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ABSTRACT
The cult of María Lionza is an Afro-Latin American religious practice originating from Venezuela in which spirit possession plays a central role. The spiritual pantheon of the cult is made up of a large number of spirits, among which we find the Malandros, that is, souls of former Venezuelan delinquents. These entities are very often called by believers either for sidestepping the law or for solving legal and bureaucratic problems. In recent years, many followers of this religious practice have migrated to other countries, where they often have to face new kinds of issues with the law. In this article, I analyse the current work of Malandros – and other spirits of this cult – in judiciary trials and bureaucratic issues in Barcelona (Spain). I discuss how these spirits and other deities intervene in what some followers of the cult call ‘legal rituals’ (rituales de ley). These rituals enable us to recursively rethink some key concepts of anthropology – such as ‘evidence’ – while shedding light on the intimate relation between religion, migration and the law.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Geolocation information
Venezuela, Spain
Notes
1 This article is a long version of a paper initially presented at the AAA 2017 Conference in Washington DC.
2 In order to ensure anonymity, I shall use pseudonyms throughout the text.
3 Señor Miguel, like all the mediums that I have encountered in Barcelona, is very fearful of Spanish law, and he prefers to keep his activities secret. Some of the rituals that these mediums perform include acts explicitly forbidden by the law, such as animal sacrifices.
4 Although Spain is considered a non-confessional state, Catholicism still enjoys some political and economic advantages. This is a widely debated matter in the country.
5 The study of possession rituals is one of the traditional subjects of anthropology. It would be impossible to create a list of all the works dedicated to this subject, from the classic authors such as Eliade (Citation1951), Leiris (Citation1958), Bourgignon (Citation1973), Crapanzano (Citation1977), Lewis (Citation1989), up to recent works by authors such as Wafer (Citation1991), Stoller (Citation1995), Blanes & Santo (Citation2013) and Johnson (Citation2014). One of the main ideas that we may draw from this debates is that spirit possession is a complex matter that cannot be defined solely in physiological – and even less ‘medical’– terms, but in historical ones: spirits are ‘formed’ throughout an historical process and through their actions their ‘shape’ history. Another important point arising from these works is that the relation between spirits and mediums is not straightforward. There exists between them a relationship of intimacy and mutual influence, as the article I am presenting here tries to demonstrate.
6 These three divergent standpoints regarding the origins of the cult appear, not only among scholars, but also among the followers of the cult. Actually, as occurs with Santería (Palmié Citation2013), both often coincide, since many believers define themselves as researchers, and many of the scholars who have analysed the cult have ended up having some kind of ‘religious involvement’ in it.
7 For a discussion on the term of ‘Afro-Venezuelan’ see Ortega (Citation1994). For a political analysis on the historical ‘debt’ of Venezuelan state towards the afro-descendent population, see García (Citation2007). For an analysis on the role of afro-descendent population in Bolivarian state see Ruette-Orijuela and Caballero-Arias (Citation2017).
8 According to Barreto, until the 1950s the mediums were mainly men (Citation1998: 25). Nowadays there are as many women as men. Currently, a considerable number of mediums define themselves as homosexuals, an important historical shift since traditionally the mediums with this sexual orientation have rarely admitted this—homosexuality has been and is still taboo in the country and homophobia is widespread. In this regard, it is worth noting that a new court called The Rose Court (La Corte Rosa) has appeared, made up of transsexual spirits (César Escalona, personal communication). For an analysis on Venezuelan gender roles from the perspective of queer studies see Ochoa (Citation2014). In this text, the author establishes an inspiring connection between the transformistas (transgender women) in Caracas and the Misses (beauty pageant contestants) through the concept of ‘spectacular femininity’, a term that may be applied to many of the representations of María Lionza in which the erotic component of the goddess is enhanced.
9 Duffy-Gideon (Citation2014) articulates a critique of the thesis of Taussig on the basis that he would have overseen the distinction between the state and the nation. According to her, the cult would have integrated national symbols but not elements from the state. I consider that the strong continuity that I show in this text between the cult and the judiciary realm reinforces the thesis defended by Taussig.
10 When writing these lines (25-01-2019), the political situation in Venezuela is immersed in absolute uncertainty. Juan Guaidó, former president of the National Assembly has self-proclaimed himself interim president of the country, receiving immediate support from countries such as the US, Brazil and Canada. The Venezuelan army is remaining loyal to President Maduro, who accuses the opposition of a coup. Maduro has the support of powers such as Russia and China. The EU, for the moment, is in an ambivalent situation, calling for ‘free elections’.
11 I propose to distinguish between ‘body’ and ‘corporality’. The first concept refers to the physical and organic entity in which, according to the cult, the soul is kept. Contrarily, ‘corporality’ describes the kind of ‘bodily grammar’ associated to each spirit that can be perceived during rituals of spirit possession. For instance, when an Indian descends, the medium usually moves violently. On the contrary, when the spirit of an old Venezuelan teacher embodies the medium, the latter moves calmly, as an old man would do.
12 The amount of precautions that one has to take when dealing with the spiritual world during a ritual in order not to ‘hurt’ (herir) or ‘scare’ (asustar) the divinities is a good example of the intrinsic fragility of spiritual beings. For instance, if one frightens a spirit while it is within the medium’s body (for example, by making a loud noise or by placing a camera too close to the medium’s eyes) it is likely that the spiritual entity will decide to suddenly ‘leave’ the medium, which may lead to dramatic consequences for all the agents involved in the ritual. The medium might be incapable of recuperating his or her own soul (alma), to the point of the death. But the brutal interruption of the trance might be of great danger for the spirit too. He or she may become ‘lost’ (perdido), without having any idea of where he or she is and how to get back to the spiritual pantheon.
13 This version on the origins of Justo Juez does not coincide with the ‘official story’ about this figure. Actually, ‘Justo Juez’ is one of the terms used to refer to Jesus Christ. However, the image usually employed to invoke this spirit within the cult of María Lionza differs considerably from that of the son of God. This iconic divergence may have facilitated the disconnection between both characters. These kind of iconic dissociations, stemming from the plurality of visual representations, are frequent within the cult of María Lionza.