Quiroz, Sitna
(2013)
Relating as children of God: ruptures and continuities in kinship among pentecostal Christians in the south-east of the Republic of Benin.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
This thesis constitutes an ethnographic exploration of the ways in which conversion to
Pentecostalism contributes to redefining some of the principles of kinship in a
patrilineal society. It looks beyond notions of individualism often emphasised in studies
on Pentecostalism, in order to focus on people’s relationships. In doing so, it explores
how relational ruptures brought about by conversion are accommodated along cultural
continuities. This study takes place in Pobe and Ikpinle, two semi-rural towns, in a
pluri-ethnic and pluri-religious setting with a majority Yoruba population, close to the
Beninese border with Nigeria.
Studies of Pentecostalism in Africa have emphasised kinship and family relations as one
of the areas where, upon conversion, the Pentecostal command to “break with the past”
and with “tradition” is most strongly expressed. Ruptures in these areas have been
explained as the result of the influence of Pentecostalism in shaping individualist
modern subjectivities. However, the ethnographic material presented here reveals that,
although discursively these ruptures are often articulated as radical, in practice they do
not always appear as such. Converts still depend on and cultivate their social
relationships with their kin. Through a process of breaking and re-making,
Pentecostalism opens a space for redefining forms of relating, through a selective reappropriation of certain cultural norms and values. The thesis also looks at some of the
dilemmas that Christian notions of kinship bring about in this context, and the specific
ways in which Pentecostals - compared to members of other Christian denominations - deal with them.
This thesis draws on anthropological studies and debates on funerals, time, descent,
marriage, gender, ethics and moral dilemmas, in order to explore how the Pentecostal
project of “breaking with the past” shapes different aspects of people’s kinship. It aims
to contribute to the literature on the anthropology of Christianity by exploring the
complexities of this form of religion, as it appears in one of its denominational variants
in a pluri-religious setting.
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