Afro-Brazilian religion

This book chapter examines Black Brazilian efforts to establish a municipal education project that revalues forms of knowledge and learning emerging from and through Afro-descendant communities. By revaluing Afro-Brazilian cultures as sites of knowledge production, the Centro Cultural Orùnmilá in the state of São Paulo's work goes beyond addressing inequality by claiming inclusion into an already defined system—educational, economic, political, and cultural. Rather, they challenge racial inequality by shaping other ways of understanding history, progress, value, and collectivity. As such, their politics contest unequal histories of power underlying the very meanings of knowledge that count in understanding the making of modernity, race, and development.

Link PDF: https://bdtd.ibict.br/vufind/Record/UFJF_c4661ce6a6d180fd8c2a1b0fa18afc90
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(1) ES-RESUMEN:
El espacio ritual se constituye en un locus sagrado de fiesta. En el escenario religioso, el sentimiento de reconocerse lleno del Espíritu Santo o incorporado por las Entidades reescribe, en el propio cuerpo del sujeto, la autenticidad de su tradición mitológica. Simultáneamente, la experiencia religiosa reitera el poder de esa tradición. Y son varias las formas en que la narrativa mítica emerge, viniendo a la superficie y volviéndose tangible a la percepción ya la emoción. Y, en este sentido, la cultura desempeña un papel fundamental: es el eslabón a promover el encuentro entre las verdades de la creencia y las experiencias religiosas. Michel Meslin señala que la religión sólo alcanza al hombre a través de las mediaciones culturales de su tiempo. Entre esas variadas “mediaciones culturales” está la música, con sus géneros, ritmos y una fuerza simbólica capaz de funcionar como clave, abriendo las puertas de las sensibilidades. Además de los cánticos — pero a ellos relacionados —, la experiencia del trance ritual es un dispositivo de mediación cultural aún más poderoso: un dínamo de emociones litúrgicamente sacralizadas. Este sentimiento religioso de alegría tiene sus bases en la estructura del sistema de creencias, y así, hasta la cantiga que coadyuva y complementa los ritos, consubstancia su status sagrado. Musicalizando el Sagrado, ese arte expresivo de fe y también de cultura potencia aún más el sentimiento social de pertenencia a la comunidad religiosa del individuo, que también ve alimentada su esperanza de vida. Este trabajo se ve en la senda de la experiencia religiosa, en sus percances sinuosos. En ese camino, la intención es comprender un poco el funcionamiento de los engranajes simbólicos que confieren sentido a las expresiones gestuales vividas por pentecostales y umbandistas, en dos grupos religiosos específicos. Y, al analizar la relación entre la dinámica ritual de esos cultos y la producción de sentidos operada en los lenguajes gestuales de los sujetos de la creencia, reflexionamos sobre los diálogos semánticos rituales que construyendo experiencias de espiritualidad, reconvierten también experiencias de vida. Es cuando la divergencia de las cosmovisiones sucumbe a la convergencia de los significados religiosos.
- Palabras-clave: Pentecostalismo. Umbanda. Expresión Gestual. Experiencia Religiosa. Diálogo Semántico.

(2) PT-RESUMO:
O espaço ritual constitui-se num locus sagrado de festa. No palco religioso, o sentimento de reconhecer-se cheio do Espírito Santo ou incorporado pelas Entidades reescreve, no próprio corpo do sujeito, a autenticidade de sua tradição mitológica. Simultaneamente, a experiência religiosa reatualiza o poder dessa tradição. E são várias as formas em que a narrativa mítica emerge, vindo à tona e tornando-se tangível à percepção e à emoção. E, neste sentido, a cultura desempenha um papel fundamental: ela é o elo a promover o encontro entre as verdades da crença e as experiências religiosas. Michel Meslin assinala que a religião só alcança o homem através das mediações culturais de seu tempo. Entre essas também variadas “mediações culturais” está a música, com seus gêneros, ritmos e uma força simbólica capaz de funcionar como chave, abrindo as portas das sensibilidades. Para além dos cânticos – mas a eles conexos –, a experiência do transe ritual é um dispositivo de mediação cultural ainda mais poderoso: um dínamo de emoções liturgicamente sacralizadas. Este sentimento religioso de alegria tem suas bases na estrutura do sistema de crenças, e, assim, até a cantiga que coadjuva e complementa os ritos, consubstancia seu status sagrado. Musicalizando o Sagrado, essa arte expressiva de fé e também de cultura potencializa ainda mais o sentimento social de pertença à comunidade religiosa do indivíduo, que também vê alimentada sua esperança de vida. Este trabalho se envereda na trilha da experiência religiosa, em seus percalços sinuosos. Nesse caminho, a intenção é compreender um pouco o funcionamento das engrenagens simbólicas que conferem sentido às manifestações performáticas vividas por pentecostais e umbandistas, em dois grupos religiosos específicos. E, ao analisar a relação entre a dinâmica ritual desses cultos e a produção de sentidos operada nas linguagens gestuais dos sujeitos da crença, refletimos sobre os diálogos semânticos rituais que, construindo experiências de espiritualidade, reconstroem também experiências de vida. É quando a divergência das cosmovisões sucumbe à convergência dos significados religiosos. - Palavras-chave: Pentecostalismo. Umbanda. Expressão Gestual. Experiência Religiosa. Diálogo semântico.

(3) FR-RÉSUMÉ:
L'espace rituel est un lieu sacré de célébration. Au stade religieux, le sentiment d'être reconnu comme étant rempli du Saint-Esprit ou incorporé par les Entités réécrit, dans le corps même du sujet, l'authenticité de sa tradition mythologique. En même temps, l'expérience religieuse ré-actualise le pouvoir de cette tradition. Et le récit mythique émerge de plusieurs manières, qui apparaissent à la surface et deviennent tangibles à la perception et à l'émotion. Et, dans ce sens, la culture joue un rôle fondamental: c'est le lien pour promouvoir la rencontre entre les vérités de croyance et les expériences religieuses. Michel Meslin souligne que la religion n'atteint l'homme que par les médiations culturelles de son temps. Parmi celles-ci, la "médiation culturelle" est également variée, avec ses genres, ses rythmes et sa force symbolique capable de fonctionner comme une clé, ouvrant la porte à la sensibilité. En plus des chants - mais qui leur sont liés - l'expérience de transe rituelle est un dispositif encore plus puissant de médiation culturelle: une dynamo d'émotions liturgiquement sacralisées. Ce sentiment religieux de joie a sa base dans la structure du système de croyance et, par conséquent, même la chanson qui aide et complète les rites consubstantie son statut sacré. Musicalisant le sacré, cet art d'expression de la foi et de la culture, renforce encore le sentiment social d'appartenance à la communauté religieuse de l'individu, qui nourrit également son espoir de vivre. Ce travail se situe dans la voie de l'expérience religieuse, dans ses sinistres mésaventures. De cette manière, l’intention est de comprendre un peu le fonctionnement des engrenages symboliques qui donnent un sens aux manifestations de performance vécues par les pentecôtistes et les umbandistes dans deux groupes religieux spécifiques. Et lorsque nous analysons la relation entre la dynamique rituelle de ces sectes et la production de significations opérées dans les langages gestuels des sujets de croyance, nous réfléchissons aux dialogues sémantiques rituels qui, en construisant des expériences de spiritualité, reconfirment, reconstruisent également des expériences de vie. C’est à ce moment-là que la divergence des visions du monde succombe à la convergence des significations religieuses. - Mots-clés: Pentecôtisme. Umbanda. Expression Gestuelle. Expérience Religieuse. Dialogue Sémantique.

(4) EN-ABSTRACT:
The ritual space is a sacred locus of celebration. In the religious stage, the feeling of being recognized full of the Holy Spirit or incorporated by the Entities rewrites, in the subject's own body, the authenticity of his mythological tradition. Simultaneously, religious experience re- actualizes the power of this tradition. And there are several ways in which the mythical narrative emerges, coming to the surface and becoming tangible to perception and emotion. And, in this sense, culture plays a fundamental role: it is the link to promote the meeting between the truths of belief and religious experiences. Michel Meslin points out that religion only reaches man through the cultural mediations of his time. Among these also varied "cultural mediations" is music, with its genres, rhythms and a symbolic force capable of functioning as a key, opening the doors of sensitivities. In addition to the chants - but related to them - the ritual trance experience is an even more powerful device of cultural mediation: a dynamo of liturgically sacralized emotions. This religious feeling of joy has its basis in the structure of the belief system, and thus even the song that helps and complements the rites, consubstantiates its sacred status. Musicalizing the Sacred, this expressive art of faith and also of culture further enhances the social feeling of belonging to the individual's religious community, which also nourishes their hope for life. This work lies in the path of religious experience, in its sinuous mishaps. In this way, the intention is to understand a little the functioning of the symbolic gears that give meaning to the performance manifestations experienced by Pentecostals and Umbandists in two specific religious groups. And when analyzing the relationship between the ritual dynamics of these cults and the production of meanings operated in the gestural languages of the subjects of belief, we reflect on the ritual semantic dialogues that, by constructing experiences of spirituality, also reconfirm, reconstruct life experiences. This is when the divergence of worldviews succumbs to the convergence of religious meanings. - Key-words: Pentecostalism. Umbanda. Gestural Expression. Religious Experience. Semantic Dialogue.

The paper's starting point is the presence, increase and expansion of cults of African origin in Latin America. From there it approaches, in a comparative perspective, some of the changes in the attire of men when dancing the Candomblé ritual, specifically in the Xangȏ of Recife (Brazil), and also of the women who undergo the iyaworaje –initiation period in Cuban Santería. The article reveals the way in which these religions allow the expression of sensuality and eroticism as elements proper to the religious culture. All this takes place in a religious space in which discourses about sex and gender are flexible and non-essentialist. The success that religions of African origin in the Americas have displayed in surviving, expanding and attracting individuals from every ethnic group and social class, and from so many nationalities and realities alien to the African ethnic heritage, is indeed an extraordinary development. At the present time, the cult of the orixás 1 counts its followers by the thousands throughout the world and oversteps, with an outstanding strength, political, cultural and ethnic boundaries. In my capacity as a researcher in the Afro-Brazilian religious field and in the traditions of African origin in Cuba, I have had the opportunity of verifying the vigor of those religions that –although they are not to be considered proselytizing entities— have managed to grow in an extraordinary way 2. In Brazil, Candomblé 3 continues to expand, incorporating –to the ritual linage of African ancestors brought as slaves— new sons-and daughters-of-saint 4 who enrich the most traditional houses-of-saint in Brazil. New places of cult open their doors, thereby multiplying the number of terreiros 5 throughout the whole Brazilian geography. This phenomenon is not limited solely to Brazil: it has also crossed over borders and strongly installed itself in some of the nations that most

A presente comunicação pretende debater os processos híbridos e a invenção da tradição no seio do Candomblé nagô baiano, onde a memória instituída preconiza o ideal de continuidade. Para tanto, parte-se do estudo-de-caso da divindade não-nagô Agué (Maré) e sua introdução no Terreiro da Casa Branca do Engenho Velho.

O Candomblé jeje-nagô estabeleceu-se na Bahia nos finais do século XIX e primeiros anos do século XX, durante o período final da trata de escravos oriundos da chamada Costa dos Escravos. Diante de um novo contexto cultural e regional, que era a Bahia de então, os escravos das cidades yorùbá e ewe-fon, muitos dos quais representando grupos étnicos/reinos rivais, forjaram uma nova realidade religiosa, a partir das memórias partilhadas e das similitudes culturais e, bem assim, colhendo contributos a outros grupos étnicos africanos e ao catolicismo popular. Este texto foca a problemática do esquecimento em termos: das diferenças étnicas e políticas nos episódios fundacionais do Candomblé, não obstante a diversidade das suas nações (ficcionais); da escravatura como um processo de reconfiguração identitária que conduziu a uma espécie de amnésia causada pelo traumático desenraizamento/exílio forçado; da agência masculina. De igual modo, está em análise a complexa utopia da fundação do Candomblé como uma religião de continuidade com a África e de realeza africana, numa mistura entre " passado mítico " e " lar imaginado " , narrativa que curiosamente esquece o processo crioulo de descontinuidade e " adaptação criativa " , visível nos aspetos estéticos do ritual.

Abstract
The jeje-nagô Candomblé was established in Bahia between 19th century and the early years of 20th, during the last days of slave trade, from the so-called " Slaves Coast ". In a new cultural and regional environment – which was Bahia in those days –, African slaves from Yorùbá and Ewe-Fon towns, many of them representing rival ethnic groups/kingdoms, forged a new religious framework using shared memories and cultural similitudes, and collected pieces from other African groups and Portuguese Catholicism. This text focuses the oblivion of: ethnic and political differences in Candomblé foundational moments, despite it (fictional) " nations " ; slavery as a process of identity reconfiguration that led to a sort of Amnesia caused by the uprooting trauma/forced exile; male agency; and the complex utopia of Candomblé as a religion of continuity to Africa and African royalty, in a mixture of " mythical past " and " imagined homeland " , which curiously forget the creole process of discontinuity and " creative adaptation " , visible in ritual aesthetic aspects.

This essay aims to clarify some points referring to Quimbanda practiced in Brazil in a clear and objective way, without making any reference to any temple or organization, being only the author's vision, based on their experience within the cult.

Resenha crítica da obra do antropólogo Juliano Spyer, fruto de sua pesquisa de campo na periferia de Salvador, BA, onde estão suas percepções sobre o atual pensamento político do povo evangélico, o qual não é tão monolítico como normalmente se pensa.
Ref. da obra: SPYER, Juliano. Povo de Deus: Quem são os evangélicos e por que eles importam. São Paulo: Geração Editorial, 2020. 284 p.

The presence of a female priesthood, a distinctive feature of Afro-Brazilian cults, has long been a key issue occupying the attention of researchers. In the "terreiros" that I studied, I observed that the most important founding female figures of these traditions had been eclipsed, and that today it is largely men who have taken up positions of leadership in these traditions, to the detriment of women.

Focusing on the term  "macumba," this article examines the complex and contested process through which the interested claims of officials, elites, scholars, and informants overlapped to produce distinct models of Afro-Brazilian orthodoxy associated with umbanda, on the one hand, and candomblé, on the other. These struggles over religious legitimacy carried profound legal and social implications for those whose perspectives remained outside the loop.

Resumo:
A presente tese possui dois objetivos: De um lado, analisar como o candomblé,
através das representações de alguns de seus adeptos, enxerga a questão da raça,
cor e etnicidade e, de outro, como a literatura acadêmica e ficcional e a visão de
militantes da identidade racial negra abordam o candomblé e a afro-religosidade,
do ponto de vista das representações de raça, cor e etnicidade.
Abstract:
This dissertation has a twofold objective. On one hand, it proposes to analyze the
ways some of candomblé practitioners view the problem of race, color and
ethnicity; on the other hand, it seeks to understand how academic literature,
Brazilian fiction black identity politics in Brazil approach Candomblé and Afroreligiosity
from the perspectives of representations of race, color and
ethnicity.

Esta dissertação tem como foco de interesse empírico a presença de dois símbolos de referência afro-religiosa dispostos no espaço público da cidade de Porto Alegre e seus arredores. A partir das controvérsias e relações que cada um deles aciona, nos perguntamos sobre o que nos sugerem e revelam, por um lado, acerca dos modos privilegiados de presença e reconhecimento do afro-religioso no espaço público e, por outro, sobre os efeitos de convivência entre religião e modernidade. Num primeiro momento, acompanhamos as redes de atores e discursos que se conectam a uma imagem de origem religiosa depois que essa é transferida da orla da praia para um terreiro e posteriormente para um museu municipal. Observamos como os atores engajam-se em uma controvérsia em torno da definição do estatuto de existência do objeto e, ao fazê-lo, procuram estabelecer fronteiras entre domínios como o “religioso”, o “político”, o “judiciário”. Num segundo momento, o foco de atenção é o Monumento à Mãe Oxum da Praia de Ipanema e a relações que estabelece com religiosos e moradores da orla da praia em função do uso da área em seu entorno como espaço de culto pelos adeptos das religiões afro-brasileiras. Analisamos também as relações estabelecidas entre o monumento e o “assentamento de orixá” oculto em sua base e as implicações dessa composição para as apropriações do objeto.

In 2011, a private-led renovation project sought to redevelop and privatize Rio de Janeiro's port area. In this context, the ruins of an old slave wharf re-emerged, becoming a symbol of Black resistance and, alongside nearby sites and small-scale organizations, have contributed to the memorialization of the "Black Atlantic," an expression borrowed from Paul Gilroy's notorious work. In this paper, I recall the history of the site, pointing out to the relevance of such small and subaltern institutions, which counter hegemonic discourses that de-emphasize the relevance of historically-marginalized Black populations. As a site that recalls histories and memory, I argue that the Valongo is a place of past and present, being one of the many locations connected to the African Diaspora, and part of a transnational global diasporic imaginary that challenges Eurocentrism, while emphasizing the role of Afro-Brazilians and Afro-Latin Americans in the formation of society, despite the many challenges they face and have historically faced.

When Johan Maurits of Nassau, Governor-General of Dutch Brazil (1630-54), sent out expeditions against the maroons of Palmares, he was informed by his intelligence officers that the inhabitants followed the “Portuguese religion,” that they had erected a church in the capital, that there were chapels with images of saints and the Virgin Mary and that Zumbi, the king of Palmares, did not allow the presence of “fetishists.” Portuguese sources confirm that Palmares had a priest who baptized children and married couples and that its inhabitants followed Catholic rite, although according to Governor Francisco de Brito, they did so “in a stupid fashion.” Many more examples of the existence of Afro-Catholic elements in maroon communities in Latin America can be found. They question the widespread assumption that Catholicism had been forced upon all African slaves and that, even among those who seemingly embraced the colonizer’s faith, it functioned merely as a veneer underneath which their truly African, indigenous beliefs remained hidden. As the case of Palmares indicates, slaves did not necessarily wish to liberate themselves from all “Catholic ballast” once they ran away but sometimes remained strongly attached to it. 
This conclusion corresponds to the assumption by the Brazilian historian Marina de Mello e Souza that upon arrival in the Americas, many slaves did not perceive Catholic elements as something foreign since “Catholicism represented a link to their native Africa.” Souza is but one of several scholars who in recent years contributed to a shift in the study of black performance culture in the New World. The new paradigm essentially consists in the acknowledgment that our understanding of black performance culture can be bettered if we take into consideration that many Africans had already adopted certain European—predominantly Portuguese—cultural and religious elements before they were shipped as slaves to the Americas.
In the context of this shift, there has been an increased interest in Afro-Iberian brotherhoods (irmandades/hermandades) and confraternities (confrarias/cofradías). While it was long assumed that these so-called “black brotherhoods” were associated with slave culture on the Iberian Peninsula and in Latin America only, it can now be confirmed that Afro-Catholic fraternities also flourished in parts of Africa during the Atlantic slave trade era. As Linda Heywood has argued, “many Kongos and not a few Angolans had been Christians before their enslavement in Brazil. Thus they would have been familiar with the brotherhoods in Luanda, Soyo, and Kongo, and the central role they played in the creole society of Kongo, Angola and São Tomé.” Nicole von Germeten’s research on black brotherhoods in Mexico also concluded that “some Central Africans probably took part in social and religious brotherhoods and sisterhoods before crossing the Atlantic.” 
Ira Berlin also observed that black brotherhoods played a crucial role in the intercontinental networks that developed in the context of the transatlantic slavery. However, like most scholars, Berlin perceives brotherhoods as an essentially Iberian phenomenon that was crucial to the development of black identity the Iberian World, differing from North America, where “numerous informal connections between black people” developed, but not brotherhoods. Although Berlin confirms that slaves “created an intercontinental web of cofradias … so that, by the seventeenth century, the network of black religious brotherhoods stretched from Lisbon to São Tomé, Angola, and Brazil,” he believes that those slaves who ended up in Dutch, French or English colonies refrained from developing brotherhoods since there were no “comparable institutional linkages” that allowed them to do so. Berlin’s assumption thus presupposes that brotherhoods could only be established with institutional support and excludes the possibility that slaves themselves may have taken the initiative to create such organizations.
This article questions this conclusion and explores the possibility that slave organizations modeled upon Iberian brotherhoods have existed in North America. In doing so, it follows a reasoning by Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, Matt Childs and James Sidbury, editors of The Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade (2013), according to whom “approved institutional structures authorized by the Catholic Church were not always necessary for Africans and their descendants to build fraternal structures.”  A first section provides an overview of the characteristics of Afro-Iberian slave brotherhoods. The following section presents a comparative analysis between king celebrations in Afro-Iberian brotherhoods and those at African-American Election Day and Pinkster festivals in New England and New York. The article ends with a reflection on the origins of Afro-Iberian cultural and religious elements among slave communities outside of the Iberian realm in the American diaspora.

O presente trabalho enfoca a experiência religiosa Yorùbá e afro-brasileira do Candomblé de matriz Jeje-Nagô como expressas sobremaneira na praxis. É, pois, propósito mostrar que nos imaginários em causa as categorias clássicas de abordagem ao fenómeno religioso não se constituem como operatórias, sendo necessário buscar outra conceptualização em função das dimensões próprias de construção do dado religioso. É, então, imperativo tomar como postura metodológica a observação dos fenómenos religiosos em seus contextos próprios, reconhecendo que a religião é produto da paisagem em que emerge.

1. Geralmente nascidas e/ou implantadas nas áreas pobres das cidades onde, por questões de ordem sociopolítico-econômica, a paisagem urbana é mais decadente, as religiões de grande adesão popular desenham no espaço geográfico as linhas que tramam a configuração religioso-cultural da sociedade. Dentre esses universos de fé, pentecostalismos e religiões de matriz afro (cada núcleo de crenças com suas riquezas simbólicas particulares, embora culturalmente entretecidas) escrevem, nos corpos e nas experiências de seus adeptos, o sentido de vida e existência que lhes animam os dias. É isso que abordaremos brevemente, aqui: a experiência mística que os religiosos vivem no próprio corpo, nesses dois grupos sociais. Pela presente reflexão, visamos também compartilhar alguns pontos de uma etnografia em curso (2015~), recuperando alguns momentos da pesquisa de campo empreendida entre os anos de 2012 e 2013 no mestrado, ocasião em que observamos que as formas expressivas recorrentes em alguns pentecostalismos – especialmente os mais periféricos – revelam o corpo como fronteira semântica (sobretudo durante o cântico coletivo de canções específicas, os corinhos de fogo), locus da experiência religiosa, espaço onde os sentidos seriam afetados pelo sagrado e, a prática ritual, legitimada na sinestesia do grupo. Os paralelos cênicos e experienciais entre certos pentecostalismos e as religiões afro-brasileiras, sobretudo o candomblé e a umbanda, também irrigam as intenções desta breve análise. Palavras-chave: Etnografia religiosa. Expressão gestual. Pentecostalismo. Corinhos de fogo. Religiões afro-brasileiras.

2. Born and/or established in the poor areas where, due to socio-political and economic matters, the urban landscape is more decadent, the religions of big popular adherence design in the geographic space the lines that weave the cultural-religious configuration of society. Among these universes of faith, several Pentecostalisms and religions from African matrix write, through the bodies and the experiences of their believers, the meaning of life and existence that animate their days. That's what we'll briefly analyse here: the mystical experience that these people live in their own bodies, in these two religious groups. Through this brief analysis, we also want to share some points of an ethnography in progress (2015~), recovering some data from our fieldwork, undertaken between the years 2012 and 2013 during the Master degree, moment in which we observed that the expressive gestures of the believers, recurrent in some Pentecostalisms

The present paper aims to analyze the idea of person among the Yorùbá people of Western Africa, taking into account the conception of orí, i.e., the head, which is understood by them as the bowl of human personality and destiny. Those ideas are clearly present in the plural literature concerning the human personality and its destination among the Yorùbá people. Taking the orí as starting point, I shall problematize the predestination idea among the Yorùbá and
the meaning of the bọrí, the ritual presented as ‘feeding-the-head’. Such process will be extended to Afro-Brazilian religious system named Candomblé. The problematization will guide my observation to the dramatic plurality of interpretations concerning destiny, while it will spell out the linguistic dilemmas around the translation of concepts.
Those dilemmas influence, clearly, the theological construction of the object. At the same time, the paper will deliver us to the evidence of the historical construction of Yorùbá religion, which is a mutable and dynamic religious expression, highly crossed with Christianity and Islam (in African contexts). Those processes of transformation are also clear in Brazil, where the celebration of orí has different religious attitudes comparing to African native ones. "

This paper examines Brazil’s century return to Africa movement
from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives, identifying
three main stages. The largest single wave of voyages came after
an 1835 slave uprising in the province of Bahia, when around 200
freed Africans were deported and roughly a thousand others left
voluntarily, fleeing anti-African legislation. In the 1840s, smaller
numbers of Africans also traveled to the continent of their birth,
many as employees on slave vessels. A new phase of migrations
came after 1850, with the end of the Atlantic slave trade to Brazil
and the British seizure of Lagos a year later. Previous estimates of
the volume of travelers are examined in combination with
demographic data on passport recipients, in order to frame microhistorical
analysis of individual travelers. In the first and third
stages, Africans often traveled with their households, comprising
not only blood kin but also their slaves and former slaves, while in
the second phase many of those who left for Africa were men
travelling alone who later returned to Brazil. The resulting portrait
of changes over time offers insights into the varying reasons that
led freed Africans to leave Brazil, also raising questions about the
continued presence of the institution of slavery in their lives.

On "specific holy days" during "unending dance": the body motion of enslaved people in their religious experiences in Colonial Brazil (Pernambuco, 17th century)
This paper aims to analyze the meaning of one's body within the religious experience of some enslaved people abducted from Central Africa, who lived in Pernambuco, during the 1630s, through the analytical reading of two texts written on that period by Zacharias Wagener, a European traveler who lived in that region. It aims to demonstrate that the motion (movement) of their bodies, described in such texts, was connected to their abilities to transcend, overcoming suffering, and building meaningful lives. This was possible through the reinterpretation of some elements found in their original Central African religious traditions, transplanted to Brazil, which contributed to the survival and alternative understanding, in this colonial territory, of the religious inheritance from their birthplace continent.

Resumo:
Este artigo tem como objetivo principal analisar o significado do corpo na experiência religiosa de alguns escravizados de origem centro-africana que viveram em Pernambuco nos anos 30 do século XVII, a partir da análise de dois textos produzidos, neste período, por Zacharias Wagener, um viajante europeu que morou na região. Procura-se demonstrar que o movimento de seus corpos, descrito nestes relatos, estava ligado à sua capacidade de transcendência, superação do sofrimento e construção de sentido por meio da releitura de alguns elementos das tradições religiosas centro--africanas transplantadas para o Brasil, que contribuíam para a sobrevivência e ressignificação, neste território colonial, das heranças religiosas de seu continente de origem.

Brazil is home for the largest African diaspora. In spite of that, until the end of the twentieth century, Brazil's Africanness tended to be hidden under the Eurocentric construct of a colour-blind national identity and the myth of racial democracy. Since the 1990s, Brazil's negritude or blackness has emerged as an important source of culture, knowledge, identity and public policy. Such a reconfiguration of Brazilian identity and culture to privilege black agency challenges common assumptions in the study of the religions of Brazil, including Christianity. This article examines the impact of Afro-Brazilian spirituality and religions upon Brazilian Christianity, shedding new light on Afro-Brazilian contributions to the formation of Brazil's cultural and religious mosaic. It highlights the often-overlooked agency of Afro-Brazilians as social, religious and cultural actors who have not only resisted colonial and neocolonial efforts to whitewash Brazilian culture, but have also positively contributed to the production of culture, knowledge and identities through a dynamic relation with their African roots. Finally, focusing on Afro-Brazilian spirituality as an important shaper of Brazilian Christianity, this article advances a decolonial perspective that draws attention to the ways Brazil's black Christianity contributes to the production of counter-hegemonic forms of knowledge and knowing.

A dezassete de Abril de 1732, um homem apresentara-se voluntariamente na Inquisição de Lisboa, requisitando audiência para se confessar. Este fora Lucas Barbosa, homem natural de Ourém e ex-soldado na Bahia, em tempo possuidor de uma bolsa de Mandinga, um talismã de carácter misto resultante do intercâmbio cultural do Atlântico Português. O caso de Lucas, quando analisado, representa uma instância exemplar dos resultados da transmissão cultural e religiosa dentro do Imperio Português do século XVII, particularmente manifestada no conceito da bolsa de Mandinga, e no seu uso por um soldado da coroa.
O corrente artigo apresenta este mesmo caso, evidenciando os múltiplos e dispares aspetos culturais que o caracterizam.

Desde suas primeiras caracterizações, um aspecto central da idéia de modernidade é sua suposta ruptura com relação ao tradicional e ao religioso. Neste sentido, as religiões afro-brasileiras, por seu suposto atraso intelectual, e também a presença da religião nos espaços públicos têm se constituído como importantes pontos de partida para problematizações mais amplas acerca do lugar da religião na modernidade. A presente dissertação parte da perspectiva da Assobecaty – Associação Beneficente Cultural Africana Templo de Yemanjá para tematizar como religioso e secular encontram-se imbricados nas ações sociais empreendidas pela entidade. Especificamente, trata-se de mapear como a Assobecaty conforma-se pela articulação entre o moderno e o tradicional, e como ao longo de suas ações constituem-se espaços públicos repletos de religião.

This article analyzes the idea of person among the Yorùbás from West Africa, through the conception of orí, i.e. the head, understood by them as bearer of personality and destiny, an idea widespread in the literature on the matter of human personality and the meanings of destiny. By means of orí, we will introduce the issue of predestination among the Yorùbás and the meaning of the ritual of providing food to the head, that is, bọrí, among them, referring to Afro-Brazilian people from Candomblé. The discussion drives us to find out the object’s interpretive plurality and, at the same time, it leaves us in face of the linguistic issue of translating the concepts, a fact that influences on the very theological construction. Besides, we face the historical construction of the Yorùbá religion, notoriously a dynamic and mutable religion that is manufactured through dialogues with Christianity and Islam. Transformation processes that, by the way, may be transposed to Brazil, where the celebration of orí takes a different way from that of the African autochthon reality.

Conhecido nacionalmente como a manifestação cultural mais emblemática do Maranhão, o bumba meu boi destaca-se pela dimensão lúdica e pelo caráter religioso, o qual pode ser observado tanto em suas relações com o catolicismo popular, principalmente na devoção a São João, quanto em suas conexões com as religiões de matriz africana. Inseridas nessa religiosidade, as promessas e obrigações para com santos e encantados destacam-se, pois assumem proporções variadas e podem manifestar o sistema de trocas simbólicas existente entre brincantes e divindades. Estas relações evidenciam, através de formas criativas de devoção, a disponibilidade sincrética característica do ethos do bumba meu boi e revelam a sua atuação em dimensões diversas, reinventando tradições e impulsionando-o a cruzar fronteiras e transpor barreiras que separam mundos e crenças. Neste sentido, considerando os universos religiosos distintos, pretendo compreender como estes sistemas de crenças se conectam, se cruzam e se interceptam no bumba meu boi.
Palavras chave: Bumba meu boi; Religiosidade; Promessa; Obrigação; Dádiva.

Resumo: No imaginário candomblecista, a África assume uma posição particular, quer como lieu de mémoire, i.e., como espaço de memória e referência emocional, ligada ao desterro da escravatura, quer como recurso político, ou seja, como referência ideológica face ao idioma diacrítico de autenticidade. Nesse sentido, a África configura o horizonte último candomblecista por excelência. Pese embora o sentido operatório desta afirmação, neste texto pretendo evidenciar a forma como na cidade de Uberaba, em Minas Gerais, a comunidade candomblecista privilegia a Bahia como referência ideológica e normativa.

Palavras-chave: Candomblé; Uberaba; Bahia.

Abstract: It is well-known that Africa invokes a series of mental-emotional and political dispositions among candomblé practitioners. It configures, indeed, a truly lieu de mémoire, related to the slave trade, but also an ideological resource for narratives on authenticity. In that sense, it is clear that Africa remains the ultimate source of power for those practitioners. However, despite the validity of that statement, it is my intention to present here the ways in which Uberaba's candomblé community invokes Bahia as ideological and normative reference.

In this paper, we discuss the sociocultural influence of Candomblé in the city of Recife.
We seek to deepen our knowledge through visits to several centres of African origin (yards).
We will provide an interview with the Babalorixá Clovis of Oxum (a priest of the religion), will expose the various social benefits coming from this religious practice. Practice that is present in many important cultural aspects of our state, a good example of one of the things that we discuss would be the importance of musical events coming from the African tradition, such as Maracatu. Often due to poor education, many people see Candomblé and everything that has its roots in the African culture in a negative way.Despite this, there are also many people seeking ways to understand the precepts of African culture. One of these ways is the
music, the commitment of many babalorixás and ialorixá to introduce cultural projects into society helps in building a more prosperous country culturally. We will also address the African religiousness, citing various strands of the same, but with the main focus on the Candomblé.We used several bibliographical references, including the books: Bastide, Roger, "Candomblé from Bahia: The Nago rite, " Berkenbrock Volney J: "The experience of deities: a study of religious experience in Candomblé, Birman, Patricia "What is Umbanda" Through this study of historical research and interviews obtained in field research we concluded that the influences of the African-Brazilian culture has on the culture of Recife is much greater than we imagine, from superstition to religious practices , that few people know that have their origins in African culture, we also perceive a greater recognition of the social benefits
that the practice provides.

O presente trabalho visa abordar a fundação do Candomblé, a partir do comércio transatlântico de escravos (do Golfo da Guiné para o brasil), nos séc. XVIII e XIX, e na posterior diáspora, com os casos português e alemão, reconhecendo que tais permissasoperam em função da resposta a estímulos exteriores (processos de alteridade),pelo que a acomodação e a adaptação serão tratadas a partir das noções de ‘adaptação criativa’ (taylOr e lee, s.d.) e ‘hibridismo’ (burKe, 2003; berND, 2004). Ao mesmo tempo, importa observar tal ‘adaptação criativa’ em termos de saudosismoe referenciais imaginários em relação a África e brasil, lugares percebidos como ‘lares imaginados’ (HOWe, 1999). Considera-se que a presente reflexão se constitui da maior importância em função da transnacionalização das religiões africanas e afrodescendentes a meio dos movimentos migratórios. Tal processo não reproduz apenas mecanismos de adaptação mas também novas realidades, i. e., os agentes religiosos são também agentes de transformação social. Transnacionalização, adaptação criativa, hibridismo e mudança social, são conceitos em análise, em referência à Bahia, Lisboa e Berlim.

O presente trabalho visa abordar a fundação do Candomblé, a partir do comércio transatlântico de escravos (do Golfo da Guiné para o Brasil), nos séc. XVIII e XIX, e na posterior diáspora, com os casos português e alemão, reconhecendo que tais permissas operam em função da resposta a estímulos exteriores (processos de alteridade), pelo que a acomodação e a adaptação serão tratadas a partir das noções de ‘adaptação criativa’ (TAYLOR e LEE, s.d.) e ‘hibridismo’ (BURKE, 2003; BERND, 2004). Ao mesmo tempo, importa observar tal ‘adaptação criativa’ em termos de saudosismo e referenciais imaginários em relação a África e Brasil, lugares percebidos como ‘lares imaginados’ (HOWE, 1999).

El siguiente artículo presenta un panorama resumido de la presencia de las religiones de matriz africana en Argentina, fundamentalmente de alguna de las particularidades de su desarrollo en la ciudad de Rosario. Con el propósito de ayudar en la difusión de esta cosmología práctica altamente estigmatizada y con escasa presencia en los estudios de religión en el país, es que me propongo aquí exponer una breve genealogía de su existencia en esta región. Un culto que se encuentra en plena expansión y transformación en el presente, por lo cual estimo necesaria su revalorización como espacios de sociabilidad de subjetividades que no encuentran lugar de participación en las instituciones hegemónicas de nuestra sociedad. Con este objetivo en mente, presentaré las líneas de trabajo y las hipótesis que vengo desarrollando sobre el tema, esperando contribuir a su visibilización en el ámbito académico local.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the author examines the characteristic behavioral problems that are diagnosed as the work of the controversial spirit entity named Pomba Gira. Described in myth and song as the spirit of a woman beholden to no man: a prostitute, courtesan, demonic enchantress, or wife of seven husbands, Pomba Gira represents the antinomy of respectable Brazilian womanhood. Practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions believe that this entity can influence and even take over the bodies of the unwary or unprotected, provoking debauchery, sexual exhibitionism, and other immoral or self-destructive activities of various sorts—above all, behavior that transgresses conventional norms of gender and sexual expression. Such problems may be resolved through a protracted process of training in which the afflicted learns how to recognize, appease, and eventually control Pomba Gira, initiating a relationship that may include regularly receiving that spirit in possession trance ritua...

Este artigo é fruto dos primeiros passos da pesquisa de mestrado, e se dá a partir de uma etnografia do processo de restituição de objetos da Umbanda e do Candomblé apreendidos pela Polícia Civil do Rio de Janeiro no início da República. Ressalto de antemão a necessidade de analisar sua relevância para a atual conjuntura: Vale dedicar-se às discussões acerca das apreensões de objetos do sagrado afrorreligioso percebendo-as como fundamentais para se entender a intolerância religiosa, as persistências do racismo, além de enfatizar as controvérsias dos processos de musealização. O tema da pesquisa reside em estudar como a Polícia Civil mantém objetos sagrados em seu domínio museal, ressignificando-os como provas de crime. Outro objetivo é analisar o atual cenário de restituições de objetos africanos envolvendo países europeus e seus museus coloniais - dentre diversos casos, escolhi a negociação entre Benin e França -, no qual seja possível relacionar as metáforas coloniais persistentes, seja no caso do Museu da Polícia Civil ou no caso beninense.

This study explores Afro-Caribbean religious traditions as they strive to be accepted and respected as world religions.  The study focuses on three broadly based traditions found throughout the Caribbean, the Americas, and the world: the Òrìşà traditions, Vodun traditions of the Lwa, and Palo Mayombe traditions of the Nkisi.  This qualitative study uses diagnostic framing as its theoretical approach to understanding how the practitioners perceive factors that inhibit world religion status.  Using content analysis, this study categories written statements gathered from 71 respondents to an open-ended set of interrogatories and found that there were five meta-categories that respondents across religions agreed upon that inhibit their religions universal acknowledgement. The data supports the need for further investigations.

This article argues that Pinkster should be understood as an Atlantic Creole festival in a Dutch-American context, rather than a Dutch-African festival in an American context. It claims that the syncretic character of Pinkster did not originate in North America and that, before arriving on the American East Coast, the essence of what came to be known as Pinkster already existed as a culturally hybrid Luso-African celebration.

O presente artigo visa analisar o conceito de “religião” e suas implicações concetuais para a observação das religiões africanas, partindo do caso dos yorùbá da África Ocidental e visitando o candomblé, religião brasileira de matriz africana fecundada com o comércio de escravos. Pretende-se, então, traçar um roteiro diferente para a concetualização da experiência religiosa africana nos enfoques anteriores, procurando oferecer alternativas face às categorias clássicas de “monoteísmo”, “politeísmo” e “panteão” e observando simultaneamente o que constitui a atitude religiosa no caso yorùbá e seu descendente candomblé, a partir da ideia de que a religião nos presentes estudos de caso se faz.

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This paper aims to focus on the concept of “religion” and its conceptual implications to the observation of African religions taking the Yorùbá religious attitudes and beliefs, as well as candomblé’s, as case studies. It is our intention to trace a new itinerary in the conceptualization of African religious experiences taking the native structures as the scenery for theory. Having present the idea that religion in those contexts is made, it is intended to present alternative categories to the classic “monotheism”, “polytheism” and “pantheon”.

Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology.  77 (2017): 118–126

I put the finishing touches on this review article the morning the US election results were in. Both of the books I review here, Chad Seales' 'The Secular Spectacle' and John Collins' 'Revolt of the Saints' (which just won the Anthony Leeds Prize for Urban Ethnography), compounded by the frightening political moment we are in, call on us to reflect on our conventions of scholarly writing: both in history and anthropology. There's a little Marilyn Strathern on history thrown in for good measure...

o presente artigo pretende observar o sentido do orí, a cabeça, entre os yorùbás da África Ocidental, dando conta do complexo problema de natureza teológica subjacente à pluridimensionalidade discursiva dentro de um quadro cultural descrito como Yorùbá, quadro esse que compreende a diáspora afro-brasileira com o Candomblé. Tal pluridimensionalidade – em matéria de predestinação, fabricação e natureza do orí, e bem assim, pela diversidade de entidades religiosas para as quais o bọrí,  o ritual de alimento à cabeça mítica, se realiza – se inscreve na dimensão proposta por Berliner e Sarró de aprendizado e transmissão religiosas.

The Lux In Tenebris project is based on a short film of the fantastic thriller and terror genres, which alludes to other filmographies in the category and aims to surprise the viewer with Brazilian references to what is meant by exorcism. Throughout this document, the reader is referred to key points addressed in the plot of the audiovisual in question. In order not only to produce a terror piece, but also to use the techniques and methodologies acquired by the team over the course of Radio, TV and Internet, the project, as well as the short film, brings with it a baggage of terror, thriller, exorcism, German expressionism and Brazilian religious syncretism allusions, as well as substantiating and supporting the necessary requirements and processes for cinematographic productions of this kind in the Brazilian cultural territory.

In 1920 the Orthodox theologian Pavel Florensky presented the theory, that icons are often structured in an ‘inverted perspective’, based on theological notions, and applied for spiritual reasons. This figure has fascinated many since, well beyond the realms of history of sacred art.
It can serve as a hermeneutical tool, to recognise and to understand phenomena which regularly occur in the process of field research, not confined to realms of spirituality. In cultural and human studies as well as in science of religion, the idea of ‘objective phenomena’ that exist independently from the observer’s relation to them is particularly obsolete, as has been discussed for decades by now. This also touches a weak point of present theory of ‘aesthetics of religion’, when spiritual phenomena and experiences are reified to ‘objective’ (bodily) sensory qualities – thereby eclipsing the inner experience which surpasses the sensory, and in particular the relation between a ‘participant observer’ and his or her ‘object of study’ in the common field, which is thus created. In it, effects can be observed in both ways: The ‘object’ becomes a ‘subject’ and vice versa.
In this essay I document experiences and occurrences that evidence this mutual relation during my own field research in the realms of Umbanda and African Indigenous Religion.
It may serve as an aid, to avoid the widespread confusion between the ‘construction’ of interpretations and the claim to ‘construction’ of actual phenomena. The latter may be dismissed as overblown and ignorant of mutually constitutive relations – to remind of the implications of quantum theory in this regard.
It includes the call that any researcher should be prepared to listen to the phenomena - in the full sense of the word-  and to include this into any ‘theory’, which, after all, comes from ‘contemplation’.

“Pinkster: Um Festival Luso-Americano em Nova Iorque” Lecture in Portuguese on the annual slave performance in New York called “Pinkster” that existed until the mid-19th century. Lecture by Jeroen Dewulf at USP São Paulo, Brazil. Introduction by Marina de Mello e Souza.
Lecture by Jeroen Dewulf at the Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal. Introduction by Tiago Castela.

This paper explores the aesthetic trajectory of Abdias Nascimento in the context of his life's work, arguing that he has to be apprehended as a Quilombola warrior figure, through his entwinement of political and artistic agency. More specifically, it explores how Nascimento harnesses the creative matrix found in the lived history, myth and figuration from candomblé as a dramatist and as a painter. First, it delves into his creation of the Teatro Experimental do Negro (TEN), the first black theater in Brazil and his use of candomblé as a template of dramaturgy in his play, Sortilégio. However, the main analysis centers on his paintings, which combines candomblé symbology, along with other African cultural forms, to create culturally meaningful aesthetic forms that affirmed Afro-Brazilian subjectivity and their historical belonging in the nation and connection to the larger Africana world.

A temática do passado nos estudos afro-brasileiros tem estado acantonada às discussões de longue durée de pureza nagô, idioma diacrítico quer dos terreiros quer de parte da pesquisa especializada, veiculada tanta à herança científica da escola clássica de Nina Rodrigues e mais tarde de Roger Bastide, quanto ao que Castillo (2010) designa por “orgulho étnico dos nagôs”. Neste texto proponho observar o passado enquanto referencial normativo candomblecista, não mais intrincado a uma dialética pureza/degeneração expressa no binómio nagô/banto, mas antes em passado/presente, num vaivém temporal em que passado opera como ferramenta política de autenticidade. Nesse sentido, o Candomblé “de antigamente” é tanto um lieu de mémoire (Nora 1989) no sentido nostálgico, quanto um recurso político que depura o campo religioso afro-brasileiro do Candomblé.