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All Outputs (12)

The Magic of Plants and Animals (2025)
Book Chapter
Parish, J., & Lowell, J. (in press). The Magic of Plants and Animals. In Cultural History of Magic (20). Bloomsbury

The spectral material culture in ordinary life: Re-imagining obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) (2021)
Journal Article
Parish, J. (2021). The spectral material culture in ordinary life: Re-imagining obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Sociological Review, 70(1), https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261211049034

In 2020 obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) was ranked by the World Health Organisation as one of the top-10 most disabling diseases. Today, it is the fourth most common mental disorder in the United Kingdom. This research is based upon ethnographic... Read More about The spectral material culture in ordinary life: Re-imagining obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

The spectral material culture in ordinary life: Re-imagining obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (2021)
Journal Article
Parish. (2022). The spectral material culture in ordinary life: Re-imagining obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Sociological Review, 70(1), https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261211049034

In 2020 obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) was ranked by the World Health Organisation as one of the top-10 most disabling diseases. Today, it is the fourth most common mental disorder in the United Kingdom. This research is based upon ethnographic... Read More about The spectral material culture in ordinary life: Re-imagining obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

The Cosmology of Economy: West African Witchcraft, Finance and the Futures Market (2018)
Journal Article
Parish, J. (2018). The Cosmology of Economy: West African Witchcraft, Finance and the Futures Market. Culture and Religion, 19(1), 113-126. https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2017.1416646

In this article, the relationship between cosmology and financial transactions via the sacred and deeply secret discourses of West African traditional priests in Europe is explored, who believe that they can spiritually manipulate the monetary pricin... Read More about The Cosmology of Economy: West African Witchcraft, Finance and the Futures Market.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: The ritual moment of social death (2018)
Journal Article
Parish. (2018). Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: The ritual moment of social death. Anthropology Today, 34(1), https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12414

This article is an ethnographic study of individuals self-diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in Liverpool, UK. While much research on OCD has concentrated upon superstitious belief, psychosis and anxiety provoking disorder, the articl... Read More about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: The ritual moment of social death.

Uncanny objects and the fear of the familiar: Hiding from Akan witches in New York City (2017)
Journal Article
Parish, J. (2017). Uncanny objects and the fear of the familiar: Hiding from Akan witches in New York City. Journal of Material Culture, 23(1), https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183517725100

This article examines the cosmology and secret practices of West African traditional priests in New York City in preventing the spread of witchcraft, an evil invisible spirit transmitted between female members of the Akan matrilineage. Explored is an... Read More about Uncanny objects and the fear of the familiar: Hiding from Akan witches in New York City.

Uncanny Objects and the Fear of the Familiar:Hiding from Akan Witches in New York City (2017)
Journal Article
Parish. (2017). Uncanny Objects and the Fear of the Familiar:Hiding from Akan Witches in New York City. Journal of Material Culture, 100-113. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183517725100

This article examines the cosmology and secret practices of West African traditional priests in New York City in preventing the spread of witchcraft, an evil invisible spirit transmitted between female members of the Akan matrilineage. Explored is an... Read More about Uncanny Objects and the Fear of the Familiar:Hiding from Akan Witches in New York City.

Mining morals, muck and Akan gold in New York City (2015)
Journal Article
Parish, J. (2015). Mining morals, muck and Akan gold in New York City. Anthropology Southern Africa, 68(3-4), 290-301. https://doi.org/10.1080/23323256.2015.1100520

Among Akan spirit preachers at shrines in New York, gold and gold weights are at the centre of the creation of new moral topographies in a fluid and contested context. In a get-rich-quick New York marketplace, the preachers appeal to an understanding... Read More about Mining morals, muck and Akan gold in New York City.

Beyond Occult Economies: Akan spirits, New York Idols and Detroit automobiles (2015)
Journal Article
Parish. (2015). Beyond Occult Economies: Akan spirits, New York Idols and Detroit automobiles. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 5(2), 101-120. https://doi.org/10.14318/hau5.2.009

While it has been extensively recorded how the West African occult economy allows for a metanarrative critique of modernity, this article analyzes a convergence between witchcraft discourses and the capitalist market, looking through the local lens o... Read More about Beyond Occult Economies: Akan spirits, New York Idols and Detroit automobiles.