Roger Canals

“movement” and “mobility” are two key concepts of contemporary social and cultural anthropology. The main idea of this article is that the question of mobility is, in a more explicit or implicit way, present in the majority of Jean Rouch’s work and constitutes one of its most current and innovative aspects. I suggest exploring the relation between Rouch and movement from three closely interlinked angles: movement considered as a research object, movement understood as a research method and, lastly, movement in a sense as a sort of “existential condition” inherent to the work of the anthropologist. In the last part of the article, I reveal how Rouch’s legacy can be used as a source of inspiration to carry out visual anthropology researches about mobility in contemporary world and, more specifically, about the globalization of “Afro-American Religions”.

In the cult of María Lionza (Venezuela), the look or gaze constitutes a fundamental aspect of the ritual process, since it is one of the privileged ways through which the relations between spirits, mediums and participants are established. The use of the camera as a research method helps to gain a better understanding of this issue, since the action of holding a camera – and looking through it – may provoke comments and reactions among believers, resulting in a process by which a set of assumptions about the meaning of seeing and being seen that usually remain implicit become explicit. Most of the time, these newly explicit assumptions appear as visual prohibitions or as a consequence of a mistake made by the researcher. What I defend in this paper is that ‘visual mistakes’ and prohibitions are very valuable in anthropological research and should be taken into account. The text concludes with two general reflections: one about the connection between cinema and the sacred, and the other about the intimate relationship between what we usually call ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ in visual anthropology.

Le terme « culte à María Lionza » renvoie à un ensemble de pratiques rituelles consacrées à la déesse María Lionza et à d'autres esprits de son panthéon. Il est présent sur une grande partie du territoire vénézuélien, notamment dans la région de Yaracuy, au centre ouest du pays, sur la côte caribéenne et dans les grandes villes comme Caracas.

Since 1990, Barcelona and its surroundings have witnessed an influx of immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean. In this chapter, based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in both America and Europe over the last ten years, 1 I aim to analyse this diaspora from a citizenship perspective, focusing on the role of Afro-American cults in the migratory processes of Venezuelans in Barcelona and in the claims they make for cultural, political, social, and legal recognition. Using this specific case, this chapter shows how religious practices can achieve a decidedly political role – both in the private and public spheres – during migratory processes. But before analysing two specific rituals carried out in Barcelona, it is important to define what Afro-American cults 2 are and how these are associated with the notions of transnationalism, diaspora, and global citizenship.

El objetivo de este artículo es analizar un conjunto de representaciones fílmicas sobre el Caribe que van desde el cine clásico norteamericano hasta el documental etnográfico contemporáneo. La idea principal del texto es que existe una evolución en las imágenes del Caribe que va desde el exotismo propio de la primera mitad del S. XX hasta la situación actual, marcada por un conjunto de producciones heterogéneas que, diversificando la autoría audiovisual, aportan nuevas miradas y discursos sobre la realidad social y cultural de la región.

María Lionza est l’une des divinités principales du Venezuela. Représentée de façons très hétérogènes par des artistes et des artisans, on retrouve d’innombrables mythes et légendes sur son origine. De plus, María Lionza constitue le centre d’un culte afro-américain très répandu dans presque tout le pays dont trois aspectes, pourtant intimement liés, s’avèrent être particulièrement décisifs: d’abord, les rituels de possession, ensuite la culture matérielle (statuettes religieuses, offrandes, objets de culte) et, enfin, l’acte de regarder. Or, quelle est la spécificité du regard dans le culte à María Lionza et d’où acquiert-il son importance? Dans ce culte, regarder c’est bien plus que voir: c’est avant tout établir une relation sociale avec l’objet ou la personne regardée pouvant l’affecter de façon positive ou négative. L’introduction de la caméra comme outil d’enquête de terrain permet de mieux comprendre la signification du regard dans ce contexte particulier.

Jean Rouch (1917-2004) es una referencia ineludible en la historia del cine etnográfico.
Especialista en los rituales de posesión en África del oeste y claramente influenciado por el cine de Flaherty y de Vertov, Rouch desarrolló un método y una teoría cinematográfica que se oponían frontalmente a los principios del positivismo científico así como a las teorías objetivistas del cine etnográfico. Más concretamente, Rouch puso en práctica durante su trabajo de campo una “antropología compartida”, basada en una concepción no jerarquizada de las relaciones entre el antropólogo y la comunidad estudiada, y situó la idea de “reflexividad” como eje principal del conocimiento científico y del cine etnográfico.
Crítico con la clásica distinción entre arte y ciencia, el director francés siempre reivindicó la creatividad, la experimentación y la libertad de estilo como puntos esenciales de la investigación etnográfica.

How is the body conceived in the cult of María Lionza? What role does corporality play in possession rituals? What similarities exist between the vision of the body common to this cult and that which predominates in European society? This text argues that two different visions of the body exist in the cult: on the one hand, there is a naturalist vision, clearly revealed in interviews, which emphasizes the discontinuity between body and soul. On the other hand, there is a more analogist vision, manifested in the actions carried out by the believers during the rituals, which highlights the continuity between the material and immaterial aspects of human beings. The followers of this cult constantly oscillate —at times unconsciously and at times with clear intention— between these two perspectives. From a methodological standpoint, this ambivalence can only be understood by comparing ethnographic data obtained through various research techniques, such as
interviews, participant observation or the use of audiovisual techniques.

The current practice of the cult of María Lionza is one of the most important and yet unexplored religious practices in Venezuela. Based on long-term fieldwork, this book explores the role of images and visual culture within the cult. By adopting a relational approach, A Goddess in Motion shows how the innumerable images of this goddess—represented as an Indian, white or mestizo woman—move constantly from objects to bodies, from bodies to dreams, and from the religion domain to the art world. In short, this book is a fascinating study that sheds light on the role of visual creativity in contemporary religious manifestations.