Sorcery and well-being

Bodily transformation at Beckeranta

Bibliographic Data

ID18976992
AuthorsJames Andrew Whitaker (0000-0001-9112-9931, Tulane University , New Orleans , LA , USA, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume28
Issue1
Pages78-93
Publication date2021-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropology and Medicine (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1364-8470 • E-ISSN: 1469-2910
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13648470.2020.1807726
PMID33441023
OpenAlexW3118747360
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited44

This paper examines bodily transformation and well-being within the context of a millenarian movement that emerged during the 1840s in the area surrounding Mount Roraima at the periphery of Brazil, Guyana (British Guiana at the time), and Venezuela. The site of this movement was Beckeranta - meaning 'Land of the Whites' - where up to 400 Amerindians were reportedly killed in a quest that is described in its sole historical account as centred around a goal of bodily transformation into white people. In examining this movement, the paper engages with longstanding debates in medical anthropology concerning the body, as well as conversations among Amazonianists concerning the social formation of bodies, and examines sorcery and shamanism as practices that go 'beyond the body'. Notions of bodily transformation in Amazonia, which are often activated by strong emotions, facilitate conceptual expansions of the body in medical anthropology. The paper suggests that bodily transformations tied to sorcery and shamanism are in some contexts, such as at Beckeranta, associated with desires for well-being.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2020.1807726

Amazon rainforest · Archaeology · Epistemology · Ethnography · Millenarianism · Political science · Politics · Shamanism · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Philosophy · Race, Genetics, and Society · Ecology

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