‘Fascinans’ or ‘tremendum’? Permutations of the state, the body, and the divine in late-twentieth-century Havana

Abstract

Focuses on the introduction of capitalist elements, such as the use of the dollar as currency, in Cuba in the 1990s, and discusses survival strategies among the Cuban people, during the "special period" since 1989. Based on fieldwork and experiences in Havana, the author pays particular attention to the important role of (obtaining) dollars instead of the less valuable peso currency for Cubans in response to deprivations, and how this occurs through different forms of hustling people with money, including offering sexual favours to tourists, as well as to an increased focus on own interests instead of on courteous sharing among Cubans, and increased racial cleavages. He finds that the introduction of the dollar in Cuba, as well as tourism's growth, garnered income, but also stimulated inequalities in access to dollars and to dollar-prized commodities, and had morally problematic effects, because working formally for the state with wages in pesos generally paid less than informal work to obtain dollars. He describes how this increased instrumental thinking and made hustling widespread, and also stimulated shams and secular intentionality within the practice of Afro-Cuban religions, e.g. fake possessions to obtain dollar offerings to deities from foreigners at ceremonies. In addition, he refers to the ending of the circulation of the US dollar as currency in Cuba as decreed by the Cuban government in November 2004, making the dollar's role in practice historical.

Of spectacular phantasmal desire: tourism and the Cuban state's complicity in the commodification of its citizens

“…While all three are used in a variety of contexts, it is jineterismo 7 and its affiliated terminology associated with sex tourism that has attracted the most attention from state officials and scholars (Cabezas, 1998;Elizalde, 1996;Fernandez, 1999;Fusco, 1998;O'Connell Davidson, 1996Sugden & Tomlinson, 1995;Wonders & Michalowski, 2001). Yet jineterismo really extends far beyond its portrayal as the selling of sexual services (Cluster, 2004;Palmié, 2004). The term jineterismo speaks to highly ambiguous moral notions about commodity exchanges, the consumption of luxuries, and the creation of social identities via objectification.…”

Révolution et recherche : développement durable et transformations sociales à Cuba

“…Cette étude s'inscrit dans la foulée d'un nombre croissant de recherches qui analysent les interprétations et les représentations de la révolution et de l'identité révolutionnaire, tant du point de vue des individus que des institutions (se référer entre autres à Brotherton, 2003Brotherton, , 2005Carter, 2000 ;Daniel, 1995 ;Doyon, 2003Doyon, , 2005Fernández, 1996 ;Forrest, 1999 ;Fosado, 2004 ;Gropas, 2007 ;Hernandez-Reguant, 2002 ;Holbraad, 2002 ;Palmié, 2004 ;Perry, 2004 ;Powell, 2008 ;Premat, 2004Premat, , 2009Roland, 2006 ;Rosendhal, 1997). Les prémisses de la recherche s'ancrent dans une vision plurielle et rhizomique de la révolution où l'État n'est pas considéré comme un acteur monolithique et univoque et où les habitants ne sont pas que des sujets passifs des politiques et des réformes mises en place (Doyon et Brotherton, 2008).…”

From ethnographers to tourists and back again

“…Several authors have outlined the porosity (Argyriadis 2005: 47), the ambiguities (Cabezas 2004;Fernandez 1999;Palmié 2004;Berg 2004), and the kaleidoscopic character (Kummels 2005: 24) of jineterismo and other related phenomenon and categories in Cuba (sex work, prostitution, and partnership for instance), emphasizing for instance how jineterismo is a complex phenomenon which brings issues of morality, race, class, gender and nation into play (see in particular the works of Fernandez 1999 andBerg 2004 …”