M. de Witte

The Spectacular and the Spirits. Charismatics and Neo-Traditionalists on Ghanaian Television

This paper deals with the visual culture of Pentecostalism as it is produced and broadcast on TV by the numerous and very successful Charismatic-Pentecostal “media ministries” in Ghana. It argues that a transnationally circulating Pentecostal program format has become paradigmatic not only for local Pentecostal groups but also for other religions seeking media access. Comparing Charismatic-Pentecostal and African traditionalist media use, it further examines the specific relationship between the visual and the spiritual in both religions. Conceiving of religion as a practice of mediation, creating links between the visible world and the invisible, spiritual world, the paper looks at how older forms of religious mediation relate to newer forms of technological mediation. It traces the success of the televisual culture of Charismatic-Pentecostalism to the similarity between the dominant formats, styles, and modes of address of the medium of television and those of mediating the spirit in Charismatic religious practice. Traditional practices of spiritual communication, on the other hand, are closely linked to secrecy and seclusion with little emphasis on visuality and esthetics and do not easily translate into public spectacle. The alternative, neo-traditionalist spectacles created for public consumption, then, lack the charisma and spiritual power that characterize Charismatic television.This paper deals with the visual culture of Pentecostalism as it is produced and broadcast on TV by the numerous and very successful Charismatic-Pentecostal “media ministries” in Ghana. It argues that a transnationally circulating Pentecostal program format has become paradigmatic not only for local Pentecostal groups but also for other religions seeking media access. Comparing Charismatic-Pentecostal and African traditionalist media use, it further examines the specific relationship between the visual and the spiritual in both religions. Conceiving of religion as a practice of mediation, creating links between the visible world and the invisible, spiritual world, the paper looks at how older forms of religious mediation relate to newer forms of technological mediation. It traces the success of the televisual culture of Charismatic-Pentecostalism to the similarity between the dominant formats, styles, and modes of address of the medium of television and those of mediating the spirit in Charismatic religio...

Touched by the Spirit: Converting the Senses in a Ghanaian Charismatic Church

This article discusses the bodily mass reproduction of divine touch in Ghanaian charismatic Pentecostalism and argues for an understanding of conversion as an ongoing bodily process that ‘tunes’ the senses to specific sensory experiences. Presenting a case study of the International Central Gospel Church in Accra, it asks how the churchs explicit appeal to the body relates to its strong suspicion of bodily mediation and its ideology of conversion as an inner transformation of the spirit and only secondarily of the body. It shows that the learning of the church doctrine that grounds born-again subjectivity in spontaneous and immediate experiences of being touched by the Holy Spirit goes together with repeated performance and gradual embodiment of sensory and bodily ‘formats’ that evoke such experiences, but also raise concerns about their authenticity.This article discusses the bodily mass reproduction of divine touch in Ghanaian charismatic Pentecostalism and argues for an understanding of conversion as an ongoing bodily process that ‘tunes’ the senses to specific sensory experiences. Presenting a case study of the International Central Gospel Church in Accra, it asks how the churchs explicit appeal to the body relates to its strong suspicion of bodily mediation and its ideology of conversion as an inner transformation of the spirit and only secondarily of the body. It shows that the learning of the church doctrine that grounds born-again subjectivity in spontaneous and immediate experiences of being touched by the Holy Spirit goes together with repeated performance and gradual embodiment of sensory and bodily ‘formats’ that evoke such experiences, but also raise concerns about their authenticity.

Heritage and the sacred: introduction

ABSTRACT Heritage formation involves some kind of sacralization, through which cultural forms are lifted up and set apart. But success is not guaranteed in the making of heritage, and the cultural forms that are singled out may well fail to persuade. Heritage formation is a complicated, contested political—aesthetic process that requires detailed scholarly explorations and comparative analysis. Which aesthetic practices are involved in profiling cultural forms as heritage? What are the politics of authentication that underpin the selection and framing of particular cultural forms? To which contestations does the sacralization of particular cultural forms—in particular, those derived from the sphere of religion—give rise? Which aesthetics of persuasion are invoked to render heritage sacred for its beholders? Calling attention to various facets of the relation between heritage and the sacred, this special issue offers detailed explorations of how form, style, and appearance seek to vest selected objects and performative practices with sacrality.

Functional form of engel curves for foodstuffs

Abstract Employing individual household expenditure data for six foodstuffs we test five three-parameter and four two-parameter Engel curves against a more general form. All two-parameter functions must be rejected, including Workings function; it appears that a transformation of the budget share is in order to capture the observed curvature.

Heritage, blackness and Afro-cool: styling Africanness in Amsterdam

This article focuses on the recent emergence of an “Afro-Dutch” category of self-identification among young people in Amsterdam. Dutch-born youth of different Afro-Caribbean and African backgrounds show a new sense of (and search for) a shared African heritage, and a growing desire for public exposure and recognition of this Africanness. Manifesting in, for example, media initiatives, performing arts, cultural festivals, and bodily fashions, this trend is characterized by an aesthetic emphasis on globalized African styles and by political struggles about the inclusion of African heritage in Dutch imaginations of nationhood. Approaching Africanness as a process of becoming and a practice of self-styling, this article explores the convergence between the renewed interest in African roots among Dutch-born Afro-Caribbeans and the ways in which Ghanaian youth engage with their African origins. It discerns three prominent, but contested tropes with regard to their framing and design of Africanness: “African heritage”, “blackness” and “Afro-cool”.

Aesthetics of religious authority: introduction

This special issue brings together anthropologists in the field of religion with the aim of exploring the aesthetic dimensions of authority in religious leadership.* Taking aesthetics to refer to the range of sensory forms and experiences that shape the relation between religious practitioners and leaders, the contributing authors set out to explore the role of aesthetic forms and performative practices in the making of religious authority. What kind of shifts and changes can be observed in religious leadership practices? In what particular situations and encounters is religious leadership produced? What does the use of media do to the nature and diversity of such encounters? What do particular contestations over the public representation of religion reveal with regard to the making of authority and its transformations in recent years? How do novel forms of mediation and authority production speak to registers of authenticity and sincerity? This introduction situates these questions in the context of recent scholarly discussions on aesthetics, mediation, and the senses and outlines three angles from which the authors explore them: (1) changing sources of religious authority, (2) the dynamics of leadership and (3) the anthropology of events.

Introduction: 'African': a contested qualifier in global Africa

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Médias religieux, esprits voyageurs. Diffusion publique et secret dans le Pentecôtisme et dans la religion traditionnelle au Ghana

This article compares the role of media in three religious movements in Ghana, a country where the mediascape has undergone fundamental changes since the 1990s. It shows how visual mediation, mobility and the spiritual domain are intertwined, and demonstrates how media evoke both a public and a secret realm, as distinct yet connected spheres. The ethnography documents how this negotiation of public and secret finds itself at the heart of charismatic Pentecostalism, neo-traditional African religion, and traditional spiritual practices – three religions that situate themselves differently in public space but are interrelated and heavily interdependent.This article compares the role of media in three religious movements in Ghana, a country where the mediascape has undergone fundamental changes since the 1990s. It shows how visual mediation, mobility and the spiritual domain are intertwined, and demonstrates how media evoke both a public and a secret realm, as distinct yet connected spheres. The ethnography documents how this negotiation of public and secret finds itself at the heart of charismatic Pentecostalism, neo-traditional African religion, and traditional spiritual practices – three religions that situate themselves differently in public space but are interrelated and heavily interdependent.