Life Outside: Pentecostalism, Poverty, and Excess in Haiti

Abstract

Based on ethnographic research with a community of independent Pentecostals known in Haiti as “The Heavenly Army,” this article examines the practices and perspectives of these self-proclaimed spiritual warriors against the backdrop of their extreme material poverty. As articulated by Claudette the prophetess, her constant concern about afflicting spirits is specific to her life conditions, a way of living that she describes as “outside.” I first describe the “outsidedness” of Claudette’s and her community’s lives as an experience of marginality, vulnerability, and isolation from power. Then, drawing inspiration from Robert Orsi’s examination of “presence” and Georges Bataille’s notion of “excess,” I propose an approach that takes seriously Claudette’s claims without resorting to models of deprivation and compensation. Instead, I examine poverty not only as an experience of lack but also as one of material and social excess as well as unwelcomed presence. Foregrounding this aspect of poverty illuminates the way that global racialized capitalism and its excesses serve as a compelling meta-context for the study of global Pentecostalism.