Paper short abstract:

Following ethnography at the intersection of race and gender conducted in spiritual spaces of Afrocuban religiosity in Havana, this contribution queries how anthropologists with a commitment to liberatory politics and feminist praxis can conceptualise and practice modalities of decolonial knowledge.

Paper long abstract:

Following lessons learned at the intersection of ethnography on race and gender conducted in spiritual spaces of Afrocuban religiosity in Havana, this contribution queries how anthropologists with a commitment to liberatory politics and feminist praxis can conceptualise and practice modalities of decolonial knowledge. These traditions centre collaborative and creative methodologies of communication with spirits that are predicated on feeling (both embodied and emotional). These methodologies foster forms of diffuse power which go beyond zero-sum understandings of power. To makes sense of this religious work, I explore experiences shared with practitioners through the lens of Lordean erotics, a kind of nonrational knowledge that bridges the political, spiritual, affective and sensual ([2007] 1984). On one hand, this religiosity offers a comparative framework as a practice of knowledge cultivation that can speak to Social Anthropology’s responsibilities as a post and decolonial corrective that attempts to enact justice work that can never be ‘completed,’ but is instead always ongoing. To think through this side of the dynamic, the contribution turns to insights such as Tuhiwai Smith’s critique of research ([2021]1999), Harney and Moten’s (2013) notion of studying and Raschig’s (2023) understanding of stress. At the same time, the disparate contexts of the institution of academia as compared to small scale domestically practised religious traditions means there are also sizable limitations regarding the lessons the former can mean for the latter regarding the politics of who is participating in these knowledge making practices.