Hackers of the heart: digital sorcery and virtual intimacy in Côte d'Ivoire

This is an ethnography of internet scams in Abidjan through which I attempt to develop a theory of digital sorcery. The brouteurs of Côte d'Ivoire impersonate Europeans in social media profiles and seduce others into falling in love with them. After months of flirtatious messaging and photo exchanges, disaster strikes their avatar and they ask for an emergency wire transfer from their digital lover. While millions of euros of income are sent to Abidjan every year, the brouteurs say they can no longer succeed without the use of occult forces, and they turn to marabouts for assistance. During my fieldwork in 2015, rumours circulated that brouteur wealth depended on the blood sacrifice of children for its success. As Ivoirians increasingly employ smartphones and social media in their daily life, the anxieties concerning the illusions and manipulations of the virtual world become enmeshed with those of the occult second world. I suggest that the overlap between hacker technology, con artistry and occult power outlined in Ivoirian urban rumour suggests a model for rethinking the space of virtuality in the global economy as a form of magical semiosis, one that can be every bit as vitality draining as witchcraft itself.

Why Did the Seamen Have to Die? The Kursk Tragedy and the Evoking of Old Testament Blood Sacrifice

This chapter addresses church-state collaboration in the context of ‘spiritual national defence’; it compares different views represented in cultural productions on the tragedy of the submarine Kursk, that which sank in the Barents Sea, on 12 August 2000. It suggests that the Russian secular leadership’s reluctance to deal with the management of the past, especially concerning the punishment of Stalinist oppressors, is compensated by glorifying victims – here, the seamen of the Kursk – having died on duty, as martyrs. Тhe glorification of martyrs derives from Old Testament theology of blood sacrifice (2 Moses, 24:8), and makes it possible to commemorate Muslim martyrs together with Orthodox Christian ones. Some theologians have claimed that Russia had needed these sacrifices to spiritually wake up in the post-atheist vacuum of values, and that the Russian people had to repent for having abandoned their forefathers’ Christian faith. In this line of apologetics of blood sacrifices and need to repent, the New Testament’s promise of Jesus’s complete purgation and redemption of sin through perfect sacrifice (Matt. 26:28) is not mentioned. My reading elaborates on the commemorative album Everlasting Lamp of Kursk by (then) Hegumen Mitrofan (Badanin) (2010), as well as on the drama film Kursk by Danish director Thomas Vinterberg (2018), whose film illustrates pan-European visions, based implicitly on the New Testament promise.

The Unfinished Business of Anna Kingsford – Towards an Enchanted Animal Ethic

This article takes seriously the claim made by 19th century antivivisectionist Anna Kingsford that experiments on animals constitute a type of malevolent sorcery, more specifically a demonic blood sacrifice. In so doing, the paper follows the work of Pignarre and Stengers in their explication of sorcery and how to “get a hold” of its operations despite its stupefying powers. To that end, I will investigate the pragmatic potential of understanding experiments on animals in this way, and more broadly, following the work of posthuman and material feminists, as a type of onto-theological phenomenon of spacetimemattering (in Karen Barad’s terms). This understanding will pay particular attention to the intra-active exclusions that haunt the laboratory space and, following a neo-Spinozist feminist approach, I will explicate the ways in which the human-animal power relations within the laboratory inhibit the creation of joyful multispecies “common notions.” In order to respond to the ghostly presences which haunt the laboratory space, and to affirm joyful, multispecies relations for “as well as possible worlds” (Puig de la Bellacasa), I will finally argue for an affirmative multispecies politics of what Rosi Bradiotti calls “zoe-centered egalitarianism” through a posthuman politics of “grace,” or “the leaving be of nonhumans” (MacCormack) which I frame as an enactment of an enchanted animal ethic.

Rufinus’ Bloody Pagan Tyrants

This article analyses how Rufinus alters and then extends Eusebius’ church history to draw a narrative continuum of pagan idolatry, tyranny and blood sacrifice across the fourth century. It begins with a taxonomy that illustrates the various ways that Rufinus’ text differs from Eusebius’ and then analyses how Rufinus enhances the levels of cruelty and bloody carnage in his Eusebian source, especially with regards to the tyrannical behaviour of the pagan emperors Maximinus, Maxentius, and Licinius. Lastly, it turns to Rufinus’ account of Eugenius’ uprising and the destruction of the temple of Serapis and shows how Rufinus’ repeated criticism of pagan imperial persecution acts to justify Theodosius’ actions.

“DEEP DARKNESS CASE”: SACRED SERVICERS ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE MULTAN CASE

The collection of documents of the Central State Archive of the Udmurt Republic (TsGA UR) contains a selection of materials on the so-called "Multan case" - a false accusation of Udmurt peasants p. Old Multan in human sacrifice to pagan gods. Along with the official police inquiry, the Sarapul spiritual government instructed the priest John Anisimov to conduct his own investigation into the murder of the Russian peasant Konon Matyushin with the aim of "making a human blood sacrifice to the votsk pagan gods". According to the results of the investigation, in the “Note” presented, not one of the priests interviewed who had direct contact with the multants confirmed the rumors about human sacrifices in their midst. Researchers believe that the reasons for the false accusation of the Udmurts are not only rooted in the ignorance of a significant part of the population and their “ethnographic illiteracy”, they are also associated with the crisis that the Russian Empire was experiencing at the turn of the XIX - XX centuries, the government’s attempts to force the incorporation of national suburbs into the empire , unify them not only in administrative, but also in cultural aspects. The outcome of the Multan case was the victory of the progressive Russian public, science and Russian law over police-judicial arbitrariness, ignorance and prejudice, but on the accused Multans, and in general on the Udmurts, the "Multan Trial" had a huge negative impact.

Theological Issues that Arise Out of Odwira Sacrifices

Some Christians claim that after the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, the ultimate sacrifice; no other sacrifice is needed by the Christian. This paper examines some of the sacrifices made as part of the celebration of the Okuapehene Dwira(Odwira), a festival celebrated by the Akuapem of Ghana. It looks at how the sacrifices are made and their significance. It also examines theologically the sacrifice of Christ and what it has achieved for the believer. The paper is based on observations of the festival, interviews with traditional leaders as well as the ordinary people in Akropong. Responses given to a questionnaire on the festival by indigenes of Akuapem living in Akropong and around Sakumono and Lashibi in the Greater Accra Region are also used. In addition, commentaries, and writings on sacrifice by theologians are analysed and used. The study’s findings indicate that even though the sacrifices involved in the Odwira festival are not propitiatory sacrifices like that of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ has currently rendered all of them unnecessary. The paper contributes to scholarship by affirming what some theologians have already put forward, that the sacrifice of Jesus is the ultimate blood sacrifice after which no other sacrifice is needed. The paper falls under the disciplines of theology, religion, culture, and Gospel and Culture.

Theological Issues that Arise Out of Odwira Sarifices

Some Christians claim that after the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, the ultimate sacrifice; no other sacrifice is needed by the Christian. This paper examines some of the sacrifices made as part of the celebration of the Okuapehene Dwira(Odwira), a festival celebrated by the Akuapem of Ghana. It looks at how the sacrifices are made and their significance. It also examines theologically the sacrifice of Christ and what it has achieved for the believer. The paper is based on observations of the festival, interviews with traditional leaders as well as the ordinary people in Akropong. Responses given to a questionnaire on the festival by indigenes of Akuapem living in Akropong and around Sakumono and Lashibi in the Greater Accra Region are also used. In addition, commentaries, and writings on sacrifice by theologians are analysed and used. The study’s findings indicate that even though the sacrifices involved in the Odwira festival are not propitiatory sacrifices like that of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ has currently rendered all of them unnecessary. The paper contributes to scholarship by affirming what some theologians have already put forward, that the sacrifice of Jesus is the ultimate blood sacrifice after which no other sacrifice is needed. The paper falls under the disciplines of theology, religion, culture, and Gospel and Culture.

America’s First Freedom: Blood Sacrifice and the Second Amendment in the American Rifleman 1975-2019

Beginning in the 1970s, the NRA began transforming defense of the Second Amendment into quasi-religious obligation but how this transformation occurred has only recently begun to be understood. This paper contributes to the understanding of how the NRA influenced the transformation of the cultural meaning of the Second Amendment by linking historical American narratives about masculine sacrifice to antigovernment new warrior culture following Vietnam, filling them with Christian nationalist language that rejects government authority to limit the Second Amendment. Using the NRA’s most mainstream and longest running magazine the American Rifleman, I demonstrate how the transformation of the cultural meaning of sacrifice underlies the transformation of meaning of the Second Amendment. This paper explores how the meaning of “sacrifice” in America’s gun culture transformed, alongside what it means to “be a Christian” as well as a “good citizen”. I demonstrate how the anti-government New Warrior culture has merged with Christian nationalist rhetoric to move the Second Amendment beyond the rule of law. Finally, I demonstrate how recently-ousted NRA president and retired Marine Corps LTC Oliver North symbolically embodies the New Christian anti-government Warrior.