Brian Brazeal
Professor Brian Brazeal
- Email: bcbrazeal@csuchico.edu
- Location: BSS 345
Intrests
My research interests are in the anthropology of religion and in visual anthropology. I have conducted ethnographic fieldwork on the African-derived religions of Brazil and on the religious communities in the global gemstone trade. I have studied the ways in which religious beliefs and practices shape, and are shaped by, mundane economies. My work has examined magic and witchcraft and also religious asceticism and prodigality. I have also studied the use of music in ritual contexts.
In visual anthropology, I am particularly interested in using cutting-edge audio-visual technologies to communicate the results of anthropological research to the widest possible audiences. I founded and direct the Advanced Laboratory for Visual Anthropology, where students and faculty collaborate to produce anthropological documentary films for television broadcast and use in classrooms.
Publications
Nostalgia For War and the Paradox of Peace in the Colombian Emerald Trade. The Extractive Industries and Society, Volume 3, Issue 2, April 2016, Pages 340–349
The History of Emerald Mining in Colombia: An Examination of Spanish-Language Sources, The Extractive Industries, and Society, 1 (2) Pp 273-283 November 2014.
"The Fetish and the Stone: A Moral Economy of Charlatans and Thieves." In Spirited Things: The Work of Possession in Black Atlantic Religions." Paul Johnson ed. the University of Chicago Press 2014.
"Coins for the Dead, Money on the Floor," Published in Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies 23/24 Volume titled, Economies of Relation: Money and Personhood in the Lusophone World. Roger Sansi-Roca ed. Tagus Press at the University of Massachusetts Pp 103-124. 2013.
"Indian Religions in the Global Emerald Trade" in The Visual Anthropology Review. 28 (2) 120-132. Fall 2012.
"A Goat's Tale: Diabolical Economies of the Bahian Interior," in, Activating the Past: History and Memory in the Black Atlantic Andrew Apter and Robin Derby eds. Cambridge Scholars Press. 2010.
"Dona Preta's Trek To Cachoeira" Africas in the Americas: Beyond the Search for Origins Stephan Palmié ed. Brill Press 2008.
"The Music of the Bahian Caboclos." Anthropological Quarterly. 73(4) Fall 2003.