The Guli: A Shrine of Fluctuating Agencies. Materiality, Spirits and Psychosomatic Experience in the Afro-Amerindian Religion of Dugu

Abstract

The present article explores how the construction of a guli, the spirits’ shrine and the central ritual space par excellence in the Afro-Amerindian religion of Dugu, reveals a material-spiritual dialectic between the spirits of the dead and spirit mediums. I argue that the anthropomorphizing of the guli occurs not only through intense, repetitive ritual activity but also through the potent association of embodiment and uncomfortable psychosomatic experiences. Contrary to simply attributing humanity to the guli for representation of the divine, my ethnography shows that the shrine also transforms into a material extension of the practitioner, creating a triadic configuration of materials, bodies, and spirits. In this manner, the Garifuna shrine gives rise to two ontological possibilities of animation: being ritually “ensouled” with human substances and invisible forces and becoming animated when it manifests in the medium’s body.