The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America - autonomous ...

CHAPTER 6
Pollution, Contradiction, and
Salvation
wo secular images in the language of sorcery
Tmaterialize its magical aura: sorcery is personmade,
and it is "filth." Although invisible powers
forming an indistinct hierarchy led by the
devil are prominent, the emphasis in sorcery is
on the creative will of persons. Sorcery is the maleficio, the evil
made, or it is, dramatically and simply, the "thing made," the cosa
hecha. It is not seen as fate or as an "accident of God." The soul of
sorcery lies in the poisoned breast of envy, and its dominating motif
is filth.
Following Douglas's interpretation (1966), ideas of filth and pollution
are a reaction that protects cherished principles and categories
from contradiction. What is being cleansed in Cauca Valley curing
rites that evoke the creation, death, and salvation is that which is
unclear, or contradictory, or both. Seeing "dirt" as contradiction allows
us to deepen our understanding and to move beyond the spellbinding
surface of the sensational keywords, dirt, envy, and evil.
Before doing so, however, it is essential to grasp the significance of
the concept of "contradiction" in this context; for without its clear
understanding the iconography of the devil and other symbols in
popular culture remains elusive. Here it is helpful to refer to Marx's
method of analysis. As Karl Korsch points out, the reader of Marx's
Capital "is not given a single moment for the restful contemplation
of immediately given realities and connections; everywhere the
Marxian mode of presentation points to the immanent unrest in all
existing things." The concept of contradiction is here embedded in a
method that includes in its affirmative recognition of the existing