Abstract

VON WANGENHEIM, HUBERTA. THE DISCOURSE ON THE PHENOMENON OF THE MÉDIUM UNIDAD IN AFROCUBAN RELIGIONS. Rev. colomb. antropol. [online]. 2009, vol.45, n.1, pp.169-203. ISSN 0486-6525.

The purpose of this article is to examine the discourse of practitioners of afrocuban religionsin La Havana about the médium unidad, a particular way of perception attributed to the influence of spirits, which plays a key role as a particular way of experiencing the world and reality in Cuban society. The concept of médium unidad as a socially constructed practice of perception represents an alternative to ideas and social ways of dealing with such a phenomenon in Western-scientific contexts, particularly in biomedical psychiatry which understands it as hallucinatory pathologies. The text attempts to show the role that the médium unidad plays in Cuban society by exploring religious discourses and describing afrocuban ritual practice, which assigns it intersubjective meaning and broad social acceptance.

Keywords : Afrocuban religions; spiritism; anthropology of the senses; mental health; the social construction of psychic normality; anthropology of performance.

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