Searching for Africa in Brazil
Stefania Capone
2010, Duke University Press
317 pages
THIS IS an important contribution to the study of syncretic worship in Brazil, for it suggests that there is no pure or orthodox Afro-Brazilian religion and that, instead, what has dominated in anthropological perspectives is a dominant discourse shaped by Candomblé leaders who successfully imposed their vision of the religion on anthropologists. The anthropological narratives were then taken as official accounts of religious orthodoxy by many practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions in Brazil. Based on extensive research, Capone uses the figure of the sacred African trickster Exu to explore both the continuity of Afro-Brazilian religious practice and also the tensions between discourses and rituals. – GO’T
