Abstract
Throughout Brazil, a growing number of former Christians have been turning to Judaism in recent years. As many are not accepted as Jewish by Jewish institutions in the country, they have begun to form communities of their own in various urban centers. This paper explores the socio-religious identification practices of one such emergent community, located in Brasilia, the nation’s capital. It argues that in the Brazilian context, an understanding of religious identification requires a consideration of nationalist ideologies. It takes up Robbins’s (2004) theoretical account of conversion as a syncretic process to propose that members of the community in Brasilia continually reconcile their Jewishness with their Brazilianness. For Brazilian hopeful converts to Judaism, Jewishness and Brazilianness often are perceived to be mutually incompatible; claiming both at the same time is ideologically problematic. To manage this sense of dissonance, Brazilians who wish to become Jewish engage in a continuous semiotic negotiation between the two forms of identification.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call