Paper long abstract:

This paper argues that in order to properly rethink the political from a post-secular perspective, anthropologists must similarly revise the social - the secular paradigm that separates 'religion' from the 'political' also problematically deems the 'social' a separate, even autonomous domain. Consequently, ethnographic misapprehensions abound, particularly where religious-secular distinctions are 'indigenous,' such as in the 'West.' Brazilian ethnography provides a number of examples of how one either studies 'religion' as modes of worship or the 'social' and 'political.' Yet, among the Northeastern migrants to Southeastern Amazonia (and elsewhere) the lack of orthodox 'religious worship' does not imply that divine forces are not seen to ground everyday sociality and hence politics. This paper describes the particular relevance of popular Christianity for understanding the problem of friendship for my interlocutors, which has implications for the dynamics and secular political forms within the Marxist Landless Worker's Movement in the region and beyond.