Global Power Relations at Play in Fieldwork
Researching Brazilian Spiritism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v3i2.145Keywords:
global power relations, insider/outsider, John of God, mediumistic operations, SpiritismAbstract
In this paper I seek to discuss the methodological challenges of conducting fieldwork amongst one’s own. I explore the fluidity of the outsider/insider identity within the research. I argue that a global “power-geometry” is at play when establishing rapport with a community where fieldwork is conducted. Using the Brazilian Spiritist healing centre established by John of God (João de Deus) as a case study, I show that the field in Brazil is not isolated from global flows. Thus researchers must take into consideration the impact of global flows of ideas and people on the religious community as well as the offshoots of this community overseas. Following Marcus (1998) and Clifford (1997), I suggest that tracking flows is as important as researching a specific site.
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References
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Carvalho, José Jorge. 1994. “O Encontro De Velhas e Novas Religiões: Esboço de Uma Teoria dos Estilos de Espiritualidade,” in A. Moreira and R. Zicman eds. Misticismo e Novas Religiões. Petrópolis: Vozes/UFS/IFAN, 69–98.
Cavalcanti, Maria Laura Viveiros de Castro. 1990. “O Espiritismo,” in L. Landim ed. Sinais dos Tempos: Diversidade Religiosa no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Instituto de Estudos da Religião, 147–55.
Clifford, James. 1997. Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Fadzillah, Ida. 2005. “Going beyond ‘The West’ and ‘The Rest’: Conducting Non-Western, NonNative Ethnography in Northern Thailand,” in Lynne Hume and Jane Mulcock eds. Anthropologists in the Field: Cases in Participant Observation. New York: Columbia University Press, 32–45.
Greenfield, S. 1987. “The Return of Doctor Fritz: Spiritist Healing and Patronage Networks in Urban, Industrial Brazil,” Social Science and Medicine, 24.12, 1095–1108. doi:10.1016/ 0277-9536(87)90024-4
—1991. “Hypnosis and Trance Induction in the Surgeries of Brazilian Spiritist Healers,” Anthropology of Consciousness, 2, 20–25. doi:10.1525/ac.1991.2.3-4.20
—1992. “Spiritists and Spiritist Therapy in Southern Brazil: A Case Study of an Innovative, Syncretic Healing Group,” Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 16, 23–51. doi:10.1007/BF00054438
Gupta, Akhil, and James Ferguson. 1997. “Discipline and Practice: ‘The Field’ as the Site, Method, and Location in Anthropology,” in A. Gupta and J. Ferguson eds. Anthropological Locations: Boundaries and Grounds of a Field Science. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.
Hess, D. 1991. Spiritists and Scientists: Ideology, Spiritism and Brazilian Culture. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
—1994. Samba in the Night: Spiritism in Brazil. New York: Columbia University Press.
Machado, Ubiratan. 1983. Os Intelectuais e o Espiritismo: de Castro Alves a Machado de Assis. Rio de Janeiro: Edições Antares, Instituto Nacional do Livro.
Marcus, George. 1998. Ethnography through Thick and Thin. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Marcus, George, and Michael M. Fisher. 1986. Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Massey, Doreen. 1994. Space, Place and Gender. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Narayan, Kirin. 1993. “How Native Is a ‘Native’ Anthropologist?” American Anthropologist, New Series, 95.3, 671–86. doi:10.1525/aa.1993.95.3.02a00070
Pellegrino-Estrich, Robert. 2002. The Miracle Man: The Life Story of João de Deus. Goiânia: Gráfica Terra.
Rocha, Cristina. 2006. Zen in Brazil: The Quest for Cosmopolitan Modernity. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Schwarz, Roberto. 1992. Misplaced Ideas: Essays on Brazilian Culture. London: Verso.
Varella, Flávia. 2000. “À Nossa Moda: Criado na França, O Espiritismo Deu Certo Apenas no Brasil, Onde a Doutrina Mística Com Pretensões Científicas É Culto da Classe Média,” Veja, 26 July, 78–82.
Veríssimo, Arthur. 2006. “Deus é Brasileiro (e mora em Abadiânia),” Revista Trip, June, 122–28.
Warren, D. 1984. “A Terapia Espírita no Rio de Janeiro Por Volta de 1900,” Religião e Sociedade, 11, 56–83.
Zorzanelli, Marcelo. 2007. “O Curandeiro Globalizado,” Época, 27 August. http://revistaepoca. globo.com/Revista/Epoca/0,,EDG78763-6014-484,00.html, accessed on October 15th, 2007.
Published
2010-01-15
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Rocha, C. (2010). Global Power Relations at Play in Fieldwork: Researching Brazilian Spiritism. Fieldwork in Religion, 3(2), 145-160. https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v3i2.145
