Brendan Jamal Thornton
Biographic Data
| ID | 661342 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brendan Jamal Thornton |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brendan Jamal |
| FAMILY NAME | Thornton |
| SIGNATURE | THORNTON B J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3028-9709 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Rejoinder to Claudia Jahnel
In this rejoinder to Claudia Jahnel’s response to my article “Ethnographic Excursions in the Pentecostal Making and Remaking of Men” I emphasize the (transcultural) fluidity of categories like gender and religion, underscore their social significance and dynamism, and stress the relevance of gender questions to Pentecostal converts globally
Ethnographic Excursions in the Pentecostal Making and Remaking of Men
Following pioneering work on Pentecostalism and women, interest in the study of Pentecostal men and masculinities has grown markedly over the past decade. Research in this area, particularly in places like Africa and Latin America, has helped deepen scholarly appreciation for how gender discourses shape and are shaped by churchgoers in powerfully meaningful and often surprising ways. Yet, despite their ubiquity, issues of masculinity in the churc…
Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad, Volume 1, Obeah
Journal Article Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad, Volume 1, Obeah: Africans in the White Colonial Imagination. By Tracey E. HucksVolume 2, Orisa: Africana Nations and the Power of Black Sacred Imagination. By Dianne M. Stewart Get access Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad, Volume 1, Obeah: Africans in the White Colonial Imagination By Tracey E. Hucks Duke University Press, 2022. 280 pages. $99.95 (hardcover), $26.99 …
Fieldwork
Fieldwork, a term frequently employed in religious studies to describe qualitative research with contemporary subjects in their own milieu, is a concept inextricably linked with the ethnographic project. Anthropologists have for years challenged and pushed the limits of what fieldwork is, where fieldwork takes place, and how fieldwork is conducted by asking productive questions about where exactly “the field” is located and what precisely constit…
Changing Landscapes of Faith
This essay reviews the following works:The Cambridge History of Religions in Latin America. Edited by Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Paul Freston, and Stephen C. Dove New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Pp. xii + 830. 80.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781442272712
Refiguring Christianity and Black Atlantic Religion
This article considers the analytic categories scholars use to conceptualize religious difference in the Caribbean and addresses the relatively sparse theorizing of Christianity in the study of so-called syncretic or creole religions of the African diaspora. I take the Spiritual Baptists of Trinidad and Tobago as a case study to shed light on the significant divergences between vernacular definitions of Christianity and those designations scholar…
Caribbean Exceptions
The analytic paradigms of race and nation have dominated scholarship on the Dominican Republic and have framed social and cultural analysis in ways that have limited the theorizing of Dominican materials to a narrow focus on identity. These gatekeeping concepts have been especially influential in shaping Dominican studies in the United States and in defining the predominant questions of interest in the field. This article assesses the conceptual …
Ties that bind
In this article, I juxtapose Pentecostal churches with youth gangs, two popular barrio institutions that at first glance appear to be irreconcilable but when considered together evince organic parallels that reveal important insights into contemporary life in urban poverty. Reflecting on ethnographic data from the Dominican Republic and elsewhere, I argue that due to an analogous ritualization of everyday life – through rigorous rules and clearly…
Victims of Illicit Desire
For men in the context of urban poverty in the Dominican Republic, Pentecostal conversion may lead to conditions of gender distress: frustration stemming from the challenges of reconciling the conflicting gender ideals of the church with those of the street. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted with members of a Pentecostal community in the town of Villa Altagracia, I discuss how many young men come to experience the initial trials of conve…
New Directions in the Anthropology of Religion and Gender
New Directions in the Anthropology of Religion and Gender:Faith and Emergent Masculinities William Dawley and Brendan Jamal Thornton This special collection featured in Anthropological Quarterly considers an underexplored topic in anthropology: the critical relationship between masculinity and religion. Despite the fact that this relationship is, in many parts of the world, a subject frequently commented upon and stereotyped—with popular media of…
Negotiating Respect
Negotiating Respect: Pentecostalism, Masculinity, and the Politics of Spiritual Authority in the Dominican Republic is a comprehensive ethnographic account of Pentecostal Christianity in the context of urban poverty in the Dominican Republic. Based on over two years of fieldwork in a barrio of Villa Altagracia, Negotiating Respectexamines the everyday practices of Pentecostal community members and the complex ways in which they negotiate legitima…
Residual Masculinity and the Cultivation of Negative-Charisma in a Caribbean Pentecostal Community
Residual Masculinity and the Cultivation of Negative-Charisma in a Caribbean Pentecostal Community
This chapter considers men, masculinity, and charismatic authority among Pentecostal Christians in the Dominican Republic. Above is a selection from the conversion narrative of someone I call Juan Carlos. Limited space here prevents me from detailing his testimony in its entirety, but what I have included are particulars that have become commonplace in the conversion narratives of Pentecostal men in urban barrios throughout the country.1 Through …
Victims of Illicit Desire
For men in the context of urban poverty in the Dominican Republic, Pentecostal conversion may lead to conditions of gender distress: frustration stemming from the challenges of reconciling the conflicting gender ideals of the church with those of the street. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted with members of a Pentecostal community in the town of Villa Altagracia, I discuss how many young men come to experience the initial trials of conve…
Changing Landscapes of Faith
This essay reviews the following works:The Cambridge History of Religions in Latin America. Edited by Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Paul Freston, and Stephen C. Dove New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Pp. xii + 830. 80.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781442272712
New Directions in the Anthropology of Religion and Gender
New Directions in the Anthropology of Religion and Gender:Faith and Emergent Masculinities William Dawley and Brendan Jamal Thornton This special collection featured in Anthropological Quarterly considers an underexplored topic in anthropology: the critical relationship between masculinity and religion. Despite the fact that this relationship is, in many parts of the world, a subject frequently commented upon and stereotyped—with popular media of…
Fieldwork
Fieldwork, a term frequently employed in religious studies to describe qualitative research with contemporary subjects in their own milieu, is a concept inextricably linked with the ethnographic project. Anthropologists have for years challenged and pushed the limits of what fieldwork is, where fieldwork takes place, and how fieldwork is conducted by asking productive questions about where exactly “the field” is located and what precisely constit…
Ties that bind
In this article, I juxtapose Pentecostal churches with youth gangs, two popular barrio institutions that at first glance appear to be irreconcilable but when considered together evince organic parallels that reveal important insights into contemporary life in urban poverty. Reflecting on ethnographic data from the Dominican Republic and elsewhere, I argue that due to an analogous ritualization of everyday life – through rigorous rules and clearly…
Residual Masculinity and the Cultivation of Negative-Charisma in a Caribbean Pentecostal Community
This chapter considers men, masculinity, and charismatic authority among Pentecostal Christians in the Dominican Republic. Above is a selection from the conversion narrative of someone I call Juan Carlos. Limited space here prevents me from detailing his testimony in its entirety, but what I have included are particulars that have become commonplace in the conversion narratives of Pentecostal men in urban barrios throughout the country.1 Through …
Residual Masculinity and the Cultivation of Negative-Charisma in a Caribbean Pentecostal Community
Negotiating Respect
Negotiating Respect: Pentecostalism, Masculinity, and the Politics of Spiritual Authority in the Dominican Republic is a comprehensive ethnographic account of Pentecostal Christianity in the context of urban poverty in the Dominican Republic. Based on over two years of fieldwork in a barrio of Villa Altagracia, Negotiating Respectexamines the everyday practices of Pentecostal community members and the complex ways in which they negotiate legitima…
Ties that bind
In this article, I juxtapose Pentecostal churches with youth gangs, two popular barrio institutions that at first glance appear to be irreconcilable but when considered together evince organic parallels that reveal important insights into contemporary life in urban poverty. Reflecting on ethnographic data from the Dominican Republic and elsewhere, I argue that due to an analogous ritualization of everyday life – through rigorous rules and clearly…
Victims of Illicit Desire
For men in the context of urban poverty in the Dominican Republic, Pentecostal conversion may lead to conditions of gender distress: frustration stemming from the challenges of reconciling the conflicting gender ideals of the church with those of the street. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted with members of a Pentecostal community in the town of Villa Altagracia, I discuss how many young men come to experience the initial trials of conve…
New Directions in the Anthropology of Religion and Gender
New Directions in the Anthropology of Religion and Gender:Faith and Emergent Masculinities William Dawley and Brendan Jamal Thornton This special collection featured in Anthropological Quarterly considers an underexplored topic in anthropology: the critical relationship between masculinity and religion. Despite the fact that this relationship is, in many parts of the world, a subject frequently commented upon and stereotyped—with popular media of…
Caribbean Exceptions
The analytic paradigms of race and nation have dominated scholarship on the Dominican Republic and have framed social and cultural analysis in ways that have limited the theorizing of Dominican materials to a narrow focus on identity. These gatekeeping concepts have been especially influential in shaping Dominican studies in the United States and in defining the predominant questions of interest in the field. This article assesses the conceptual …
Refiguring Christianity and Black Atlantic Religion
This article considers the analytic categories scholars use to conceptualize religious difference in the Caribbean and addresses the relatively sparse theorizing of Christianity in the study of so-called syncretic or creole religions of the African diaspora. I take the Spiritual Baptists of Trinidad and Tobago as a case study to shed light on the significant divergences between vernacular definitions of Christianity and those designations scholar…
Fieldwork
Fieldwork, a term frequently employed in religious studies to describe qualitative research with contemporary subjects in their own milieu, is a concept inextricably linked with the ethnographic project. Anthropologists have for years challenged and pushed the limits of what fieldwork is, where fieldwork takes place, and how fieldwork is conducted by asking productive questions about where exactly “the field” is located and what precisely constit…
Changing Landscapes of Faith
This essay reviews the following works:The Cambridge History of Religions in Latin America. Edited by Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Paul Freston, and Stephen C. Dove New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Pp. xii + 830. 80.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781442272712
Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad, Volume 1, Obeah
Journal Article Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad, Volume 1, Obeah: Africans in the White Colonial Imagination. By Tracey E. HucksVolume 2, Orisa: Africana Nations and the Power of Black Sacred Imagination. By Dianne M. Stewart Get access Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad, Volume 1, Obeah: Africans in the White Colonial Imagination By Tracey E. Hucks Duke University Press, 2022. 280 pages. $99.95 (hardcover), $26.99 …
Rejoinder to Claudia Jahnel
In this rejoinder to Claudia Jahnel’s response to my article “Ethnographic Excursions in the Pentecostal Making and Remaking of Men” I emphasize the (transcultural) fluidity of categories like gender and religion, underscore their social significance and dynamism, and stress the relevance of gender questions to Pentecostal converts globally
Ethnographic Excursions in the Pentecostal Making and Remaking of Men
Following pioneering work on Pentecostalism and women, interest in the study of Pentecostal men and masculinities has grown markedly over the past decade. Research in this area, particularly in places like Africa and Latin America, has helped deepen scholarly appreciation for how gender discourses shape and are shaped by churchgoers in powerfully meaningful and often surprising ways. Yet, despite their ubiquity, issues of masculinity in the churc…
Gender Studies (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Anthropology (7 works) · Caribbean history, culture, and politics (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (6 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (5 works) · Ethnography (5 works) · Faith (4 works)