ABSTRACT:
As shown by research on “the social life of medicines,” pharmaceuticals can be used in a number of ways. Based on research with Ghanaian Pentecostal practitioners and patients in Ghana and Europe, I examine how pills and substances can become points of contact for God. By being prayed upon, pills move from being a medical commodity to becoming a boundary object in the connection created between a sickness, biomedical practices, and the Holy Spirit. It is the unmarked position of the Holy Spirit in the plethora of spirits that makes this possible. Unlike in Catholicism or other religious traditions that work with spirits through objects, the Holy Spirit is not carried in the pills but only amplifies their pharmaceutical potential.
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In this issue
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- Article
- ABSTRACT:
- Introduction
- Medical Pluralism and the Study of Pharmaceuticals in Ghana
- Pentecostalism and Other Healing Methods
- From Been-to to Burger to Born-again: Migrants from Ghana in London
- The Holy Spirit as Unmarked Other and Biomedicine as Godly Medicine
- Amplification of Pharmaceutical Potentials
- Conclusion
- Footnotes
- References
- Info & Metrics
- References
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