Discusses a renewed view on "creolization", in relation to the Caribbean's social and cultural history. Author first points at the different creolization theories, noting a recurrence in these of the concepts of "mixture", "creative mixture", or "dialogue" between cultures, and describes how such "harmonious mix" views of creolization influenced forms of nationalism and nation building in the Caribbean, thereby blurring inequalities. She, however, points at the unequal power relations, or "contentious constitution", historically involved in creolization processes, with hegemonic (cultural and religious) colonial power over and against so-called superstitious or other vernacular interpretations. With a specific focus on late-19th c. creolization processes in urban slave and highland peasant-Maroon societies in Puerto Rico, she further shows how vernacular, magical religions and folk healing rechanneled hegemonic religious symbols, like the cross, to purposes other than those intended by the Church. She calls this a form of "ritual piracy", including tactical mimicry, representing thus subversion from within, but with maintained relations to the hegemonic, complicating the "resistance" aspect.

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This article explores theoretically and ethnographically how gestures 'do' within Spiritist religious practices. According to the emic Spiritist notion of 'manifestations', certain gestures can bridge between material and spiritual realms and the various dimensions of the self. Embodying the moral economy and dispositions of Spiritism, such gestures are thereby investigated as affective and practical technologies for constituting the religious subject within Spiritism without passing by belief and cognition. Based on close ethnographic accounts and visual documentation of the work of Puerto Rican healers, the author traces the performative illocutionary power of gestures during cleansing, divination, healing and possession rituals. Finally, she proposes 'inter-gesturality' as a way to address the power relations behind gestural 'quotations' and to trace the embodied interrelationships that have shaped in the past and are shaping in the present the religious significance of gestures, the emotions they elicit, the religious subjectification processes they constitute and the spiritual healing they can promote.

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