PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Krause, Kristine
TI  - Pharmaceutical Potentials
AID  - 10.3368/gs.15-16.1.223
DP  - 2014 Jan 01
TA  - Ghana Studies
PG  - 223--250
VI  - 15-16
IP  - 1
4099  - https://gs.uwpress.org/gs.uwpress.org/content/15-16/1/223.short
4100  - https://gs.uwpress.org/gs.uwpress.org/content/15-16/1/223.full
SO  - Gha Stu2014 Jan 01; 15-16
AB  - 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.