Full Description
La Santa Muerte becomes a lens for understanding how Oaxacans relate to saints, loved ones, and other "special dead."
In Oaxaca, images of saints and loved ones, as well as of victims of political or criminal violence, are seemingly everywhere. While Oaxacans relate to all sorts of "special dead," they are particularly devoted to La Santa Muerte (Saint Death), a female reaper-like figure whose popularity has risen in tandem with violence throughout Mexico.
The Intimacy of Images recontextualizes Oaxacans' relationships with their "special dead" through the lens of La Santa Muerte, examining how devotees closely interact with what Lamrani terms "intimate images": not only devotional effigies but also photographs, films, tattoos, and murals, and even dreams and visions. Though Mexicans have a well-known cultural familiarity with death, Lamrani argues that devotion to La Santa Muerte builds upon this intimacy even as it also participates in the production of terror and reflects political and criminal violence. Ultimately, Lamrani finds that these human-image interactions represent more than Catholic devotion; they reveal the secrets of Oaxacan political, religious, and social life, embody changing relationships to mortality and violence, and even offer insight into the practice of anthropology itself.
Contents
Introduction. The Intimacy of Images
Part I. On Images and Saint Death
Chapter 1. The Oscillating Image: The Saints Misunderstood
Chapter 2. The Souls of the Dream: Oneiric Images
Part II. On Intimacy and Devotion
Chapter 3. Intimate Aesthetics: On Closeness with the Images
Chapter 4. Intimate Constellations: The Living, the Dead
Part III. Beyond Intimacy and the Image
Chapter 5. Transcendent Images: Saints on the Move beyond the Mexico-US Border
Chapter 6. Transintimacy: The Ultimate Intimacy
Concluding Remarks. Transintimacy: Kindred Images
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
