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Mimesis, doubt and power: Hindu deities and spirits of colonizers in Guyana

Abstract

Through the description of the interactions between spirits of colonizers, religious specialists, deities and devotees of the Hindu goddess Kali in Guyana, the article aims to demonstrate how native conceptions about the presence of spiritual beings in the world are crossed by doubts, hesitations and retrospective (re)elaborations of past events, as well as for reflections on the potentialities of beings with distinct ontological statutes to assume, incorporate and imitate the attributes and powers of other beings.

Keywords:
Kali worship; doubt; spiritual possession; Guyana

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