Powers of Good and Evil : : Social Transformation and Popular Belief / / ed. by Jon P. Mitchell, Paul Clough.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2000-2013
• MitwirkendeR: Borg, Isabelle,; Clough, Paul,; Geschiere, Peter,; Meyer, Birgit,; Mitchell, Hildi J.,; Mitchell, Jon P.,; Theuma, Nadia,; Thoden van Velzen, Bonno,; Verrips, Jojada,; Wetering, Imeka van,
• HerausgeberIn: Clough, Paul,; Mitchell, Jon P.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York ;, Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2001]; ©2001
• Year of Publication: 2001
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (264 p.)
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; List of Illustrations --; Contributors --; Introduction --; 1 Dangerous Creatures and the Enchantment of Modern Life --; 2 Witchcraft and New Forms of Wealth: Regional Variations in South and West Cameroon --; 3 The Devil, Satanism and the Evil Eye in Contemporary Malta --; 4 ‘You Devil, go away from me!’ Pentecostalist African Christianity and the Powers of Good and Evil --; 5 Modernity, Crisis and the Rise of Charismatic Catholicism in the Maltese Islands --; 6 Good, Evil and Godhood: Mormon Morality in the Material World --; 7 The State and the Empire of Evil --; 8 The Iconography of Evil in Maltese Art --; Conclusions: The Political Economy behind the Powers of Good and Evil --; Index
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9781782387565; 9783110998283
• DOI: 10.1515/9781782387565
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: ed. by Jon P. Mitchell, Paul Clough.

A key theme in the anthropology of beliefs is the relationship between socio-economic change and changes in the belief system. It has been widely argued that rapid economic change, particularly the introduction of capitalism, leads to an increase in beliefs in, and representations of, evil and the devil. These beliefs, it is argued, constitute forms of resistance to, or rejection of, "modernity." This volume builds on these arguments, suggesting that rather than an indigenous resistance to capitalism, such representations signal a profound moral ambivalence towards the socio-economic process inherent in capitalist economy. Using a range of examples, from Surinamese zombies to American horror films, it demonstrates the extent to which evil imagery is linked to a fear of excess, particularly in situations where people find themselves, or perceive themselves, to be peripheral to the centers of political, economic, and cultural power.