Open veins

Abstract

Transnational processes of stigmatization and criminalization of poverty associated to neoliberal models of development unfold locally in various modalities and intensities of de-pacification of everyday life. In this framework, this article presents the case study of a well-known spirit possession devotion in Venezuela, the cult of María Lionza, where the enormous symbolic, structural and repressive pressure exerted on shantytown dwellers, particularly male youngsters, is recycled — in a sort of corporeal videoclip — in a cluster of controversial and highly spectacular ritual practices based on self-mutilation and bloodletting. Using Eduardo Galeano's celebrated dictum of the `Open Veins of Latin America', taken in this article both metaphorically and literally, these intense rituals are understood as deeply embodied roadmaps to everyday violence and stigma, in the context of barrio — shantytown — male youth cultures and re-elaborations of popular memories of slavery and legendary sagas.

Keywords

social exclusion male youth cultures everyday violence shantytowns embodiment social memory popular religion Venezuela

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Acosta Saignes, M. (1984) Vida de los esclavos negros en Venezuela. Caracas: Vadell Hermanos.

Bergman, M. (2006) `Crime and Citizen Security in Latin America', Latin American Research Review 41(2): 213-27.

Bourdieu, P. (1997) Pascalian Meditations. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Bourgois, P. (1995) In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Briceño León, R. (2002) `Introducción: La nueva violencia urbana de América Latina', in R. Briceño (ed.) Violencia, sociedad y justicia en América Latina, pp. 13-26. Buenos Aires: CLACSO.

Briceño León, R. , A. Camardiel and O. Ávila (2002) `El derecho a matar en América Latina', in R. Briceño (ed.) Violencia, sociedad y justicia en América Latina, pp. 383-404. Buenos Aires: CLACSO.

Connerton, P. (1989) How Societies Remember. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Coronil, F. (1997) The Magical State: Nature, Money and Modernity in Venezuela. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

Ferrándiz, F. (2002) `Calidoscopios de género: Cuerpo, masculinidad y supervivencia en el espiritualismo venezolano', Alteridades 12(23): 83-92.

10.

Ferrándiz, F. (2004a) Escenarios del cuerpo: Espiritismo y sociedad en Venezuela. Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto.

11.

Ferrándiz, F. (2004b) `The Body as Wound', Critique of Anthropology 24(2): 107-33.

12.

Galeano, E. (1973) Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. New York: Monthly Review Press.

13.

García, J. (1989) Contra el cepo: Barlovento, tierra de cimarrones . Caracas: Ed. Lucas y Trina.

14.

Hernández, Tosca (2002) `El desafío de la violencia en el actual sistema político Venezolano', in Maria Ramos (ed.) Venezuela: Rupturas y continuidades del sistema político (1999-2001) . Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.

15.

Hernández, Tulio (1994) `La cultura de la violencia en Venezuela', in L. Ugalde et al. (eds) La violencia en Venezuela. Caracas: Monte Ávila .

16.

Kleinman, A. and J. Kleinman (1994) `How Bodies Remember: Social Memory and Bodily Experience of Criticism, Resistance, and Delegitimisation Following China's Cultural Revolution', New Literary History 25(3): 707-23.

17.

Lingis, A. (1994) Abuses. Berkeley: University of California Press.

18.

Márquez, P. (1999) The Street is My Home: Youth and Violence in Caracas . Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

19.

Ochoa Antic, E. (1992) Los golpes de febrero: De la rebelión de los pobres al alzamiento de los militares. Caracas: Fuente Editores.

20.

Pedrazzini, Y. and M. Sánchez (1992) Malandros, bandas, y niños de la calle: cultura de urgencia en la metrópoli latinoamericana. Caracas: Vadell Hermanos Editores.

21.

Portes, A. and B. Roberts (2005) `Free Market City', Studies in Comparative International Development 40(1): 43-82.

22.

Provea (1999) Situación de los derechos humanos en Venezuela: Informe Anual Octubre 1998-Septiembre 1999 . Caracas: Programa Venezolano de Educación-Acción en Derechos Humanos.

23.

Provea (2006) Situación de los derechos humanos en Venezuela: Informe Anual Octubre 2005-Septiembre 2006 . Caracas: Programa Venezolano de Educación-Acción en Derechos Humanos.

24.

Provea (2007) Situación de los derechos humanos en Venezuela: Informe Anual Octubre 2006-Septiembre 2007 . Caracas: Programa Venezolano de Educación-Acción en Derechos Humanos.

25.

Roberts, B. and A. Portes (2006) `Coping with the Free Market City: Collective Action in Six Latin American Cities at the End of the Twentieth Century', Latin American Research Review 41(2): 57-83.

26.

Salas, Y. (1998) `La cárcel y sus espíritus guerreros: Una aproximación a los imaginarios de la violencia', Tribuna del investigador 5(1): 20-37.

27.

Scarry, E. (1985) The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

28.

Small Arms Survey (2004) Small Arms Survey 2004: Rights at Risk. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

29.

Turner, T. (1980) `The Social Skin', in J. Cherfas and R. Lewin (eds) Not Work Alone, pp. 111-40. London: Temple Smith.

30.

Ugalde, L. , L.P. España , C. Scotto , A. Castillo , T. Hernández , N.L. Luengo , M. Bisbal and M.G. Ponce (1994) La violencia en Venezuela. Caracas: Monte Ávila.

31.

Wacquant, L. (2004) `Decivilizing and Demonizing: The Remaking of the Black American Ghetto', in S. Loyal and S. Quilley (eds) The Sociology of Norbert Elias, pp. 95-121. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.01 MB