Manuela Palmeirim | Universidade do Minho (original) (raw)

Papers by Manuela Palmeirim

Submitted for publication

This article ventures beyond the conventional comparison within non-literate societies that has c... more This article ventures beyond the conventional comparison within non-literate societies that has characterized anthropology. The native exegeses on sorcery and witchcraft in the African societies alluded to present many affinities with the early European folk discourse, and it is claimed that a comparison between the two sets of ideological constructs yields a better understanding of these phenomena. The article argues that the ability to generate a 'double' is the pillar of the constructs of magic, sorcery and witchcraft with their corollary phenomenon of were-animals, hence the emphasis on the discourse about the animal skins in all contexts analysed. Additionally, it is argued that the notion of 'metaphor' often used to interpret this kind of data does not capture the essence of the inextricable correlation between animal and human worlds.

17th International Docomomo Conference ⋅ Modern Design: Social Commitment and Quality of Life - Proceedings, 2022

Ng’ambo was, until the mid-19th Century, an agricultural area adjacent to Stone Town, Zanzibar. W... more Ng’ambo was, until the mid-19th Century, an agricultural area adjacent to Stone Town, Zanzibar. With the city’s development, Ng’ambo became progressively residential, revealing typologies of urban, residential and constructive settlements typical of the Swahili culture. Its apparent ‘disorganization’ made this territory a fertile field for international urban planning models, and Ng’ambo became a laboratory for a political program aimed at a post-colonial and socialist city. Within the scope of international collaboration, plans and projects designed in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) brought an interventionist vision disconnected from the local culture, a condition considered indispensable to the ambitioned modernization. Living standards would be increased through an urban organization based on western logic, and apartments would replace Swahili dwellings. Under the direct intervention of President Karume, Michenzani underwent the heaviest intervention through the construction of apartment blocks bordering extensive avenues that overlapped the pre-existing organic fabric. Over time Zanzibari families redesigned the domestic space, adapting it through various occupancy strategies. Thus, the Michenzani neighbourhood has incorporated activities that enrich its monofunctional fabric, often recreating public-private relations and sociability areas. Yet, despite this apparent socio-urban acceptance, the buildings function as extensive dividing walls. It seems necessary, along with the qualification of the surrounding space, to find strategies that perforate these barriers, transforming Michenzani “Trains” into a catalytic and porous membrane.

Journal of Religion in Africa, 2021

This article reflects on the role of staged and rehearsed performance, trickery, and prestidigit... more This article reflects on the role of staged and rehearsed performance, trickery, and
prestidigitation in ritual, acts that many anthropologists have observed and registered in their ethnographic accounts but most often took to be fraud, and consequently were discarded from their analyses and interpretations. The curative episode narrated here as a point of departure was intentionally arranged beforehand by the practitioners to make-believe. It is considered in the context of other deluding and simulative acts that are often engaged in healing ritualized behaviour to address several questions. Is deception an intrinsic property of ritual? Do these acts necessarily entail the judgment of true or false? How can they coexist peacefully in the healer’s mind with seriousness and conviction?

SAGE Open, 2016

This article argues the inadequacy of the structuralist framework of analysis as applied to Centr... more This article argues the inadequacy of the structuralist framework of analysis as applied to Central African myths of foundation and tries to demonstrate that a dichotomous approach can inhibit the full understanding of these narratives, often misrepresenting and curtailing their meaning. Instead, it is claimed that blurredness, ambiguity, “consubstantiality,” and fluidity are, in Central Africa, the assortment of logical and symbolic instruments able to convey, as well as constantly recreate, the
prodigious intricacy of meanings that emanate from mythological thinking.

in Caminhos e Diálogos da Antropologia Portuguesa: Homenagem a Benjamim Pereira, Viana do Castelo: Câmara Municipal de Viana do Castelo, 2014

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2010

This article argues that, in the African contexts analysed, discourse on sorcery, healing, and th... more This article argues that, in the African contexts analysed, discourse on sorcery, healing, and the so-called ‘world of the invisible’ should be read as ‘theories’ or ‘philosophies’ of knowledge rather than as a set of ‘beliefs’ in mystical and transcendental powers. Furthermore, it aims to demonstrate that these theories do not follow the Cartesian dualism embedded in much Western philosophical thought (also a legacy of Plato), which mistrusted senses as reliable vehicles of knowledge and frequently opposed the sensible to the intelligible, body to mind, senses to reason. In contrast, the African exegeses analysed here assert that wisdom and power – as well as the accurate use of reason and judgement – depend, in the very first instance, upon the full mastering of one’s overall sensorial system. The discussion consists of a cross-cultural examination of data collected in rural and semi-urban settings among the Aruwund (Lunda) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Etnográfica, 2008

O conceito de “versões” ou “variantes” tem-se afirmado crucial na análise das tradições orais. Co... more O conceito de “versões” ou “variantes” tem-se afirmado crucial na análise das tradições orais. Contudo, o uso das versões como textos “fechados” e “delimitáveis” conduz, quando falamos das tradições centro-africanas de fundação do estado, à emergência de contradições desconcertantes e aparentemente irresolúveis. Os historiadores africanistas crêem-nas passíveis de serem questionadas quanto à sua veracidade; os estruturalistas reduzem-nas a oposições algo estáticas. Ambas as abordagens, tentaremos demonstrar, obscurecem a extrema riqueza, complexidade e, acima de tudo, a extraordinária ductilidade destas narrativas.
A leitura que será apresentada do corpus de tradições orais dos aruwund da República Democrática do Congo sugere o paradoxo, a ambiguidade e a fluidez como os mecanismos sobre os quais se constrói o pensamento simbólico e, desta forma, afasta-nos quer das abordagens históricas quer da fixidez dos modelos dicotómicos frequentemente utilizados na sua análise.

African Arts (UCLA), 2008

This paper addresses the intimate relationship, in an African context, between oral tradition, vi... more This paper addresses the intimate relationship, in an African context, between oral tradition, visual arts and a third kind of discourse: fictional literature. It focuses on Lueji, a remarkable novel by Angolan writer Pepetela, which tells the story of a central heroine of the oral tradition that narrates the origin of kingship among the Aruwund of the south Democratic Republic of the Congo. This heroine, Ruwej (or Lueji), also appears depicted in a mask with Janus’s head photographed in the 1990s by M. Jordán during his fieldwork in Zambia. In the itinerary proposed in this paper, I shall elaborate briefly on the fluidity, contradiction and intrinsic ambiguity that appear to characterize Ruwund symbolic thought, an ambiguity of which this two-faced mask is a plastic and metaphorical expression.

Trabalhos de Antropologia e Etnologia, 2007

in M. de L. Rufino (coord.), O Eterno Feminino: emoção e razão, a mulher na arte africana, 2006

A exibição de objectos da cultura material africana tem sido desde há muito assombrada por uma di... more A exibição de objectos da cultura material africana tem sido desde há muito assombrada por uma discussão teórica para a qual têm convergido especialistas em história de arte, conservadores de museus, filósofos de arte e, evidentemente, antropólogos: os objectos africanos podem (ou devem) ser olhados como objectos de arte? Será “arte” um conceito universal? Que “estética” reclamamos para os objectos que expomos? Ou não é a arte essencialmente um julgamento estético? Existe fronteira entre objectos de arte e “artefactos”?

Política y Sociedad, 2003

Aquellos que, trabajando romo yo en contextos-africanos-, sucunalacan a la seductora (sí pernicio... more Aquellos que, trabajando romo yo en contextos-africanos-, sucunalacan a la seductora (sí perniciosa) tentación de doliníítar la «identi -' dad étnica» que podrá enes-nastituir su objeto dc estudio, se ven inevitablemente conducidos a un incóniodo sentimiento do confusión. No hay uniformidad de criterios-entre autorescas-ando sc tratado dolirnítarlas-fronteras-de una «pueblo». de una «tribu» o de una «etnia». Eh caso dolos aruw'und del surdo la República Denmocrática del ConagcV no es unía excepción.

in A. C. Ferreira da Silva e A. C. Gonçalves (eds.), A Antropologia dos Tshokwe e Povos Aparentados, 2003

in M. Jordán (ed.), Chokwe! Art and Initiation Among the Chokwe and Related Peoples, 1998

This paper examines how the official regalia of Ruwund dignitaries reflect an ideology of kingshi... more This paper examines how the official regalia of Ruwund dignitaries reflect an ideology of kingship that incorporates both hierarchical and egalitarian principles. These insignia not only convey status but are also employed in creating and negotiating hierarchical relationships.

in J. C. Gomes da Silva (ed.), Assimetria Social e Inversão, 1993

Books by Manuela Palmeirim

Palmeirim, M. (text), J. Anthony and A. Turconi (photographs), Les Lunda/The Lunda, Oostkamp: Stichting Kunstboeck, pp. 192, 2017

Wantage (Oxon, UK): Sean Kingston Publishing, pp. 175, 2006

[Book reviews by Jeroen Cuvelier, Social Anthropology (EASA) 15 (3): 402-3, 2007; by Johan Pottie... more [Book reviews by Jeroen Cuvelier, Social Anthropology (EASA) 15 (3): 402-3, 2007; by Johan Pottier, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) 14 (4): 927-8, 2008; by Ramon Sarró, Etnográfica (Lisbon) 13 (1): 225-6, 2009; and text by Luc de Heusch, ”La royauté chez les luba et les lunda (réponse à Manuela Palmeirim)”, in Pouvoir et religion, Paris: CNRS Éditions/Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de L’Homme, 2009]

This book is about symbolic paradoxes, logical disruptions and mythical conundrums. It is a journey through an ideological and symbolic thought in which mythical heroines are sterile mothers, at once the king’s mothers and his spouses; where the sovereign is proclaimed both a foreigner and a native, the son and the father, a kin and an affine, at once different and identical; where power is seen to have been usurped as well as founded with the connivance of insiders; and where kingship is construed as a system which, generating from within, can only conceive of itself by resorting to an element coming from outside. Such intrinsic contradiction and ambiguity, here claimed as an inextricable constituent of Ruwund symbolism, far from revealing a loose and baffled thought are of a structuring nature and conceal a coherence the tenacity of which cannot be easily tamed to fit models of analysis of a dichotomous and classificatory nature.

Drafts by Manuela Palmeirim

Submitted for publication

Anthropologists have long been familiar with the unique status of twins in many African societies... more Anthropologists have long been familiar with the unique status of twins in many African societies. Their analyses, however, have mostly singled out the twins and the elaborate ceremonies which surround them from other children judged special due to their unusual birth. At best authors mention that, like the twins, other babies born out of an uncommon delivery receive similar treatment, but this fact is seldom taken into account in their interpretations. This article considers that we have much to gain in reading the phenomenon of 'extraordinary children' as a whole (in which twins are included). In this pursuit, we are led to a comparative analysis with European material which will unveil surprising continuities and unravel new insights and inner constructs on witchcraft, doubling and twinship in Africa.

In line with the Durkheimian tradition, anthropology has played down the role of (individual) ‘ex... more In line with the Durkheimian tradition, anthropology has played down the role of (individual) ‘experience’ in favour of (collective) ‘belief’ in understanding ritual and religious phenomena. As a result of this focus on collective constructions and representations, individual narratives of psychic experiences did not seem to fit its concerns, being at their best catalogued as various kinds of ‘dreams’. By putting data of different perceptual and cognitive categories in the same basket, anthropologists have avoided the morass of taking seriously experiences of this nature. This article looks at the striking confluences throughout the world between written descriptions of psychic experiences and collective discourses on the soul, spirits, ghosts, zombies, doubles and after-life, sorcery and the invisible, with which the anthropologist is only too familiar. In so doing, it calls for the imperative need of acknowledging the intimate connection and relentless communication between individual experience and collective belief.

Submitted for publication

This article ventures beyond the conventional comparison within non-literate societies that has c... more This article ventures beyond the conventional comparison within non-literate societies that has characterized anthropology. The native exegeses on sorcery and witchcraft in the African societies alluded to present many affinities with the early European folk discourse, and it is claimed that a comparison between the two sets of ideological constructs yields a better understanding of these phenomena. The article argues that the ability to generate a 'double' is the pillar of the constructs of magic, sorcery and witchcraft with their corollary phenomenon of were-animals, hence the emphasis on the discourse about the animal skins in all contexts analysed. Additionally, it is argued that the notion of 'metaphor' often used to interpret this kind of data does not capture the essence of the inextricable correlation between animal and human worlds.

17th International Docomomo Conference ⋅ Modern Design: Social Commitment and Quality of Life - Proceedings, 2022

Ng’ambo was, until the mid-19th Century, an agricultural area adjacent to Stone Town, Zanzibar. W... more Ng’ambo was, until the mid-19th Century, an agricultural area adjacent to Stone Town, Zanzibar. With the city’s development, Ng’ambo became progressively residential, revealing typologies of urban, residential and constructive settlements typical of the Swahili culture. Its apparent ‘disorganization’ made this territory a fertile field for international urban planning models, and Ng’ambo became a laboratory for a political program aimed at a post-colonial and socialist city. Within the scope of international collaboration, plans and projects designed in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) brought an interventionist vision disconnected from the local culture, a condition considered indispensable to the ambitioned modernization. Living standards would be increased through an urban organization based on western logic, and apartments would replace Swahili dwellings. Under the direct intervention of President Karume, Michenzani underwent the heaviest intervention through the construction of apartment blocks bordering extensive avenues that overlapped the pre-existing organic fabric. Over time Zanzibari families redesigned the domestic space, adapting it through various occupancy strategies. Thus, the Michenzani neighbourhood has incorporated activities that enrich its monofunctional fabric, often recreating public-private relations and sociability areas. Yet, despite this apparent socio-urban acceptance, the buildings function as extensive dividing walls. It seems necessary, along with the qualification of the surrounding space, to find strategies that perforate these barriers, transforming Michenzani “Trains” into a catalytic and porous membrane.

Journal of Religion in Africa, 2021

This article reflects on the role of staged and rehearsed performance, trickery, and prestidigit... more This article reflects on the role of staged and rehearsed performance, trickery, and
prestidigitation in ritual, acts that many anthropologists have observed and registered in their ethnographic accounts but most often took to be fraud, and consequently were discarded from their analyses and interpretations. The curative episode narrated here as a point of departure was intentionally arranged beforehand by the practitioners to make-believe. It is considered in the context of other deluding and simulative acts that are often engaged in healing ritualized behaviour to address several questions. Is deception an intrinsic property of ritual? Do these acts necessarily entail the judgment of true or false? How can they coexist peacefully in the healer’s mind with seriousness and conviction?

SAGE Open, 2016

This article argues the inadequacy of the structuralist framework of analysis as applied to Centr... more This article argues the inadequacy of the structuralist framework of analysis as applied to Central African myths of foundation and tries to demonstrate that a dichotomous approach can inhibit the full understanding of these narratives, often misrepresenting and curtailing their meaning. Instead, it is claimed that blurredness, ambiguity, “consubstantiality,” and fluidity are, in Central Africa, the assortment of logical and symbolic instruments able to convey, as well as constantly recreate, the
prodigious intricacy of meanings that emanate from mythological thinking.

in Caminhos e Diálogos da Antropologia Portuguesa: Homenagem a Benjamim Pereira, Viana do Castelo: Câmara Municipal de Viana do Castelo, 2014

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2010

This article argues that, in the African contexts analysed, discourse on sorcery, healing, and th... more This article argues that, in the African contexts analysed, discourse on sorcery, healing, and the so-called ‘world of the invisible’ should be read as ‘theories’ or ‘philosophies’ of knowledge rather than as a set of ‘beliefs’ in mystical and transcendental powers. Furthermore, it aims to demonstrate that these theories do not follow the Cartesian dualism embedded in much Western philosophical thought (also a legacy of Plato), which mistrusted senses as reliable vehicles of knowledge and frequently opposed the sensible to the intelligible, body to mind, senses to reason. In contrast, the African exegeses analysed here assert that wisdom and power – as well as the accurate use of reason and judgement – depend, in the very first instance, upon the full mastering of one’s overall sensorial system. The discussion consists of a cross-cultural examination of data collected in rural and semi-urban settings among the Aruwund (Lunda) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Etnográfica, 2008

O conceito de “versões” ou “variantes” tem-se afirmado crucial na análise das tradições orais. Co... more O conceito de “versões” ou “variantes” tem-se afirmado crucial na análise das tradições orais. Contudo, o uso das versões como textos “fechados” e “delimitáveis” conduz, quando falamos das tradições centro-africanas de fundação do estado, à emergência de contradições desconcertantes e aparentemente irresolúveis. Os historiadores africanistas crêem-nas passíveis de serem questionadas quanto à sua veracidade; os estruturalistas reduzem-nas a oposições algo estáticas. Ambas as abordagens, tentaremos demonstrar, obscurecem a extrema riqueza, complexidade e, acima de tudo, a extraordinária ductilidade destas narrativas.
A leitura que será apresentada do corpus de tradições orais dos aruwund da República Democrática do Congo sugere o paradoxo, a ambiguidade e a fluidez como os mecanismos sobre os quais se constrói o pensamento simbólico e, desta forma, afasta-nos quer das abordagens históricas quer da fixidez dos modelos dicotómicos frequentemente utilizados na sua análise.

African Arts (UCLA), 2008

This paper addresses the intimate relationship, in an African context, between oral tradition, vi... more This paper addresses the intimate relationship, in an African context, between oral tradition, visual arts and a third kind of discourse: fictional literature. It focuses on Lueji, a remarkable novel by Angolan writer Pepetela, which tells the story of a central heroine of the oral tradition that narrates the origin of kingship among the Aruwund of the south Democratic Republic of the Congo. This heroine, Ruwej (or Lueji), also appears depicted in a mask with Janus’s head photographed in the 1990s by M. Jordán during his fieldwork in Zambia. In the itinerary proposed in this paper, I shall elaborate briefly on the fluidity, contradiction and intrinsic ambiguity that appear to characterize Ruwund symbolic thought, an ambiguity of which this two-faced mask is a plastic and metaphorical expression.

Trabalhos de Antropologia e Etnologia, 2007

in M. de L. Rufino (coord.), O Eterno Feminino: emoção e razão, a mulher na arte africana, 2006

A exibição de objectos da cultura material africana tem sido desde há muito assombrada por uma di... more A exibição de objectos da cultura material africana tem sido desde há muito assombrada por uma discussão teórica para a qual têm convergido especialistas em história de arte, conservadores de museus, filósofos de arte e, evidentemente, antropólogos: os objectos africanos podem (ou devem) ser olhados como objectos de arte? Será “arte” um conceito universal? Que “estética” reclamamos para os objectos que expomos? Ou não é a arte essencialmente um julgamento estético? Existe fronteira entre objectos de arte e “artefactos”?

Política y Sociedad, 2003

Aquellos que, trabajando romo yo en contextos-africanos-, sucunalacan a la seductora (sí pernicio... more Aquellos que, trabajando romo yo en contextos-africanos-, sucunalacan a la seductora (sí perniciosa) tentación de doliníítar la «identi -' dad étnica» que podrá enes-nastituir su objeto dc estudio, se ven inevitablemente conducidos a un incóniodo sentimiento do confusión. No hay uniformidad de criterios-entre autorescas-ando sc tratado dolirnítarlas-fronteras-de una «pueblo». de una «tribu» o de una «etnia». Eh caso dolos aruw'und del surdo la República Denmocrática del ConagcV no es unía excepción.

in A. C. Ferreira da Silva e A. C. Gonçalves (eds.), A Antropologia dos Tshokwe e Povos Aparentados, 2003

in M. Jordán (ed.), Chokwe! Art and Initiation Among the Chokwe and Related Peoples, 1998

This paper examines how the official regalia of Ruwund dignitaries reflect an ideology of kingshi... more This paper examines how the official regalia of Ruwund dignitaries reflect an ideology of kingship that incorporates both hierarchical and egalitarian principles. These insignia not only convey status but are also employed in creating and negotiating hierarchical relationships.

in J. C. Gomes da Silva (ed.), Assimetria Social e Inversão, 1993

Palmeirim, M. (text), J. Anthony and A. Turconi (photographs), Les Lunda/The Lunda, Oostkamp: Stichting Kunstboeck, pp. 192, 2017

Wantage (Oxon, UK): Sean Kingston Publishing, pp. 175, 2006

[Book reviews by Jeroen Cuvelier, Social Anthropology (EASA) 15 (3): 402-3, 2007; by Johan Pottie... more [Book reviews by Jeroen Cuvelier, Social Anthropology (EASA) 15 (3): 402-3, 2007; by Johan Pottier, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) 14 (4): 927-8, 2008; by Ramon Sarró, Etnográfica (Lisbon) 13 (1): 225-6, 2009; and text by Luc de Heusch, ”La royauté chez les luba et les lunda (réponse à Manuela Palmeirim)”, in Pouvoir et religion, Paris: CNRS Éditions/Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de L’Homme, 2009]

This book is about symbolic paradoxes, logical disruptions and mythical conundrums. It is a journey through an ideological and symbolic thought in which mythical heroines are sterile mothers, at once the king’s mothers and his spouses; where the sovereign is proclaimed both a foreigner and a native, the son and the father, a kin and an affine, at once different and identical; where power is seen to have been usurped as well as founded with the connivance of insiders; and where kingship is construed as a system which, generating from within, can only conceive of itself by resorting to an element coming from outside. Such intrinsic contradiction and ambiguity, here claimed as an inextricable constituent of Ruwund symbolism, far from revealing a loose and baffled thought are of a structuring nature and conceal a coherence the tenacity of which cannot be easily tamed to fit models of analysis of a dichotomous and classificatory nature.

Submitted for publication

Anthropologists have long been familiar with the unique status of twins in many African societies... more Anthropologists have long been familiar with the unique status of twins in many African societies. Their analyses, however, have mostly singled out the twins and the elaborate ceremonies which surround them from other children judged special due to their unusual birth. At best authors mention that, like the twins, other babies born out of an uncommon delivery receive similar treatment, but this fact is seldom taken into account in their interpretations. This article considers that we have much to gain in reading the phenomenon of 'extraordinary children' as a whole (in which twins are included). In this pursuit, we are led to a comparative analysis with European material which will unveil surprising continuities and unravel new insights and inner constructs on witchcraft, doubling and twinship in Africa.

In line with the Durkheimian tradition, anthropology has played down the role of (individual) ‘ex... more In line with the Durkheimian tradition, anthropology has played down the role of (individual) ‘experience’ in favour of (collective) ‘belief’ in understanding ritual and religious phenomena. As a result of this focus on collective constructions and representations, individual narratives of psychic experiences did not seem to fit its concerns, being at their best catalogued as various kinds of ‘dreams’. By putting data of different perceptual and cognitive categories in the same basket, anthropologists have avoided the morass of taking seriously experiences of this nature. This article looks at the striking confluences throughout the world between written descriptions of psychic experiences and collective discourses on the soul, spirits, ghosts, zombies, doubles and after-life, sorcery and the invisible, with which the anthropologist is only too familiar. In so doing, it calls for the imperative need of acknowledging the intimate connection and relentless communication between individual experience and collective belief.