Witchcraft, Territories and Marginal Resistances

Through their everyday references to witchcraft, allegedly emanating from Afro-Brazilian cults, Evangelical pastors denounce heinous crimes & acts of barbarity that provoke horror & terror in their listeners in church & on radio & television. I describe two allegations of witchcraft...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Mana (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) Brazil), 2009-10, Vol.15 (2), p.321-348
Main Author: Birman, Patricia
Format: Article
Language:Portuguese
Subjects:
Allegations
Crime
Criminality
Evangelism
Evil
Marginality
Pastors
Television
Witchcraft
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Summary:Through their everyday references to witchcraft, allegedly emanating from Afro-Brazilian cults, Evangelical pastors denounce heinous crimes & acts of barbarity that provoke horror & terror in their listeners in church & on radio & television. I describe two allegations of witchcraft by Pentecostal groups, which connect marginality, crime & the presence of diabolical evil in two communities. Witchcraft provides an entry point to examine some of the problems faced by those living in "communities:' the "demonization' of peripheral territories provoked by the state's identification of their populations with criminality, on one hand, & the Evangelical battle against diabolical evil, on the other. I look to show that in the community of believers & the favela alike the Evangelicals' battle with the devil is a response to the State's interpellations associated with its modalities of identifying peripheral spaces. In the process, I analyze the meaning assumed by witchcraft within the wider Evangelical project of salvation & the social future it aims to build. Adapted from the source document.
ISSN:0104-9313
DOI:10.1590/S0104-93132009000200001