Afro-Brazilian Religions Research Articles

Encounter, mixture, and syncretism from the perspective of the Afro-Brazilian religion Terecô

ABSTRACT This article seeks to ethnographically reflect on the entanglements between different religious practices through the perspective of Terecô, an Afro-Brazilian religion eminently practiced in the city of Codó, state of Maranhão, Northeastern Brazil. Specifically, it investigates the viradas (rhythm turns) that highlight the relationship between Terecô and Tambor de Mina (another Afro-Brazilian religion), to better understand the terms of these entanglements that challenge dominant trends in Brazilian Social Sciences since the nineteenth century. Terecô's incorporation of certain elements of Tambor de Mina is carried out in such a way that the relationship between the religions is established by maintaining the differences, in a dynamic that sheds light onto the notions of encounter, mixture, and syncretism. Thus, I propose an investigation of the idea of virada as mobilized by Terecô's practitioners so as to reposition the classic debate on syncretism and the entanglements between different religious practices.

Learning to learn in candomblé: notes on paths, knowledge, and the ‘education of distraction’

ABSTRACT This paper intends to reflect on some ways of learning present in Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion, and the relations between making, knowing, and being that compose this system. Based on an ethnographic experience carried out in Salvador, Bahia, the paper aims to explore the notion of path (caminho), as a way of articulating being and making, gift and initiation, to com`pose a partial and situated knowledge. In this sense, it argues that the learning system of Candomblé is a transformative process that involves a hesitantly know-how that is constituted by practical experiences and dealings with unknown forces, in a game of visibilities and invisibilities that, playing with Tim Ingold’s work, we could call an ‘education of distraction’. Finally, the paper proposes to reverberate this way of learning into anthropological practice itself, thinking of it as a partial, hesitant and transformative process that is constituted in the very experience of the encounter.

The Religious Persecution of Casa do Rei e Senhor das Alturas

ABSTRACT This essay recounts how a Candomblé terreiro in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, was harassed by a neighbor. By lodging fictitious or exaggerated complaints to the authorities, neighbors harness the power of the state to support their intolerance against Afro-Brazilian religions.

Pedra de Xangô Park: An Act of Historical Repair

ABSTRACT This essay explores an evangelical pastor's campaign against the city of Salvador's plans to name a public park after an orixá. The pastor claims that his opposition is based on the notion that Brazil, as a secular state, should not provide public funds or recognition of Afro-Brazilian religions. However, this essay argues that state-sponsored Christian parks and monuments have not faced similar opposition.

A (NÃO) contribuição da tipificação do crime de curandeirismo para a demonização das religições de matrizes africanas

The observation of the data of religious intolerance in Brazil against Afro-Brazilian religions generates curiosity about the reasons why this occurs. Inserting Criminal Law as a matter of analysis, the crime of african traditional medicine provided for in Article 284 of the Penal Code might be assessed as a possible reflection of religious racismwithin the legal system. Whereas, in order to classify the aforementioned crime, the protected legal good is public security, the concept of health privileged by the ordering system will stand out, in contrast to those adopted by african cults. By demonizing these religions, the practice of healing iscriminalized, but also a determined way of existing, being and remaining in this the world. The main objective of the research is, therefore, to verify if the typification of the healing crime contributes to the demonization of African-based religions. For that, the bibliographic research technique and the deductive method will be used. In conclusion, it was demonstrated that the law functions as an instrument to maintain the interests of a certain racial group. With the work of political and legal forces legitimizing ethnocentrism and the persecution of Afro-Brazilian religions, the typification of the crime of africn traditional medicine silences beliefs of African matrices, contributing to the increase of religious intolerance against them and perpetuating structural racism in the Brazilian legal system.

Cristofobia em confronto com as denúncias de intolerância às religiões afro-brasileiras no Brasil: 2011-2018

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a frequência de denúncias de violação ao direito à liberdade religiosa no “Brasil” entre 2011-2018, com destaque para as religiões afro-brasileiras. O estudo foi motivado pela afirmação de um suposto contexto de “cristofobia” em recente discurso de Bolsonaro na ONU e pautou-se por um caráter exploratório, descritivo e de abordagem quantitativa, a partir dos dados disponibilizados pelo Serviço Disque 100 – Direitos Humanos, do Ministério da Mulher, da Família e dos Direitos Humanos (MMFDH), em formas de planilhas com o número de registros de casos de intolerância religiosa nos diversos Estados do Brasil no período de 2011 a 2018. Foi identificado o universo de 2.862 casos. A região geográfica identificada com maior índice de denúncias foi o Sudeste 33% de casos, concentrando o maior número de registros no estado de São Paulo, com 14% de casos. O segmento religioso com mais ocorrência de casos de intolerância se constituiu de 23% proveniente das religiões afro-brasileiras. O perfil das vítimas, considerado por módulo, foi de 25% constituído de pessoas de raça/cor branca, 42% composto de pessoas do sexo feminino, 34% possuíam entre 18 a 40 anos. Foi verificado aumento na frequência de registro de denúncias de intolerância religiosa no recorte geográfico e histórico submetidos à análise, sobretudo aos adeptos afro-religiosos, sustentado elementos que indicam aversão às religiões afro-brasileiras.

Emotions and religion across the Atlantic: senses and lusophone orixás

For the past 30 years, the Afro-Brazilian religions have crossed the Atlantic, reaching Portugal. One of the aspects that the Portuguese find most appealing is the possibility of expressing their emotions freely, either through possession and the incorporation of entities whose performances are directly connected with a sense of emotional freedom, or because these religions proclaim a clear openness and acceptance of different races, sexual preferences or even other religious beliefs. Nevertheless, the process of becoming initiated as well as the ritual sequences are both strongly hierarchical, obeying norms that should not be transgressed in order to advance in one’s religious career. Split between such contradictory emotions, individuals manage them as a means to negotiate their identities within the religious group and outside of it (Wulff 2007). I will expand on the issues of emotional behavior, performance, and authenticity, connecting them with the case-study of the expansion of the Afro-Brazilian religions in Portugal. In order to do this, the performative side (Beeman 2007; Schechner and Appel 1990) of these religions and the relationship between emotions and issues of authenticity – anchored on the seminal work compiled by Thomas Fillitz and Jamie Saris in the book Debating Authenticity (2013) – will be discussed.

“Apart but Together”: Isolation, Connections and Affection Among the Members of Afro-Brazilian Religions During the Covid-19 Pandemic

What does social isolation mean for members of religious groups who constitute themselves as a family and who value meetings, physical contact and bodily experience? What strategies do they follow to face the loneliness that isolation entails? Since the middle of March 2020, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the risk of pandemic and the number of contagions of SARS-Cov-2 in Brazil was beginning to grow, most communities of Afro-Brazilian religions have adhered to social isolation in order to avoid contagion, protect their members and contribute to containing the progress of the pandemic among the population. The phrase “Apart but together”, which accompanies the shared intention of preserving life and the suspension of religious celebrations and meetings, is manifested in an intensification of virtual communications, in seminars, debates, prayers and rituals with online participation. Messages, posts, photos and videos reconstitute a network of relationships, care, affection and solidarity and reaffirm belongings and identities.

The “Ketu Nation” of Brazilian Candomblé in Historical Context

AbstractThe Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé arose during the Atlantic slave trade and has unmistakable Yorùbá influences. In the city of Salvador, the termnação ketu[Ketu nation] is used among the oldest temples in describing Yorùbá heritage. This has led some scholars to assume that the founders came from the Yorùbá kingdom by that name. This paper critically examines the idea of Kétu origins, taking as a case study the temple Ilê Axé Iyá Nassô Oká, a national historic heritage site in Brazil that is recognized by UNESCO as a site of diasporic memory. The paper shows that the first generations of leadership were dominated by people from Ọ̀yọ́ and that the termketuemerged not as an allusion to ethnic origins but perhaps as a metaphor for a heterogeneous cultural context in which Yorùbá speakers from disparate regions lived in close coexistence.

Etnobotânica das religiões afro-brasileiras: elaboração de uma proposta didática para o ensino de botânica

O presente estudo tem como objetivo refletir sobre a potencialidade da etnobotânica de religiões afro-brasileiras como ferramenta para o ensino de botânica, por meio de um ensaio teórico que realiza a elaboração de uma proposta didática neste sentido. Para tanto, o artigo discute a importância das questões étnico-raciais dentro do ensino de ciências, em uma tentativa de valorizar a formação brasileira para além do núcleo eurocêntrico, no sentido de compreender, no desenvolvimento dos processos históricos e científicos, a necessidade de um processo de descolonização na periferia do capital. Assim, foi pensada e elaborada a proposta didática, tendo como base a abordagem pedagógica dos 3 Momentos Pedagógicos. A partir das reflexões realizadas, obtém-se como resultado a elaboração de uma proposta didática que promova uma reflexão crítica sobre as questões étnico-raciais e um diálogo entre os saberes populares e científicos dentro do processo de ensino-aprendizagem.

Religious and cultural uses of plants promoting agroecological transitions in rural settlements in Brazil.

Nature is a sacred space, where the tradition and rituals of Afro-Brazilian religions are celebrated, which performance is essential for the preservation of natural resources. Traditional communities that practice Candomblé in Brazil are settled on Nature, so they value and maintain biodiversity. Our objective was to study the spatial evolution of the land use by the traditional African-based community that occupies the Quilombo AnastáciaSite, as well as to understand how their customs – related to the maintenance of health and food -and their rituals help in the conservation of agrobiodiversity. The monitoring of the evolution of land use was carried out using LANDSAT satellite images and images from Google Earth software. According to the timeline (elaborated for 1997-2019), there was substantial increase in vegetation cover. In addition, the planting of native trees, food and medicinal species, as well as the use of agroecological practices (such as implementation of agroforestry systems), promoted diversification in the property. The Quilombo Site area favors the maintenance of the people's health and dietary habits, and the culture of this traditional African-based community guided the occupation of the soil, in order to benefit the conservation of agrobiodiversity.

Redes de cuidado: enfrentamento da Covid-19 nas religiões afro-brasileiras

Members of Afro-Brazilian religions reacted immediately and unanimously to the spread of Covid-19 in Brazil, following the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO). Their strategies developed to face the different needs of their members and the population, that appeared during the crisis (sanitary and socioeconomic). They intensified communications through social networks and the Internet, expanded their social actions in the community in which they are inserted and performed rituals and prayers in order to ask for protection, healing and expulsion of Covid-19 from Earth. Acceptance and valorization of science are part of a non-exclusive medical rationality, based on ethical and cosmological values and principles transmitted and kept alive in the terreiros.

The Pentecostal War Against Afro-Brazilian ‘Demons’ – Politics, Selfhood and Shared Experience of Spiritual Work in Southeast Brazil

This article discusses the religious conflict between Afro-Brazilian and Pentecostal groups shedding light on the complex relations between cross-religious experiences and the official acknowledgement of ‘religion’ in Brazil. The study analyses devotees and clients’ experiences in the rituals of Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus and Umbanda addressing fluid selfhoods and the multiple human and other-than-human agencies in the making of individual life trajectories through ritual participation. Thus, regarding religious conflict merely through bounded identities, institutions or dogma, the study shows that behind the fortifying religious conflict between Pentecostal and Afro-Brazilian religious groups relies a politically complex, colonially framed concept of ‘religion’ which leaves out of academic and political consideration a large part of effective ritual knowledge and agency, continuously re-producing the inferior position of ‘Afro-Brazilian religions’ within the Brazilian society. The analysis in this article is based on ethnographic field research carried out in Southeast Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo during 2008-2015.

The Valley of Dawn in the Brazilian Religious Field

The Valley of Dawn is a religious movement that emerged in Brasilia in the second half of the twentieth century, founded by Neiva Chaves Zelaya (1925-1985), known as Tia Neiva (Aunt Neiva). In this movement there is an intense religious syncretism, which is denied by the believers, as well as a strong presence of elements from the Afro-Brazilian religions, such as the caboclos and pretos velhos. The purpose of this article is to understand what this movement reveals from the dynamics of the Brazilian religious field, indicating some tensions that exist, mainly from its relationship with other religions.

“Spiritual Warfare” or “Crimes against Humanity”? Evangelized Drug Traffickers and Violence against Afro-Brazilian Religions in Rio de Janeiro

Since at least 2005, drug traffickers in the cities and favelas of the state of Rio de Janeiro have been carrying out systematic and violent assaults on Afro-Brazilian religious communities. Motivated by their conversion to sects of Evangelical Christianity that regard Afro-Brazilian religions as devil worship, the traffickers have forcibly expelled devotees of these faiths from their homes and temples, destroyed shrines and places of worship, and threatened to kill priests if they continue to practice their religion. Scholars have often described this religious landscape as a “conflict” and a “spiritual war.” However, I argue that Evangelized drug traffickers and Afro-Brazilian religions are not engaged in a two-sided struggle; rather, the former is unilaterally committing gross violations of the latter’s human rights, which contravene international norms prohibiting crimes against humanity and genocide.

A EDUCAÇÃO DA TEORIA A PRÁXIS: ONDE ESTÃO AS RELIGIÕES AFRO-BRASILEIRAS?

Afro-Brazilian religions present for much of society a process of exclusion and intolerance, given that it is based and grounded on a continent that has historically been forged to leave all its culture and knowledge. This survey seeks to present the data of all dissertations (twentieth century) and theses (twentieth and twenty-first century) presented in the time lapse from 1990 to 2018, which address the theme Afro-Brazilian religions.

The Musical Experience of Diasporas: The Return of a Ghanaian Tabom Master Drummer to Bahia

This article studies the construction of transatlantic diasporic identities through musical and religious experience. The case study is of a recent visit to Bahia (Brazil) of the Ghanaian master drummer Eric Odarkwei Morton, a self-declared descendant of freed slaves who resettled from Bahia to West Africa in the nineteenth century. It explores the role of memories, beliefs, expectations, and musical aesthetics during Morton’s encounters with local musicians and devotees of Afro-Brazilian religions. I frame Morton’s visits to Afro-Brazilian Candomblé worship houses as the encounter of two worlds that idealize each other in their desire to connect with an ancestry rooted at the other side of the Atlantic. I argue that the potential of these encounters to be felt as a confirmation and a celebration of a common ancestry is actualized only in the context of musical experiences in which participants are deeply moved and feel understood.

CAPOEIRA, RELIGIÕES DE MATRIZ AFRICANA E O IMAGINÁRIO DA SOCIEDADE MARANHENSE DOS ANOS 1960/1970

Este artigo pretende discutir em um contexto específico – a cidade de São Luís, entre as décadas de 1960 e 1970 – as relações entre a capoeiragem e os cultos afro-maranhenses, estendendo ainda a análise ao imaginário da sociedade são-luisense do período. Para este fim, partimos da atuação pioneira do capoeira ludovicense Roberval Serejo – apontado como um dos responsáveis pelo ressurgimento da capoeiragem em São Luís na segunda metade do século XX –, de suas relações com o culto afro-maranhense e com os misteriosos casos de acidentes fatais ocorridos durante a construção do Porto do Itaqui (São Luís – Maranhão) nos anos 1970. Palavras-chave: Capoeira. Religiões de matriz africana. Maranhão.

Occupying New Spaces: the “Digital Turn” of Afro-Brazilian Religions During the Covid-19 Outbreak

This paper intends to analyze how Afro-Brazilian religious minorities (like Candomblé and Umbanda) are responding to the Covid-19 crisis in Brazil both at a religious and political level. Drawing a comparison between the reactions of Neo-Pentecostal churches and Afro-Brazilian religions, we will describe how the pandemic outbreak and the social distancing measures allowed Afro-religious practitioners to occupy new online spaces. In doing so, these religions found new modalities of practising rituals and transmitting sacred knowledge in the digital world. Despite the fundamental importance of bodily engagement in these religious expressions, Candomblé and Umbanda practitioners are increasing their presence online through producing different types of pedagogical, educational and ritual contents. While on the one hand, this new content aims at promoting social distancing and sanitary precautionary measures, on the other hand, it involves a restructuring of the dynamics of legitimation and power that are present in Afro-religious social structures. We will analyze these changing dynamics as consequences of the “crisis of the body” that resulted from the lockdown measures.

A diáspora africana e a resistência dos tambores: elementos da sociedade Iorubá presente nas religiões afro-brasileiras

O presente texto tem o objetivo de apresentar como as religiões afro-brasileiras representam movimentos de preservação e ressignificação da estrutura societária dos povos iorubás no Brasil. A diáspora africana, durante o período da escravidão mercantil, foi responsável pela chegada ao Brasil de milhões de africanos provenientes de vários grupos étnicos como os bantu e os iorubás. As religiões de matriz afro representaram uma forma de resistir a destruição das características religiosas, sociais e culturais desses povos. Nas comunidades de terreiro, foi desenvolvido um processo de preservação e de ressignificação das estruturas sociais, culturais e religiosas dos povos iorubás. A organização do culto, das estruturas hierárquicas, dos espaços físicos, da composição linguística e cultural presente no candomblé, no Batuque ou Nação, por exemplo, possuem marcas indeléveis dos iorubás.