From: Davide Ermacora
DE
-------------------
Workshop
MEDICINE, RELIGION, WITCHCRAFT
Rome, 30
th November – 1st December 2012Sapienza University of Rome
Department of History, Cultures, Religions
P.le A. Moro, 5
– 00185 Roma
Rationale of the workshop
Medicine, religion, witchcraft are three apparently different domains of ideas,
knowledge, practices and beliefs, as well as three different domains of anthropological
investigation characterized by rather independent objectives, methods and theoretical
frameworks.
Medicine and religion have often been tackled together or at least approached with
similar goals, and interconnected in the observation and analysis. Traditional medicine
and witchcraft have been often superimposed or confused by colonial powers and
practices, and even today the popular discourse confuses them. Religion and
witchcraft show some links both in practices and beliefs that have been explored only
partially. The anthropological interest in these three fields of investigation is almost
always intermingled with questions and arguments of political, economic,
psychological nature that dealt more with each field separately than with the complex
web of interrelations among them.
We wish to propose an integrated method of study which may give the opportunity of
working in the perspective of analyzing that complex web, and producing a new and
deeper anthropological awareness and capability in the interpretation of events,
processes and representations implying the three categories and fields, as well as their
socio-psychological, economic-political and symbolic backgrounds. The workshop aims
at contributing to the construction of such a new perspective through the proposal of
developing analyses and discussions that put witchcraft at the centre in order to reflect
on its reciprocal interrelations with medicine, on one side, and religion, on the other,
keeping the system of relations between medicine and religion as an empirical and
theoretical horizon.
Witchcraft turned again as a topical subject since the late Eighties of last Century
mainly for its links with wealth and power, and in relation to its supposed universality
within the globalization process, giving rise consequently to a strong interest in the
postmodern wave, highly influenced by the foucaultian theses. The hidden risk in this
intellectual trend lies in the allurement of proposing again, even though in terms
radically new, the issue of the function of witchcraft as a factor of social cohesion in
the context of the practices and representations in a globalized world. Therefore, the
understanding of the deep nature of witchcraft, and its mysterious and enigmatic
principles of reality, and its links with the material and spiritual aspects of reality -
culturally and scientifically represented by medicine and religion - runs the risk of
escape completely.
Participants:
1. Aria Dr.Matteo (PostDoc, Sapienza University of Rome)
niaria@tin.it2. Bellagamba Prof. Alice (Professor of Anthropology, University of Milan Bicocca)
3. Casciano Davide (MA student, Sapienza University of Rome)
davide@casciano.info4. Ceriana Mayneri Dr. Andrea (PostDoc, Université Catholique de Louvain)
5. Costantini Osvaldo (PhD student, Sapienza University of Rome)
mrmisin@hotmail.com6. Ekem Rev. Prof. John David K. (Academic Dean, Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon,
Accra, Ghana)
jdekem@gmail.com7. Lupo Prof. Alessandro (Professor of Anthropology, Sapienza University of Rome)
8. Meyer Prof. Birgit (Professor of Religious Studies, University of Utrecht)
19. Pavanello Prof. Mariano (Professor of Anthropology, Sapienza University of Rome)
10. Schirripa Prof. Pino (Professor of Anthropology, Sapienza University of Rome)
11. Vasconi Dr. Elisa (PhD, University of Siena)
elisavasconi@yahoo.it1
Department of Religious Studies and Theology, Trans 14, 3512 JK Utrecht, Netherlands; tel.+31302533838. Webpage:
http://www.uu.nl/hum/staff/BMeyer/0; co-editor of Material Religionhttp://www.bergpublishers.com/BergJournals/MaterialReligion/tabid/517/Default.aspx
.
PROGRAMME
Friday 30
th November 2012, morning – 1st Session (Witchcraft:epistemological issues)
11.00
Mariano Pavanello, Birgit Meyer, Opening of the workshop11.30
Matteo Aria, Witchcraft, biopower and extraordinary anthropology12.00
Mariano Pavanello, A hypothesis on the nature of African witchcraft12.30 debate
13.00 lunch
Friday 30
th November 2012, afternoon – 2nd Session (Medicine, Religion,Witchcraft in ethnographic perspective)
15.00
Andrea Ceriana Mayneri, Sorcellerie, enfance et abandon en Afriqueéquatoriale
15.30
Alessandro Lupo, Patients, mystical journeys and health care:negotiating therapeutic paths in Mexican contexts of medical pluralism
16.00
Pino Schirripa, Where Christianity is ancient. Pentecostalism, evil in theworld and break with the past in Ethiopia
16.30
Osvaldo Costantini, B Yesus Sïm (in the name of Jesus). Some notesabout Eritrean and Ethiopian Pentecostal churches in Rome (Italy)
17.00 debate
18.00 closing
20.00 dinner at gazebo restaurant of
"Casa dell'Aviatore" (v.le Università, 20)Saturday 1
st December 2012, morning – 3rd Session (Medicine, Religion,Witchcraft in politics and history
)9.30
Rev. John David K. Ekem Medicine, Religion and Healing. An Africanapproach
10.00
Alice Bellagamba, Politics and African witchcraft: a long term discussion10.30
Elisa Vasconi, Witchcraft, Traditional Medicine and Colonial Rule inGhana
11.00
Davide Casciano, Pentecostalism, HIV and Witchcraft in Nigeria11.30 debate
12.30
Birgit Meyer, Conclusions13.00 closing
Compcros
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