; Meyer unpacks the affinity between cinematic and popular Christian modes of looking and showcases the transgressive potential haunting figurations of the occult. In this brilliant study, Meyer offers a deep, conceptually innovative analysis of the role of visual culture within the politics and aesthetics of religious world making.
Synopsis
and#147;Combining extensive ethnographic work with careful description of the videos and their circulation and reception, Meyer offers readers a magisterial account of how market, state, industry, religion, and visual media intermingle. The result is an embodied, socially situated phenomenology of cinematic experience that builds on years of Meyerand#8217;s work and will shape the conversation among scholars for years to come.and#8221;and#151;David Morgan, Professor of Religious Studies, Duke University
and#147;Drawing together research on religion and media in a strikingly original way, Meyer argues that the image repertoire of Pentecostalism is central to the emergence of Ghanaian film.and#160; But more than this, she shows how popular cinema is key to how Pentecostalism goes public and becomes part of the everyday lives of religious subjects. This is a groundbreaking book that opens up fundamentally new questions about film, aesthetics, and the sensational life of images in contemporary Africa.and#8221;and#151;Brian Larkin, Barnard College, Columbia University
Synopsis
In a riveting first-person account, Todd Ramón Ochoa explores Palo, a Kongo-inspired "society of affliction" that is poorly understood at the margins of Cuban popular religion. Narrated as an encounter with two teachers of Palo, the book unfolds on the outskirts of Havana as it recounts Ochoa's attempts to assimilate Palo praise of the dead. As he comes to terms with a world in which everyday events and materials are composed of the dead, Ochoa discovers in Palo unexpected resources for understanding the relationship between matter and spirit, for rethinking anthropology's rendering of sorcery, and for representing the play of power in Cuban society. The first fully detailed treatment of the world of Palo, Society of the Dead draws upon recent critiques of Western metaphysics as it reveals what this little known practice can tell us about sensation, transformation, and redemption in the Black Atlantic.
Synopsis
Dreams that Matter explores the social and material life of dreams in contemporary Cairo. Amira Mittermaier guides the reader through landscapes of the imagination that feature Muslim dream interpreters who draw on Freud, reformists who dismiss all forms of divination as superstition, a Sufi devotional group that keeps a diary of dreams related to its shaykh, and ordinary believers who speak of moving encounters with the Prophet Muhammad. In close dialogue with her Egyptian interlocutors, Islamic textual traditions, and Western theorists, Mittermaier teases out the dreamand#8217;s ethical, political, and religious implications. Her book is a provocative examination of how present-day Muslims encounter and engage the Divine that offers a different perspective on the Islamic Revival. Dreams That Matter opens up new spaces for an anthropology of the imagination, inviting us to rethink both the imagined and the real.
Synopsis
"This brilliant study presents contemporary anthropology at its best. Whether one's goal is understanding the permeability of traditions and modernities or the changing shape of religious imagination and thought in one of the most pivotal countries of the Middle East, this book is an outstanding point of departure."and#151;Dale F. Eickelman, author of
The Middle East and Central Asia: An Anthropological Approach, 4th ed."Dreams That Matter is an insightful and well-crafted study of the practice of dreaming in contemporary Egypt. Mittermaier provides a superb analysis of the imaginative repertoires of Islamic traditions and shows how the dream has remained not only a site of Muslim scholarly interest, but an important part of the way ordinary Muslims encounter and engage with the divine."and#151;Charles Hirschkind, author of Powers of the Secular Modern: Talal Asad and His Interlocutors
"Amira Mittermaier has given us the most complete anthropological study of dream culture in the Middle Eastand#151;perhaps in any culture. It is a sensitive, intellectually challenging, indeed a courageous, investigation of the psychological, ontological, and ethical assumptions that lie behind dreams, visions, and dream-visitations in contemporary Egyptand#151;where the dream is a vibrant site of political, religious, and interpretive contest. Dreams That Matter will rank among the most important contributions to the anthropology of the imagination for years to come."and#151;Vincent Crapanzano, author of The Harkis: The Wound That Never Heals
About the Author
Birgit Meyer is a cultural anthropologist and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. She is Vice-Chair of the International African Institute and a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences.
and#160;
Table of Contents
List of IllustrationsPrefaceAbbreviationsand#160;Introduction and#160;and#160;and#160;1 and#160; andbull; and#160; and#160; The Video Film Industryand#160;2 and#160; andbull; and#160; and#160; Accra, Visions of the City and#160;3 and#160; andbull; and#160; and#160; Moving Pictures and Lived Experience4 and#160; andbull; and#160; and#160; Film as Revelationand#160;5 and#160; andbull; and#160; and#160; Picturing the Occult6 and#160; andbull; and#160; and#160; Animationand#160;7 and#160; andbull; and#160; and#160; Mediating Traditional Cultureand#160;Epilogueand#160;and#160;Notesand#160;ReferencesFilmographyIndexand#160;