Spirits of the Space Age

In this elegant ethnography, Kelly E. Hayes presents the most comprehensive study of Brazil's Valley of the Dawn to date. Skillfully balancing thick description with astute analysis, Hayes situates the movement in the context of Brazilian modernity, gender politics, and the various religions-including Umbanda, Kardecist Spiritism, and Theosophy-that have shaped it. In so doing, Spirits of the Space Age offers an alternative story of occult and metaphysical religion, emphasizing its place in the Catholic Atlantic and the Global South. * Michael Amoruso, Assistant Professor, Occidental College * The time is now to think about utopian alternatives to the present world. With singular ethnographic ability Kelly Hayes explains why people might choose to alter radically their lives to relieve human suffering. For students of ritual, new religious movements, and material culture this book is essential reading. For anyone dreaming of how to build a more just society, Spirits of the Space Age is a critical guide, showing the promise and difficulty of cosmic transformation. * Kathryn Lofton, Lex Hixon Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies, Yale University * An abundantly informative thick description and analysis of the Brazilian spiritist movement Valley of the Dawn, Spirits of the Space Age offers a study of a new religious movement that offers a vision of modernity shaped by a reimagining of the past. Hayes shows how the richly textured world of the Valley of the Dawn provides meaning, healing, and transformation to its adherents, and how scholars can understand the group within its Brazilian and global context. * Benjamin E. Zeller, Professor and Chair of Religion, Lake Forest College * She has written a fascinating ethnological study of the development of new religions by examining this movement she characterizes as a ""unique psychic ecosystem... enchanted city, utopian project, and theatrical spectacle,"" whose primary purpose is to provide social and spiritual assistance (p. 4). The author demonstrates that the group, which has often been characterized as peculiar and outlandish, is a successful new religion that fits within Brazil's deeply rooted religious traditional past. * M. L. Grover, emeritus, Brigham Young University *