Timothy Landry | Trinity College, Connecticut (original) (raw)
Papers by Timothy Landry
In this article I consider the ways in which shrine building, adornment, and the resulting experi... more In this article I consider the ways in which shrine building, adornment, and the resulting experience of secrecy that emanates from shrines supports the building of new transnational networks and diasporas that are beginning to encourage a conceptual expansion of the African-Atlantic world. To achieve this I focus on how strategic choices in ritual flexibility and experimentation in shrine-building work to support the transnationalization of religions such as Vodún as they move from space to space, and how the religion's material culture and repertoire re-localize as social and national spaces shift. In so doing, I argue that processes of secrecy, which in Vodún are typically tethered to religious objects such as shrines, encourage -instead of restrict -the global expansion of West African religions.
This article examines the ways in which beliefs and forms of secret religious knowledge are (re)f... more This article examines the ways in which beliefs and forms of secret religious knowledge are (re)formed and mobilized creatively by Béninois practitioners of Vodún, who participate actively in Bénin's changing religious landscape. This expansion , encouraged by contemporary trends in globalization and transnationalism such as spiritual tourism, modernity, and an increased Evangelical Christian presence in West Africa, has propelled belief into local and transnational discourse. While persuasive arguments have been made against the use of the term 'belief' to describe African religion, in this article I show how Vodún's increased presence on the global stage and strategies employed by local practitioners to frame Vodún as transnational has once again made belief in African religion an important and meaningful point of critical analysis.
Anthropology and Humanism , 2008
While conducting research in Haiti, I became initiated into Haitian Vodou and started a long appr... more While conducting research in Haiti, I became initiated into Haitian Vodou and started a long apprenticeship with a local priestess. Learning about Vodou as an ethnographer and as an initiate presented many challenges that were directly linked to the way I needed to learn Vodou. In this article, I examine the ways practitioners (myself included) of Vodou approach learning. I have come to understand learning in Haitian Vodou as an embodied, sensuous, and active phenomenon. When I realized how important the body was in Vodou, I started questioning my own anthropological methods. I reacted by putting down my pen and notebook and becoming active. These methods have led me to favor learn-as-practitioner types of methods that allow me to do anthropology through my body. Indeed, as anthropologists in the field, we not only experience culture with our notebooks we also experience culture through movement and action. For me, culture is something that is only understood, albeit always partially, through rich and embodied experiences. [
Book Chapters by Timothy Landry
Contested Cultural Heritage , 2011
In this article I consider the ways in which shrine building, adornment, and the resulting experi... more In this article I consider the ways in which shrine building, adornment, and the resulting experience of secrecy that emanates from shrines supports the building of new transnational networks and diasporas that are beginning to encourage a conceptual expansion of the African-Atlantic world. To achieve this I focus on how strategic choices in ritual flexibility and experimentation in shrine-building work to support the transnationalization of religions such as Vodún as they move from space to space, and how the religion's material culture and repertoire re-localize as social and national spaces shift. In so doing, I argue that processes of secrecy, which in Vodún are typically tethered to religious objects such as shrines, encourage -instead of restrict -the global expansion of West African religions.
This article examines the ways in which beliefs and forms of secret religious knowledge are (re)f... more This article examines the ways in which beliefs and forms of secret religious knowledge are (re)formed and mobilized creatively by Béninois practitioners of Vodún, who participate actively in Bénin's changing religious landscape. This expansion , encouraged by contemporary trends in globalization and transnationalism such as spiritual tourism, modernity, and an increased Evangelical Christian presence in West Africa, has propelled belief into local and transnational discourse. While persuasive arguments have been made against the use of the term 'belief' to describe African religion, in this article I show how Vodún's increased presence on the global stage and strategies employed by local practitioners to frame Vodún as transnational has once again made belief in African religion an important and meaningful point of critical analysis.
Anthropology and Humanism , 2008
While conducting research in Haiti, I became initiated into Haitian Vodou and started a long appr... more While conducting research in Haiti, I became initiated into Haitian Vodou and started a long apprenticeship with a local priestess. Learning about Vodou as an ethnographer and as an initiate presented many challenges that were directly linked to the way I needed to learn Vodou. In this article, I examine the ways practitioners (myself included) of Vodou approach learning. I have come to understand learning in Haitian Vodou as an embodied, sensuous, and active phenomenon. When I realized how important the body was in Vodou, I started questioning my own anthropological methods. I reacted by putting down my pen and notebook and becoming active. These methods have led me to favor learn-as-practitioner types of methods that allow me to do anthropology through my body. Indeed, as anthropologists in the field, we not only experience culture with our notebooks we also experience culture through movement and action. For me, culture is something that is only understood, albeit always partially, through rich and embodied experiences. [