Powers of Imagination and Legal Regimes against “Obeah” in the Late Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century British Caribbean

IF 0.9 3区 哲学 Q2 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Osiris Pub Date : 2021-01-01 DOI:10.1086/713926
K. Ramsey
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Toward the end of the eighteenth century, African-derived spiritual practices glossed as “obeah” came to be intensely associated with pathologies of the imagination, first by British Caribbean slaveholders, and then much more widely by others. This article focuses on how early writings about, and legal regimes against, African Caribbean spirit work were shaped by theories of mind-body interaction during the final decades of British Caribbean slavery. Medical ideas about the powers of the imagination had played a key part in the decriminalization of “witchcraft” across Western Europe in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. This study examines how, conversely, medical theories of the imagination influenced the criminalization of obeah as a capital offense in British Caribbean colonies in the context of rising abolitionism and slave rebellion. I argue that the colonial association of obeah with imaginative pathology was used by slavery defenders to explain away high rates of slave mortality and to portray severe measures of social control as paternalistic. Reciprocally, the chapter points to how early writings about, and laws against, obeah informed theories of mental influence on bodily health during this period and thereafter.
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18世纪末和19世纪初英属加勒比地区的想象力和反对“奥比亚”的法律制度
到了18世纪末,被称为“obeah”的非洲精神实践开始与想象的病态密切相关,首先是英国加勒比奴隶主,然后是其他人。这篇文章的重点是在英属加勒比奴隶制的最后几十年里,关于非裔加勒比精神工作的早期著作和反对非裔加勒比灵魂工作的法律制度是如何被身心互动理论所塑造的。关于想象力的医学思想在17世纪末和18世纪初西欧“巫术”的非刑事化过程中发挥了关键作用。相反,这项研究考察了在废奴主义和奴隶叛乱抬头的背景下,想象医学理论是如何影响英属加勒比殖民地将obeah定为死罪的。我认为,奴隶制捍卫者利用obeah与富有想象力的病理学的殖民联系来解释奴隶死亡率高的原因,并将严厉的社会控制措施描述为家长式作风。反过来,本章指出了早期关于奥贝的著作和反对奥贝的法律是如何在这一时期及其后为心理影响身体健康的理论提供信息的。
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来源期刊
Osiris
Osiris 管理科学-科学史与科学哲学
CiteScore
1.10
自引率
0.00%
发文量
18
审稿时长
>12 weeks
期刊介绍: Founded in 1936 by George Sarton, and relaunched by the History of Science Society in 1985, Osiris is an annual thematic journal that highlights research on significant themes in the history of science. Recent volumes have included Scientific Masculinities, History of Science and the Emotions, and Data Histories.
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Front and Back Matter Notes on the Contributors Acknowledgments Statecraft by Algorithms Introduction
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