Timothy R Landry
Biographic Data
| ID | 185269 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Timothy R Landry |
| GIVEN NAMES | Timothy R |
| FAMILY NAME | Landry |
| SIGNATURE | LANDRY T R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Trinity College |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0619-9220 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 9 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Cowries, Cosmologies, and Contracts
This article explores the complex entanglements between Vodún and money in southern Bénin, challenging the negative connotations associated with the phrase “voodoo economics.” Drawing on ethnographic stories, the article examines the historical and spiritual significance of cowrie shells, the apotheosis of wealth in Vodún cosmology, and the ways in which economic challenges inspire new forms of spiritual adaptation. The rising costs of ritual par…
Fá Divination, Well-being, and Coolness in Bénin, West Africa
For more than 40 years the relationships that exist between divination and knowledge have become central to anthropology's understanding of African religious practice. This paper deemphasizes the commonly mobilized 'divination as knowledge' trope in favor of highlighting its role in achieving well-being. Indeed, I argue that by focusing on divination as a way of knowing ethnographers have inadvertently ignored what happens after said knowledge is…
Vodún, Spirited Forests, and the African Atlantic Forest Complex
Vodún has been described as indefinable, endlessly flexible, and borderless. In this paper, I develop an analytical framework for understanding global Vodún, thereby challenging claims that Vodún is, at its core, inexplicable. To accomplish this, I combine over a decade of ethnographic research in Bénin and Haiti with my status as an initiate of Haitian Vodou and my time as a diviner's apprentice in Bénin. Joining these three modalities, I explor…
An Ethnography of a Vodu Shrine in Southern Togo
Blurring Boundaries
BLURRING BOUNDARIES: NOTES ON ETHNOGRAPHY AND THE HOLY HUSTLERS OF BOTSWANA - Richard Werbner, director. Holy Hustlers. 2009. 53 minutes. English subtitles. United Kingdom. International Centre for Contemporary Cultural Research, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester. No price reported. - Richard Werbner, director. Counterpoint One. 2011. 37 minutes. United Kingdom. Royal Anthropological Institute. No price reported. - Richard Werbn…
Incarnating Spirits, Composing Shrines, and Cooking Divine Power inVodún
In this article I consider the ways in which shrine building, adornment, and the resulting experience of secrecy that emanates from shrines supports the building of new transnational networks and diasporas that are beginning to encourage a conceptual expansion of the African-Atlantic world. To achieve this I focus on how strategic choices in ritual flexibility and experimentation in shrine-building work to support the transnationalization of reli…
Vodún, Globalization, and the Creative Layering of Belief in Southern Bénin
This article examines the ways in which beliefs and forms of secret religious knowledge are (re)formed and mobilized creatively by Béninois practitioners ofVodún, who participate actively in Bénin's changing religious landscape. This expansion, encouraged by contemporary trends in globalization and transnationalism such as spiritual tourism, modernity, and an increased Evangelical Christian presence in West Africa, has propelled belief into local…
Never Wholly Respectable
In 1993, Bruce Grindal wrote that "Humanistic anthropology must never become wholly respectable." Implying that humanism is anthropology's important gadfly or jester, designed to "challenge and occasionally outrage the priestly purveyors" of science, his influence perpetuates the continued salience and current engagement of interpretative and humanistic anthropology. In this article, I compare Grindal's work with Sisala notions of death in northe…
Moving to Learn
While conducting research in Haiti, I became initiated into Haitian Vodou and started a long apprenticeship with a local priestess. Learning about Vodou as an ethnographer and as an initiate presented many challenges that were directly linked to the way I needed to learn Vodou. In this article, I examine the ways practitioners (myself included) of Vodou approach learning. I have come to understand learning in Haitian Vodou as an embodied, sensuou…
Incarnating Spirits, Composing Shrines, and Cooking Divine Power inVodún
In this article I consider the ways in which shrine building, adornment, and the resulting experience of secrecy that emanates from shrines supports the building of new transnational networks and diasporas that are beginning to encourage a conceptual expansion of the African-Atlantic world. To achieve this I focus on how strategic choices in ritual flexibility and experimentation in shrine-building work to support the transnationalization of reli…
Vodún, Globalization, and the Creative Layering of Belief in Southern Bénin
This article examines the ways in which beliefs and forms of secret religious knowledge are (re)formed and mobilized creatively by Béninois practitioners ofVodún, who participate actively in Bénin's changing religious landscape. This expansion, encouraged by contemporary trends in globalization and transnationalism such as spiritual tourism, modernity, and an increased Evangelical Christian presence in West Africa, has propelled belief into local…
Never Wholly Respectable
In 1993, Bruce Grindal wrote that "Humanistic anthropology must never become wholly respectable." Implying that humanism is anthropology's important gadfly or jester, designed to "challenge and occasionally outrage the priestly purveyors" of science, his influence perpetuates the continued salience and current engagement of interpretative and humanistic anthropology. In this article, I compare Grindal's work with Sisala notions of death in northe…
Moving to Learn
While conducting research in Haiti, I became initiated into Haitian Vodou and started a long apprenticeship with a local priestess. Learning about Vodou as an ethnographer and as an initiate presented many challenges that were directly linked to the way I needed to learn Vodou. In this article, I examine the ways practitioners (myself included) of Vodou approach learning. I have come to understand learning in Haitian Vodou as an embodied, sensuou…
Vodún, Globalization, and the Creative Layering of Belief in Southern Bénin
This article examines the ways in which beliefs and forms of secret religious knowledge are (re)formed and mobilized creatively by Béninois practitioners ofVodún, who participate actively in Bénin's changing religious landscape. This expansion, encouraged by contemporary trends in globalization and transnationalism such as spiritual tourism, modernity, and an increased Evangelical Christian presence in West Africa, has propelled belief into local…
Never Wholly Respectable
In 1993, Bruce Grindal wrote that "Humanistic anthropology must never become wholly respectable." Implying that humanism is anthropology's important gadfly or jester, designed to "challenge and occasionally outrage the priestly purveyors" of science, his influence perpetuates the continued salience and current engagement of interpretative and humanistic anthropology. In this article, I compare Grindal's work with Sisala notions of death in northe…
Blurring Boundaries
BLURRING BOUNDARIES: NOTES ON ETHNOGRAPHY AND THE HOLY HUSTLERS OF BOTSWANA - Richard Werbner, director. Holy Hustlers. 2009. 53 minutes. English subtitles. United Kingdom. International Centre for Contemporary Cultural Research, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester. No price reported. - Richard Werbner, director. Counterpoint One. 2011. 37 minutes. United Kingdom. Royal Anthropological Institute. No price reported. - Richard Werbn…
Incarnating Spirits, Composing Shrines, and Cooking Divine Power inVodún
In this article I consider the ways in which shrine building, adornment, and the resulting experience of secrecy that emanates from shrines supports the building of new transnational networks and diasporas that are beginning to encourage a conceptual expansion of the African-Atlantic world. To achieve this I focus on how strategic choices in ritual flexibility and experimentation in shrine-building work to support the transnationalization of reli…
An Ethnography of a Vodu Shrine in Southern Togo
Vodún, Spirited Forests, and the African Atlantic Forest Complex
Vodún has been described as indefinable, endlessly flexible, and borderless. In this paper, I develop an analytical framework for understanding global Vodún, thereby challenging claims that Vodún is, at its core, inexplicable. To accomplish this, I combine over a decade of ethnographic research in Bénin and Haiti with my status as an initiate of Haitian Vodou and my time as a diviner's apprentice in Bénin. Joining these three modalities, I explor…
Fá Divination, Well-being, and Coolness in Bénin, West Africa
For more than 40 years the relationships that exist between divination and knowledge have become central to anthropology's understanding of African religious practice. This paper deemphasizes the commonly mobilized 'divination as knowledge' trope in favor of highlighting its role in achieving well-being. Indeed, I argue that by focusing on divination as a way of knowing ethnographers have inadvertently ignored what happens after said knowledge is…
Cowries, Cosmologies, and Contracts
This article explores the complex entanglements between Vodún and money in southern Bénin, challenging the negative connotations associated with the phrase “voodoo economics.” Drawing on ethnographic stories, the article examines the historical and spiritual significance of cowrie shells, the apotheosis of wealth in Vodún cosmology, and the ways in which economic challenges inspire new forms of spiritual adaptation. The rising costs of ritual par…
Sociology (9 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (7 works) · Anthropology (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Ethnography (6 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Aesthetics (3 works) · Art (3 works) · History (3 works)