gems, beryl, emerald, lore, history, healing gems, anthropology, Colombia, Brazil

Emeralds are like possessing spirits—beautiful but dangerous. Like the espíritos obsessores of Kardecian mysticism, they can overtake the lives of well-meaning devotees and lead them toward perdition. Like Macumba, emeralds may bring comfort and solace, but they can also become a vice and an addiction. Like the exús of Candomblé, they promise wealth to those who know how to handle them, though the profits are fraught with peril. Dealers in emeralds, much like purveyors of spiritual power, are not always to be trusted, and the presence of charlatans and sharp operators only heightens the mystique surrounding the reputedly authentic priestess and the pedra extra, the fine stone hidden in mica schist that promises a life of leisure to its discoverer. This volume seeks to excavate the relations between spirit possession and material possessions. Paul Johnson employs an ethnographic lens on the history of European philosophy to show how “savage” ideas of things possessing men provided a foil for modern notions of men as possessors of things. This chapter examines how perspectives drawn from Afro-Brazilian spirit possession religions can illuminate the largely irreligious emerald trade in the Bahian backlands.