Espíritos, história e colonialismo na Guiana

Abstract

Em diálogo com proposições recentes em torno da antropologia da história, neste artigo abordo como espíritos de colonizadores holandeses na Guiana, antiga Guiana Britânica, atuam como agentes, atores e narradores do processo histórico. Argumento que espíritos participam da formulação, (re)criação e circulação de conhecimentos, fatos e experiências associados, pelos espíritos e pelos humanos, ao período colonial da Guiana.

Dutch spirits, East Indians, and Hindu deities in Guyana: Contests over land

“…Tricky, deceitful, and malevolent, these spirits can sexually assault people in their dreams; cause sickness, mental confusion, and compulsive desires (such as heavy drinking and hypersexuality); and precipitate suicide, contributing to Guyana having one of the highest per capita suicide rates in the world (see Edwards 2016). As an always-emergent form of authority grounded in violence, the imposition of forceful relations-which are not restricted to the boundaries of state institutions-and acts performed and designed to generate commitments, mutual rights, arbitrations, and loyalties (Hansen and Stepputat 2006;Ram 2012;Thomas 2019), sovereignty is premised on variably negotiable bonds between humans and nonhumans (Mello 2021;Singh 2015). Mundane disputes over land are not precluded from supernatural agency (Chakrabarty 2001), nor are they restricted to the world of the living.…”