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Through a synthesis of personal ethnography, sociological and theological reflection, author Michelle González takes aim at the Christocentric, church-focused, and hyperphilosophical discourse of recent Latina/o theology. By focusing on three forms of popular religiosity, González aims to show that if Latina/o theologians are to address the religious needs of Latinas/os they must take seriously practices that church hierarchy and orthodox Catholic theology deride and frown on. Evil Eye, Santería, and Espiritismo are syncretic forms of Christianity that decenter religious practice, relocating it in ritual and communal memory. The chapter argues that if Latina/o theologians are to give credence to the epistemic productivity of Latina/o communities, they must challenge their orthodox Catholic assumptions, namely a focus on textual exegeses that presupposes a hierarchical system of knowledge certification that always devalues the experiences of subjects.

This chapter focuses on females who die under unhappy circumstances, particularly those who die unmarried and those who die in pregnancy and childbirth. The ghosts of such women are dangerous especially to other women who are at such transitional points in their lives, and to the babies of those women. Mainstream Greek festivals that celebrated female maturation included rites to appease and avert such ghosts; apotropaic measures such as amulets worn by pregnant women and babies were used as well. The belief in such creatures also served a normative function: no woman wanted to end up that way, which reiterated marriage and childbirth as dominant female goals. The belief also served as an explanation for misfortune that kept blame away from other possible parties—such as female friends and relatives jealous of another’s reproductive success.

This chapter reviews the horror films Two Evil Eyes and The Dark Half. Two Evil Eyes is a two-part film produced by Dario Argento; Romero was in charge of “The Facts in the Case of Mr Valdemar.” Both “The Facts in the Case of Mr Valdemar” and The Dark Half share a Gothic heritage, a feature also common to Stephen King's novels. However, although the Gothic aura of the supernatural appears ideal territory for Romero, his concerns lie elsewhere. Expressing disappointment in his review of The Dark Half, Kim Newman commented that Romero's “films prefer science fiction to the supernatural.” “The Facts in the Case of Mr Valdemar” attempts to avoid the Gothic style entirely and aims (apart from the unfortunate presence of the ghostly “They” towards the climax) at naturalistic levels of meaning, while The Dark Half cannot discard the trappings entirely.

According to Sophocles, seafaring is the very first cultural technique which makes possible all other cultural techniques. The chapter analyzes shipbuilding and navigational practices among the inhabitants of the Trobriand Islands as a complex actor network comprising many highly heterogeneous actors, including creepers, myths, several kinds of magic, taboos, flying women, and the threat of shipwreck. For the Trobriands the canoo is a technology which proves seaworthy inasmuch as it incorporates elements which are attributed to the evil eye of flying witches which personify the horrors of the sea. The canoo uses magic related to these medusas in an apotropaic way. The ship therefore articulates the difference between land and sea as a system of differences between eye and gaze, shape and shapelessness, unity and disunity, good and evil woman, the imaginary and the real, the salvation and disintegration of reality.

This chapters looks at the various written charms—such as certain passages from the Quran or the names of God—that were worn, engraved, or hung up, as well as the rituals to protect against disease, misfortune, and the jinn. The most common was to protect against the evil eye—cowrie shells, alum, and mixtures of herbs and salts, were commonly used. Other practices were also used to cure sickness or disability, and this chapter describes the systems and beliefs used to determine the course of action. It ends with a run down on which days of the week are considered ‘fortunate’ and auspicious.