Victor Sacha Cova
Biographic Data
| ID | 86991 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Victor Sacha Cova |
| GIVEN NAMES | Victor Sacha |
| FAMILY NAME | Cova |
| SIGNATURE | COVA V S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Groningen |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7504-3505 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 8 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Missionary Ironies: Political and Economic Paradoxes of Evangelical Mission Life among Shuar People and Settlers in Morona-Santiago, Ecuador
How did evangelical missionaries come to make sense of the paradoxical political and economic effects of their work in the Ecuadorian Amazon? I argue that, as part of their religious practice and theology, they developed a hermeneutics of history that foregrounds unexpected ironies and open-endedness and undermines their own intentionality. Such a hermeneutics enabled them – and through them the analyst – to remain attuned to historical ironies –…
From Punk to Pibroch: Aesthetic experience, Anthropology, and Historical Consciousness in Peter Gow's Anthropology of Scotland
Experience, historical, aesthetic and ethnographic, as shifting grounds for knowledge often decried as mere belief, that is, as possibly invented or imagined, is a thread that runs through Peter Gow's entire work. The point he was thereby trying to make had to do with what he considered to be the threat to anthropology's raison d ́être that had emerged with the so-called "crisis of representation" of the 1980s and only gained further ground there…
Christianity and Christians in Amazonia
Some of the first Europeans to set foot in the Americas were missionaries, and their efforts have been relentless ever since. Early encounters between missionaries and Indigenous Amazonian people were taken in Europe to be a profound historical and theological event, as people tried to place them within a biblical narrative. Missions to Amazonia were an object of fascination, in particular with the Jesuit missions in Paraguay in the sixteenth cen…
The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality
The tense but enduring engagement between anthropology and gender and sexuality studies has had profound effects upon anthropological theory and practice. Bringing together contributions from an international team of authors, this Handbook shows that anthropological work has taken inspiration from feminist and LGBTQI movements to create a transformative body of research. It provides an accessible, state-of-the-art overview of the anthropology of …
An Amazonianist and his history
Thinking the End: Desiring Death and the Undead in the Ecuadorian Upper Amazon
In this article, I argue that imagining the end of ends through narratives about the end of the world and the undead may be mobilised to address a crisis of ends and means. Specifically, I analyze jokes and fantasies that my indigenous Shuar interlocutors from the Ecuadorian Amazon shared with me in the context of protests in favour of the construction of a road on their territory. What brings them together is the operation they perform on previo…
Ayahuasca Calling: Sacredness and the Emergence of Shamanic Vocations in Denmark and Peru
This article addresses the sacredness of Ayahuasca from the perspective of the global shamanic vocation. If encounters with Ayahuasca are said to revitalize forms of sacredness in contemporary societies, this is perhaps clearest in cases where individuals understand themselves to be called to lead ceremonies. Recognizing the global scale of Ayahuasca shamanism, we compare facilitators of ceremonies in two societies to discern differences and simi…
The Road to Taisha: Indigenous Protests for Road Infrastructure in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Ontological Turn
This contribution examines protests by Shuar people in the Ecuadorian Amazon during the summer of 2015 in favour of the construction of a road through their territory. Can the ontological turn help us understand such events? Debates around the ontological turn have hinged around its potential contribution to the analysis of environmental challenges and political conflicts. In this article, I argue that central concepts from the ontological turn –…
Ayahuasca Calling: Sacredness and the Emergence of Shamanic Vocations in Denmark and Peru
This article addresses the sacredness of Ayahuasca from the perspective of the global shamanic vocation. If encounters with Ayahuasca are said to revitalize forms of sacredness in contemporary societies, this is perhaps clearest in cases where individuals understand themselves to be called to lead ceremonies. Recognizing the global scale of Ayahuasca shamanism, we compare facilitators of ceremonies in two societies to discern differences and simi…
The Road to Taisha: Indigenous Protests for Road Infrastructure in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Ontological Turn
This contribution examines protests by Shuar people in the Ecuadorian Amazon during the summer of 2015 in favour of the construction of a road through their territory. Can the ontological turn help us understand such events? Debates around the ontological turn have hinged around its potential contribution to the analysis of environmental challenges and political conflicts. In this article, I argue that central concepts from the ontological turn –…
Thinking the End: Desiring Death and the Undead in the Ecuadorian Upper Amazon
In this article, I argue that imagining the end of ends through narratives about the end of the world and the undead may be mobilised to address a crisis of ends and means. Specifically, I analyze jokes and fantasies that my indigenous Shuar interlocutors from the Ecuadorian Amazon shared with me in the context of protests in favour of the construction of a road on their territory. What brings them together is the operation they perform on previo…
An Amazonianist and his history
The Road to Taisha: Indigenous Protests for Road Infrastructure in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Ontological Turn
This contribution examines protests by Shuar people in the Ecuadorian Amazon during the summer of 2015 in favour of the construction of a road through their territory. Can the ontological turn help us understand such events? Debates around the ontological turn have hinged around its potential contribution to the analysis of environmental challenges and political conflicts. In this article, I argue that central concepts from the ontological turn –…
Ayahuasca Calling: Sacredness and the Emergence of Shamanic Vocations in Denmark and Peru
This article addresses the sacredness of Ayahuasca from the perspective of the global shamanic vocation. If encounters with Ayahuasca are said to revitalize forms of sacredness in contemporary societies, this is perhaps clearest in cases where individuals understand themselves to be called to lead ceremonies. Recognizing the global scale of Ayahuasca shamanism, we compare facilitators of ceremonies in two societies to discern differences and simi…
The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality
The tense but enduring engagement between anthropology and gender and sexuality studies has had profound effects upon anthropological theory and practice. Bringing together contributions from an international team of authors, this Handbook shows that anthropological work has taken inspiration from feminist and LGBTQI movements to create a transformative body of research. It provides an accessible, state-of-the-art overview of the anthropology of …
An Amazonianist and his history
Thinking the End: Desiring Death and the Undead in the Ecuadorian Upper Amazon
In this article, I argue that imagining the end of ends through narratives about the end of the world and the undead may be mobilised to address a crisis of ends and means. Specifically, I analyze jokes and fantasies that my indigenous Shuar interlocutors from the Ecuadorian Amazon shared with me in the context of protests in favour of the construction of a road on their territory. What brings them together is the operation they perform on previo…
Christianity and Christians in Amazonia
Some of the first Europeans to set foot in the Americas were missionaries, and their efforts have been relentless ever since. Early encounters between missionaries and Indigenous Amazonian people were taken in Europe to be a profound historical and theological event, as people tried to place them within a biblical narrative. Missions to Amazonia were an object of fascination, in particular with the Jesuit missions in Paraguay in the sixteenth cen…
Missionary Ironies: Political and Economic Paradoxes of Evangelical Mission Life among Shuar People and Settlers in Morona-Santiago, Ecuador
How did evangelical missionaries come to make sense of the paradoxical political and economic effects of their work in the Ecuadorian Amazon? I argue that, as part of their religious practice and theology, they developed a hermeneutics of history that foregrounds unexpected ironies and open-endedness and undermines their own intentionality. Such a hermeneutics enabled them – and through them the analyst – to remain attuned to historical ironies –…
From Punk to Pibroch: Aesthetic experience, Anthropology, and Historical Consciousness in Peter Gow's Anthropology of Scotland
Experience, historical, aesthetic and ethnographic, as shifting grounds for knowledge often decried as mere belief, that is, as possibly invented or imagined, is a thread that runs through Peter Gow's entire work. The point he was thereby trying to make had to do with what he considered to be the threat to anthropology's raison d ́être that had emerged with the so-called "crisis of representation" of the 1980s and only gained further ground there…
Anthropological Studies and Insights (4 works) · History (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Amazon rainforest (3 works) · Anthropology (3 works) · Philosophy (3 works) · Aesthetics (2 works) · Archaeology (2 works) · Ecology (2 works)