Description

Book Synopsis
Spirits can be haunters, informants, possessors, and transformers of the living, but more than anything anthropologists have understood them as representations of something else - symbols that articulate facets of human experience in much the same way works of art do. This book challenges this notion.

Trade Review
"The Social Life of Spirits makes the argument of the 'social life of things' go full circle, cogently arguing that immaterial spirits, just like material things, should be approached as social beings with a life and trajectory. Going beyond beliefs or representations, it proposes to describe spirits through their effects, asking how are spirits made to happen and what do they make happen. This is a brilliant book." (Roger Sansi, University of London)"

The Social Life of Spirits

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    A Paperback / softback by Ruy Blanes, Diana Espirito Santo

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      Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
      Publication Date: Publication Date: 22/11/2013
      ISBN13: 9780226081779, 978-0226081779
      ISBN10: 022608177X
      Also in:
      Society and culture: general

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Spirits can be haunters, informants, possessors, and transformers of the living, but more than anything anthropologists have understood them as representations of something else - symbols that articulate facets of human experience in much the same way works of art do. This book challenges this notion.

      Trade Review
      "The Social Life of Spirits makes the argument of the 'social life of things' go full circle, cogently arguing that immaterial spirits, just like material things, should be approached as social beings with a life and trajectory. Going beyond beliefs or representations, it proposes to describe spirits through their effects, asking how are spirits made to happen and what do they make happen. This is a brilliant book." (Roger Sansi, University of London)"

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