Erwan Dianteill

Erwan Dianteill is a prominent French anthropologist and sociologist specializing in the anthropology of religion, particularly African and Afro-American traditions such as vodun, Santería, candomblé, and Louisiana spiritual churches. As a professor at the Sorbonne (Université Paris Cité) and founder of the Centre d’anthropologie culturelle (CANTHEL), he explores transculturation, creolization, and ritual modernity in postcolonial contexts, emphasizing urban Africa and the Americas. His major works include "Des Dieux et des Dioses" (2000), about the use of writing in Afro-Cuban religions, "La Samaritaine noire" (2011), a historical-ethnographic study of New Orleans’ Afro-American spiritual churches; and *Eshu, Dieu d’Afrique et du Nouveau Monde* (2012), analyzing the Yoruba deity Eshu’s transatlantic significance. Edited volumes like *La violence insidieuse* (2022, with Serena Bindi and Thierry Lamote) examine modern rituals and sorcery’s psychological parallels. Since 2007, his Porto-Novo fieldwork on Fa/Ifá divination, including a 2009 film, underscores his interdisciplinary approach, blending ethnography, theory, and multimedia to illuminate religion’s role in power dynamics and cultural resistance across Afro-Atlantic. His last book, "L'oracle et le temple, de la géomancie médiévale à l'Eglise d'Ifa" (2024) is the first book on Africa to receive the Prize in History of Religion from the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (1663).