J. Lorand Matory CV

The diverse meanings attributed to black bodies in Brazil.

PowerPoint lecture on the sacred arts of the Nigerian god Shango and his counterparts in Cuba and Brazil

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; The predominantly white and elite Maret School prepared me for a career in anthropology in two ways--first, through an exceptional foreign-languages program and, second, by alienating me. Each of us has a bundle of social advantages and disadvantages, our disadvantages enabling us to empathize with people who have been made to feel like outsiders for other reasons. Alienation can be fruitful for people who find the right emotional support at the right time to apply their unique perspectives with confidence. They more easily internalize the idea that no symbolic and social system is natural or inevitable.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; I grew up on a predominantly Black neighborhood where people had diverse interests and talents. But, on television and in the two predominantly white secondary schools that I attended, I was bad at what I was expected to be good at(ball sports) and good at what I was expected to be bad at (academics, debate and journalism. Because they have interests, talents, and possessions out of synch with popular stereotypes about Blackness, my children have been told by white peers that they "are not Black." In college and in my professional life, I have met many intelligent and kind people who imagine the world, social ethics, and metaphysical realities in terms that I had never conceived of before, freeing me to believe that no one's stereotypes about me hold any universal or binding truth. These encounters also gave me a hunger for intimate encounters with otherness. They free me from the confining expectations of my native society and from my own habitual takens-for-granted.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; A PowerPoint lecture examining the use, iconography, local history, and indigenously understood aesthetic qualities of 27 sacred objects from the CAAAR Afro-Atlantic Sacred Arts collection and associated with the worship of the god of thunder and lightning in West African Yoruba and Fon religions, Brazilian Candomble, Cuban Santeria/Ocha, and Caribbean Spiritism.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; If CCNY decides to rebuild the Program, it must make wise decisions about the geographical and disciplinary breadth of the program's coverage, be balance of scholarship and social interventionism to be expected of the faculty, how many lines and how much office space to allocate, and whether to base it on collaboration between faculty whose time belongs to other units. It faces the challenge that Africanists, Caribbeanists, Latin Americanists and North Americanists come from traditions of scholarship where the standard questions are often quite different. It would be useful to articulate questions that might unite such a faculty and hire accordingly. CCNY will also have to decide whether to start a program from scratch, or rely on existing personnel, with their own history of stakes and convictions.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; This lecture places the analytical trope of "fetishism" in the ethnographic context of 18th- and 19h-century Europe and of Marx's biography as an ambivalent Jew, impoverished scion of the bourgeoisie, and failed labor organizer Next, I call special attention to the assumptions and pragmatic intentions behind Marx's metaphor with the ontology and the pragmatic intentions invested in the sacred African and African-diaspora objects that are the source of Marx's metaphor.

Invited Lectures ;The dialectical construction of "cultural" identities among Caribbean immigrants, African immigrants, Louisiana Creoles of color, Native Americans of partly African descent, Gullah-Geechees, and soi-disant "middle-class" African Americans in and around Howard University is the source of my hypothesis that stigma is a driving force behind ethnogenesis worldwide. Moreover, as a world of the stigmatized and ambitious, the university in particular is an important site of the articulation of "cultural" identities whereby discreditable populations endeavor to distinguish themselves from the main "constituent other"--in this case, ostensibly normative African Americans--in the social field that all of these groups share. I coin the term "ethnological Schadenfreude" to explain the a priori and logically concomitant representation of the constituent other as culturally inferior.

Lecture; J. Lorand Matory ; The hand-crafted clothing of African elites incorporates a diverse and cosmopolitan array of materials and techniques. It also conveys an array of detailed meanings about social status, the occasion of use, the philosophy of the wearer, and his or her intentions.

Lecture; West African artisanal cloth production has cosmopolitan historical roots, and it remains both lively and popular because it meaningfully expresses and indeed asserts distinctly African ideas about the world through distinctive techniques and iconography.

Lecture; This was the 2012 Dr. Bertha Maxwell-Roddey Distinguished Africana Lecture at UNC-Charlotte.

Lecture; Slavery in the Middle East, Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean, the upper US South and the lower US South differed in significant ways. They were also similar, in that they deprived the enslaved of personal autonomy and social capital.

Lecture; Africans' participation in the wider world preceded and extend far beyond slavery. Their roles even in the history of the settler colonies of the Western Hemisphere have changed significantly over time--from indenturement, enslavement, and segregation to de-segregation and the presidency of the United States.

Lecture; This was the keynote address at a three-day conference on the Caribbean at the Latin America Institute of the Free University of Berlin.

Lecture; The United States is one of several major centers of cultural creativity and wealth-production in the Black Atlantic world, but it is not the most populous. Nigeria, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica are also central to the cultural history of the Black Atlantic. We can best understand the history of African Americans in the US when we consider the differences and the cultural flows among these Black Atlantic capitals.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; On the pre-professional life experiences that led me to choose anthropology as a career and have shaped my perspective in the discipline.

Lecture; J. Lorand Matory ; Provost's Lecture On how the commerce among Europeans, Africans, and Asians has shaped conceptions and representations of value and of personhood in African and African-diaspora spirit possession religions.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Distinguished lecture delivered on the occasion of my receiving the Distinguished Africanist Award from the Association for Africanist Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Based upon field research and interviews among students, faculty and professors at Duke and other Research Triangle universities, this talk examines ambivalence about class identity on elite university campuses and the forms of masquerading that result.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; A summary of the intellectual trends in and patterns of university support for African and African-diaspora studies, drawing especially upon my observations at Duke, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Examined the role of racial stigma and shame in the ongoing transformation of culture and ethnic identity among Howard University alumni in the US, the Caribbean, and Nigeria.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; What faux pas and intercultural misunderstandings have taught me about the differences among Anglo-American, Latin American, and African cultures, and the questions they raise about cultural diversity in general.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Keynote address to the John Hope Franklin Young Scholars Program. On the economic and cultural character of the North Carolina plantation, in contrast to the chief units of agricultural production in South Carolina, the Caribbean, Brazil, and West Africa.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Keynote Address at conference on "A Circulacao de Objetos, Corpos e Espiritus: Processos de Objectivacao e Subjectivacao nos Movimentos Religiosos entre Africa e as Americaas" at Centro em Rede de Investigacao em Antropologia--Nucleo de Antropologia da Religiao and Instituto de Ciencias Sociais, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Concerning the spirit beings and sacred relationships that Santeria, Palo Mayombe, Candomble, Caribbean Spiritism, ant the West African Yoruba, Fon and Ewe religions represent in terms of the master-slave relationship, as well as the extraordinary powers that worshipers attribute to the slave.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Commencement address concerning youth cultures, personal ambition, and both the lyrics and the poetry that articulate the dilemmas facing young people in the 21-century.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Regarding the major historical events and cultural trends that have framed the lives of the Class of 2010, the unique challenges faced by this year's graduates, and the utility of African and African American studies in addressing those challenges.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Recent changes in US race relations, examined in cross-cultural and anthropological perspective.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Conceptions of personhood and of the social universe in Haitian Vodou, Cuban Santeria and Palo Mayombe, Brazilian Candomble, West African Yoruba and Fon religions, and West-Central African Kongo and Yaka religion, in contrast with Anglo-Americans conceptions and stereotypes about African-inspired religions. These are examined in the context of mass media misrepresentations of Haitian and American cultures in the wake of the devastating Haitian earthquake of January 2010.

<a href=" https://youtu.be/QAcQKhVAjM8">Watch on YouTube </a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAcQKhVAjM8">YouTube video</a>
Duke University Professor J. Lorand Matory discusses Voodoo and other African-inspired faiths in a live "Office Hours" webcast interview. Learn more at <a href="http://aaas.duke.edu">Center for African & African American Research</a>

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Based chiefly on the example of African, Afro-Latin American, and Black American understandings and rituals of health and healing, this lecture emphasizes the socio-cultural context of people's pursuit of clinical health care, as well as the alternative forms of therapy--potentially conflicting and potentially complementary--that allopathic healers should anticipate as they pursue respectful partnership with their clients.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Lecture about the artifacts help worshipers to imagine themselves alternately as citizens and and points of convergence among a transnational array of sacred forces.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Keynote address at a multi-university workshop. Concerned diverse theories of the relationship between homelands and diasporas, including African ones, and the sacred artifacts that embody evidence for a historical and theoretical revision.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Whereas upwardly-mobile white Americans tend to shed their ethnic identities, people of African descent in the US often articulate ethnic and quasi-ethnic identities as a strategy for escaping the stigma and social disabilities that otherwise attach to African ancestry. I explore the role of Howard and other universities in both encouraging and re-shaping such escapist identities. I also explore the ways in which all universities are communities of the stigmatized, thus shaping the nature of scholarship.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Whereas upwardly-mobile white Americans tend to shed their ethnic identities, people of African descent in the US often articulate ethnic and quasi-ethnic identities as a strategy for escaping the stigma and social disabilities that otherwise attach to African ancestry. I explore the role of Howard and other universities in both encouraging and re-shaping such escapist identities. I also explore the ways in which all universities are communities of the stigmatized, thus shaping the nature of scholarship.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; The selective sponsorship and endorsement of certain temples by the politicians, the tourism industry, and Brazilian bourgeoisie have continuously re-shaped the Afro-Brazilian Candomble religion. Most recently, radical Protestant denominations have adopted Candomble-like forms of worship and both defamed and committed violence against Candomble temples.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Concerned diverse theories of the relationship between homelands and diasporas, including African ones, and the sacred artifacts that embody evidence for a historical and theoretical revision.

Invited Lectures ; J. Lorand Matory ; Whereas upwardly-mobile white Americans tend to shed their ethnic identities, people of African descent in the US often articulate ethnic and quasi-ethnic identities as a strategy for escaping the stigma and social disabilities that otherwise attach to African ancestry. I explore the role of Howard and other universities in both encouraging and re-shaping such escapist identities. I also explore the ways in which all universities are communities of the stigmatized, thus shaping the nature of scholarship.

Univ Services ; Director of the Duke University-wide Center for African and African American Research, which sponsors the John Hope Franklin Young Scholars Program, a monthly lecture series on African and African American research, scholarly conferences, the Distinguished Visiting Scholar Program, the Center newsletter and website, a Program in Scholarly Film Production, and a Museum Exhibition Program. All of these programs remained active and lively in 2013. The activities of the CAAAR are exemplary in their international breadth, scholarly excellence, and outreach--across campus and beyond. The fall 2013 CAAAR scholarly conference, "Global Affirmative Action in a Neoliberal Age," compared the circumstances, results and likely results of affirmative action in the US with its counterparts all over the globe. This event was a 50-50 collaboration between CAAAR and the University of Malaya. The 2013 film we made based upon this conference is available for viewing on the CAAAR website. In order to preserve the new insights generated by CAAAR-sponsored research, lectures, and conferences for the benefit of future research and of the broadest possible audience, we make films and publish a substantial newsletter. See CAAAR Annual Report submitted to Dean O'Rand and Dean Patton in October 2013, as well as Sancocho, the Center newsletter, of spring 2013. Please also take a look at our films, which appear on the CAAAR website. These activities require an enormous amount of thought, coordination, planning, and follow-through on my part. They are an important element of my paid duties to Duke and must not, contrary to the expressed opinion of my chair, be disregarded in my performance evaluation. The spring 2013 lecture series, "Crisis and Caring: Africa/Caribbean/US," addressed the arts, anthropology and economics. The fall 2013 lecture series, chaired by Zoila Airall, has concerned "Race, Culture and Education," featuring an international array of scholars who have addressed an equally international and cross-ethnic issues in secondary and tertiary education. This year's Visiting Scholars are anthropologist Kamela Heyward-Rotimi and historian of religions and of African thought Felix Asiedu. During spring 2012, we hosted a lecture series on "Race (Theory) and the Disciplines," co-chaired by Center Associate Director Charlie Piot, and by Bayo Holsey. We hosted Distinguished Visiting Scholar Karen E. Fields, who also taught courses in AAAS, Sociology and Religion. We produced two films--"Can We Talk? Bridging the Social Science and the Humanities" and "Human Traffic: Past and Present," both of which can be viewed on the CAAAR website. A gustatory and educational event called "Black Culinary Concepts: A Salon with Chef Mechal Thompson" capped off the spring semester. In fall 2012, we mounted an exhibition of hand-made African luxury textiles at Lilly Library. We also hosted a reception for the new Dean of the Chapel, Reverend Luke Powery. We also hosted a major international conference on "Global Affirmative Action in a Neoliberal Age" and anticipate completion of a film about this topic in December 2012. During 2011, the Center hosted two major scholarly conferences ("Youthful Futures" 29-30 April), about the youth bulge in African demographics, and "Human Traffic: Past and Present" (13-15 October), about the complexities of contemporary human trafficking and the lessons of its debatable comparison to the pre-20th-century Atlantic slave trade. We also hosted two lecture series--"Breaching Boundaries: Re-Narrating the Black Atlantic" (spring) and "Black Gods and Kings: Priests and Practices of the Afro-Atlantic Religions" (fall).