The problem of the construction of memory that faces the Afro-Brazilian population presents itself as more than a simple need for an identity connected to an original past, but in addition as essential, because for historical reasons their social reality has not yet reached the end of its struggle. The African composition of Brazilian culture is based on several sources of many origins peculiar to different African peoples. The memory people have of Africa is vague, generic, indefinite. (...) Though the lost ancestral past is multi-ethnic, multicultural Africa, the retrievable past is the one Brazil has succeeded in integrating into the construction of a new civilization: a past that can only be re-invented, a re-created memory. (shrink)

This Element introduces Afro-Brazilian religions and underscores the necessity for an expanded methodological framework to encompass these traditions in the philosophy of religion. It emphasizes the importance of incorporating overlooked sources like mythic narratives and ethnographies while acknowledging the pivotal role of material culture in cognitive processes. Furthermore, it advocates for adopting an embodiment paradigm to facilitate the development of a philosophy of religious practice. The Element illustrates this approach by examining phenomena often neglected in philosophical discussions on (...) religion, such as sacrifice and spirit possession, and delves into the ontological commitments and implications of these practices. It also stresses the significance of employing thick descriptions and embracing interdisciplinary dialogue to cultivate a globally inclusive philosophy of religion, capable of engaging with phenomena frequently sidelined within the mainstream. (shrink)

Since the end of the 19th century, Brazilian researchers have speculated about the phenomenon of ethnic coexistence they have witnessed in their country. How may the mixed culture that is its obvious result be explained? Should it be attributed to some sociocultural syncretism, to an interpenetration of civilizations or, quite simply, to a synthesis? Whatever the case, it is certain that cultural elements of very different origins became united in Brazil and that they have remained closely associated there in (...) spite of their disparity. The best example of this “cultural conglomerate,” if we may call it that, is without a doubt that of the Afro-Brazilian religious cults and, although numerous studies have already been devoted to them, they have a richness of content and meaning, plus a capacity for renewal, that is far from being exhaustively investigated. (shrink)

Resumen: Esta lectura propone abordar lo que hemos denominado espacio sagrado, entendiéndolo como la representación literaria de las creencias religiosas y sus manifestaciones rituales presentes en las obras Cherrufe (2008) de Ruth Fuentealba Millaguir y Um defeito de cor [2006] (2009) de Ana María Gonçalves. Planteamos que este espacio hace emerger dentro de la narrativa afrobrasileña y mapuche una sujeto femenina que en su relación con el sistema simbólico de su comunidad entreteje las marcas de género, raza y sexualidad en (...) la constitución subjetiva. Afirmamos también que mediante el vínculo entre la mujeres y lo sagrado la subjetividad que emerge en las obras analizadas se presenta como presevadora y reproductora de la cultura y sus saberes más preciados, imprescindibles para la supervivencia individual y colectiva de sus pueblos. Abstract: This reading suggests to deal with what has been denominated as holy space, understanding it as the literary representation of beliefs and and its ritual manifestations present in the works of Ruth Fuentealba Millaguir, Cherrufe (2008) and Ana Maria Gonçalves Um defeito de cor [2006] (2009). We propose that this space emerges within the Afro-Brazilian and Mapuche narrative a female individual that related with symbolic system of its community interweave the traces of genre, race and sexuality in the subjective constitution. In addition, we claim that through the link between women and the sacred, the subjectivity that emerges in the works analyzed is presented as preserving and reproducing the culture and their most precious knowledge, indispensable for the individual and collective survival of their peoples. (shrink)

Based on an extended fieldwork, the paper discusses the construction of identity in a Brazilian quilombo - a term originally used by the Portuguese authorities to juridically define the flights of the Brazilian slaves. Appealing to a Constitutional Article granting the property of the land to the descendant of the fugitive slaves, the people of Frechal (Maranhão) obtained - after complex events overshadowed by tension and violence - the expropriation of the land bought by an entrepreneur of São (...) Paulo with the precise intent to forcibly expel the local population. Founding their right on an idea of cultural authenticity and mobilizing a symbolism capable of legitimating their claims and of giving them a legal weight, they transformed themselves from object of slavery, discrimination and racism to ethno-political subjects. Proceeding from the analysis of this paradigmatic case, the article shows how the term quilombo can be "re-semanticized" in order to be applicable to the contemporary situations of the Afro-Brazilian population. The actuality of the word, transferred from its original juridical meaning of colonial matrix, is founded on the idea that the quilombo s are not isolated survivals of the past to honor in the memory of the heroes that fought against slavery. Rather they represent true projects of a new political order, nuclei of the contemporary resistance founded on the collective property of the land. As such the quilombos are considered as real counterpoints to the neoliberal expansion in the rural areas. (shrink)

This thesis is a narrative on how different groups struggle for the understanding provided to the Afro-Brazilian religions of the process promoted by the Brazilian State with the objective of a nationality configuration. An ongoing process which has no precise date for its beginning. The end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, when the debate on the construction of a nation ideal, the Brazilian nation, starts to emerge, mark the start of the (...) reflection presented in this thesis, which spans the 20th century, anchoring in the present times. It is therefore a reflection about a historic process according to the social sciences, especially anthropology. An issue spans the entire narrative: under which definition of religion was it possible to embrace such a religious segment in the public space? Instead of “definition”, in the singular form, it would be better to use "definitions", which varies throughout the process insofar as the Afro-Brazilian religions trace their passage from religion to culture, from culture to religion. The passage is a privileged moment of observation in which arguments that legitimize the presence of the Afro-Brazilian religious in the public space, are formulated. Arguments which contradicts, congregates, juxtapose themselves and are expressed in the debate about the Brazilian cultural heritage constitution. Thus, the formulation and execution of the public heritage policy, regarding the Afro-Brazilian religions is emphasized in the narrative, which also focus on the public racial policy, trying to present the articulations of the black movement and Afro-religious movement in the construction of these arguments. Considering the articulations not only in a national ground as well as in a local ground, in this case, the city of Belo Horizonte. (shrink)

Resumo : Este texto, bem como as pesquisas que realizamos, tem como meta dar visibilidade às leituras literárias destinadas ao público infantil e juvenil, que enfatizem o tema étnico-racial, ou ainda, títulos que incluam a real participação de personagens negras, costumes afro-brasileiros e informações culturais produtoras de identificação entre o leitor e a narrativa, contribuindo, assim, com as mudanças atuais na história da educação brasileira. Neste texto, apresentamos seis títulos da Editora SM, que, em seu catálogo editorial para 2008/2009, (...) dos 173 títulos publicados, 20 títulos trazem a presença da cultura africana e afro-brasileira. Dos 20, optou-se pela análise de cinco títulos. Da análise desses títulos, constatou-se, acima de tudo, que um dos caminhos para o entendimento e a consciência acerca da pluralidade cultural está também na apropriação da leitura literária produtora de identidade e inclusão social. Palavras-chave : Literatura infantil. Cultura africana. Cultura afro-brasileira. Étnicoracial.: This text, as well as research we have conducted, aims to promote literary readings meant for children and youngsters which focus on racial and ethnic issues, or titles which effectively include black characters, Afro-Brazilian customs and cultural information leading the reader to identify with the narrative and, consequently, helping promote changes in the current Brazilian education history. To pursue these goals, we present six titles published by Editora SM , whose 2008/ 2009 catalog contains 20 titles (out of 173) incorporating elements of the African and Afro-Brazilian culture. From the 20 titles, we selected five to be analyzed. The main finding is that one way of gaining understanding and awareness of cultural plurality is also by incorporating literary readings which promote identity and social inclusion. Keywords : Children’s literature. African culture. Culture afro-brazilian. Racial and ethnic issues. (shrink)

Sociological accounts usually emphasise the primacy of phenotype (cor, colour) over ancestry for orienting concepts of ‘race’ in Brazil. In this paper, I present an alternative account of the cultural and political significance of ancestry in contemporary Brazil, drawing on qualitative interviews conducted with 50 Brazilians who had recently taken personalised DNA ancestry tests. The interviewees’ attitudes towards their ancestry are interpreted in relation to Brazil’s longstanding national myth of mestiçagem and the history of eugenic Whitening ideologies (ideologias do branqueamento) (...) that have sought to erase traces of Brazil’s African origins. However, they are also interpreted also against the backdrop of contemporary Black Movement activism that aims to actively recovering Afro-Brazilian histories and memories from these processes of erasure. (shrink)

A diversidade dos cultos e práticas religiosas afro-brasileiras e a consequente multiplicidade das suas experiências já foram ressaltadas pelos estudiosos do fenômeno principalmente na virada do milênio. Propomos-nos nesse texto a discutir de que forma essas religiões conseguiram preservar traços marcantes das culturas e crenças passadas de geração em geração e ao mesmo tempo, modernizar suas práticas e modos de vivenciar a experiência religiosa uma vez que precisam adaptar-se aos novos tempos e, portanto, a novas expectativas e anseios dos (...) praticantes. O cenário em que estabelecemos este debate é o estado de Pernambuco, mais particularmente as religiões afro-brasileiras nesse estado. O exercício metodológico aqui realizado parte das nossas experiências de campo, juntamente com entrevistas realizadas, somadas as reflexões teóricas a partir das quais chegamos a compreensão que o “Candomblé” em Pernambuco se moderniza tentado conservar as suas tradições. As práticas religiosas estão mais abertas, mais espetacularizadas, agora também fazem parte do patrimônio histórico da sociedade. Palavras-chave: Modernização. Fenômeno religioso. Espetacularização. Cultura. Candomblé.The diversity of Afro-Brazilian cults and religious practices as well as the resulting multiplicity of its experiences has already been highlighted by researchers of the religious phenomenon, mainly in the turning of the millennium. In this text we propose to discuss in which way those religions were able to preserve hallmarks of the cultures and beliefs passed on through generations and at the same time modernize its practices and ways of living the religious experience once they need to adapt to the new times and, therefore, to new expectations and wishes of the believers. The scenario in which we establish this debate is the state of Pernambuco, particularly the Afro-Brazilian religions in this state. The methodological exercise herein fulfilled comes from our field experiences, alongside with interviews made, and added to the theoretical reflections from which we arrive to the comprehension that the “Candomblé” in Pernambuco modernizes itself by trying to preserve its traditions. The religious practices are more open, more spetacularized, and now it is also a part of society’s historical heritage. Keywords: Modernization. Religious Phenomenon. Spetacularization. Culture. Candomblé. (shrink)

The Afro-Brazilian connections between the coast of West Africa and Brazil date back to the transatlantic slave trade and the Muslim uprising in Bahia in 1933. After this major rebellion, many former slaves returned to West Africa bearing a large Brazilian cultural imprint consisting of architectural skills, culinary traditions, and song and dance. They also brought back Brazilian names and cosmopolitan outlooks. From Africa, enslaved Africans carried with them to Brazil philosophical and cosmological outlooks and indeed, (...) culture generally. Some of these cross-fertilizations are what are interrogated in this intellectual and cultural exchange. (shrink)

Theology as a science reflects the phenomena that in some way constitute the experience of faith in society, that is, looking at the world and the various periods of history with the help of the various sciences: anthropology, the sciences of religion and sociology. With the black traffic of the African continent, came the various customs lived in Africa: culture, religiosity, African myths, beliefs in the Orixás, all these elements constituted the Brazilian cultural imaginary. Thus syncretism arises as a (...) form of resistance and survival of faith. The Church with the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar declarations opens a new way of being in the world, valuing dialogue with other religions and cultures. (shrink)

A educação do negro na imprensa paulista do fim do século XIX Resumo: O presente artigo é parte de uma pesquisa que contempla os projetos para a educação dos ingênuos veiculados na imprensa paulista entre a promulgação da Lei do Vente Livre e os anos subsequentes à abolição da escravidão. Tomando como pressuposto que as ideias são produtos culturais gestados em redes de sociabilidade, analisamos de que maneira as noções acerca de raça e modernização relacionavam-se às propostas educativas para os (...) filhos de escravas na imprensa, suporte material privilegiado para tal circulação de ideias. Trabalhando com três periódicos que julgamos representativos dos segmentos identificados como “imprensa branca”, “imprensa negra” e “imprensa abolicionista”, tidos como fonte e objeto, notamos diferenças substanciais na abordagem relativa ao tema, mesmo identificando o trânsito de colaboradores entre espaços de sociabilidade comuns.Palavras-chave: História da Educação. Raízes da educação brasileira. Cultura afro-brasileira. Education of black people in the press of São Paulo during 19th century: This article is a part of a research that intends to present the educational projects for slave’s children published in the São Paulo press between the promulgation of free womb law and the first years after the liberty of slaves, as a part of our master thesis. Thus, we analised how the relations between ideas of race and modernity and the education proposals for slave’s children were presented in the press, having the premise that ideas are cultural products from sociability networks and the journals the material pillar for the ideas’ circulation. Contemplated as historical source and research object, tree journals we consider representative of kinds of press named as “white press”, “black press” and “abolitionist press” were analyzed, in which we notice distinctive differences, although it is noteworthy that collaborators sometimes were in the same sociability places. Keywords: History of education. Roots of Brazilian education. Afro-Brazilian culture La educación del negro en la prensa paulista de finales del siglo XIX Resumen: El presente artículo, como parte de una investigación académica más amplia, abarca los proyectos para la educación de los ingenuos vehiculados en la prensa paulista entre la promulgación de la Ley del Vientre Libre y los años subsiguientes a la abolición de la esclavitud. Tenido como presupuesto que las ideas son productos culturales criados en redes de sociabilidad, analizamos de qué manera las ideas acerca de la raza y de la modernización se referían a las propuestas educativas para los hijos de las esclavas en tres vehículos de la prensa, suporte material privilegiado para tal circulación de ideas. Tomando para análisis tres jornales que consideramos representativo de lo que identificamos como “prensa branca”, “prensa negra” y “prensa abolicionista”, entendido como fuente y objeto histórico, notamos diferencias substanciales en la abordaje relativa al tema, aunque tenido identificado el tránsito de colaboradores entre los espacios de sociabilidad comunes.Palabras clave: Historia de la Educación. Raíces de la educación brasileña. Cultura afro-brasileña Data de registro: 24/02/2019 Data de aceite: 29/10/2020 Apoio: CAPES. (shrink)

RESUMO Este artigo analisa a peça Mãe, de José de Alencar, que tem por cenário o Rio de Janeiro da segunda metade do séc. XIX, retratando a escravidão africana doméstica. Fundamenta-se nas ideias de Bakhtin e do Círculo, focalizando as vozes sociais sobre a escravidão presentes nas falas das personagens. A investigação leva o leitor a perceber os posicionamentos sobre a escravidão presentes no cotidiano nacional que migram para o interior do drama alencariano. Também se mobilizaram discursos historiográficos do século (...) XX que estabelecem dialogia com a obra alencariana. As falas retratam as personagens ora submetidas ao regime escravista, ora em situação autonômica, representando a resistência ao cativeiro. A leitura da peça é importante para as gerações atuais, visto que a cultura escravocrata perdura em nossa sociedade. ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the drama Mãe, written by Jose de Alencar. The narrative takes place in Rio de Janeiro in the second half of nineteenth-century and portrays domestic African slavery. The theoretical background is based on the ideas of Bakhtin and the Circle, focusing on the social discourses about slavery in Brazilian society present in the characters’ speeches. This investigation leads readers to perceive the positions on slavery that society supported and that penetrate Mãe. Some historical discourses written in the twentieth century are analyzed, offering a dialogical dimension to Alencar’s play. The characters’ voices portray either their submission to slavery or their autonomy, the latter representing their resistance to captivity. Reading this drama today is important because of the slave culture that still prevails in our society. (shrink)

This article is a response to the 1999 article `On the Cunning of Imperialist Reason' by Pierre Bourdieu and Loïc Wacquant, in which US intellectuals such as myself were accused of engaging in `imperialist reason' through scholarly and institutional efforts to impose a US paradigm of racial relations upon Brazilian society and scholarship. This article makes three principal points in relation to Bourdieu and Wacquant's charges. First, their critique relies on presumptions and critical analytical methods which privilege the nation-state (...) and culture as the sole object for comparative analysis, and, second, as a consequence ignore how Afro-Brazilian politics and the US civil rights movement intersect within the political contexts and histories of transnational black politics. The intersecting affiliations of transnational black politics across territorial and nation-state boundaries problematize any characterization of international and inter-state relations as the inevitable interaction of politically discrete, territorially sovereign entities. Bourdieu and Wacquant's self-entrapment within the analytic category of the territorial nation leads them to imprison and caricature US African-American politics and thought within the geographic boundaries of the USA. Their assertions, however, provide an opportunity to consider the so-called US civil rights movement within the larger context of black struggles for racial equality in various parts of the world. Third, Bourdieu and Wacquant's attack is in some ways consistent with Wacquant's demonstrated habit of decontextualizing black cultural production and presenting such decontextualization as a virtue or strength, as evidenced in some of his writings on boxing in the United States. This final linkage is crucial, I believe, in understanding how the indiscriminate use of sociological categories and the refusal to engage the specific peculiarities of the tensions between politics and culture in Brazil are symptomatic of a wider misrecognition of black agency more generally in Wacquant's writings. (shrink)

In this paper, we take our cue from Kevin Schilbrack’s admonishment that the philosophy of religion needs to take religious practices seriously as an object of investigation. We do so by offering Afro-Brazilian traditions as an example of the methodological poverty of current philosophical engagement with religions that are not text-based, belief-focused, and institutionalized. Anthropologists have studied these primarily orally transmitted traditions for nearly a century. Still, they involve practices, such as offering and sacrifice as well as spirit (...) possession and mediumship, that have yet to receive attention from philosophers. We argue that this is not an accident: philosophers have had a highly restricted diet of examples, have not looked at ethnography as source material, and thus still need to put together a methodology to tackle such practices. After elucidating Schilbrack’s suggestions to adopt an embodiment paradigm and apply conceptual metaphor theory and the extended mind thesis to consider religious practices as thoughtful, we offer criticism of the specifics of his threefold solution. First, it assumes language is linear; second, it takes a problematic view of the body; and third, it abides by a misleading view of the “levels” of cognition. We conclude that the philosophy of religion should adopt enactivism to understand religious practices as cognitive enterprises. (shrink)

A Amazônia constituiu-se, ao longo de sua formação histórica e sociocultural, em importante território de crenças em saberes de cura que expressam interculturalidades entre humanos e sobrenaturais. Nas fronteiras que separam e interligam o período colonial e os tempos contemporâneos, fios de memórias escritas e orais trazem à tona experiências em que religiosidades nativas, coloniais e diaspóricas se conformam em profunda bricolagem com a natureza, erigindo um panteão de divindades afroindígenas na região. Neste artigo, sob a orientação teórica dos Estudos (...) Culturais, do Pensamento Pós-Colonial e da Antropologia das Religiões, exploramos diálogos realizados com memórias de um pai de santo, um curandeiro, uma irmã consagrada e uma “pajé”, além de percepções de um sacerdote católico e escritos de uma outra pajé. A análise dessas fontes evidencia que crenças em saberes de cura, aspectos constituintes das cosmologias afroindígenas, traduzem modos específicos com os quais populações amazônicas, com destaque para a Amazônia Marajoara, lidam com encantados, espíritos, santos, orixás em seu fazer religioso. Por esse ângulo, a cultura é apreendida como território de experiências intersticiais e a natureza se refaz como paisagem cultural, pois sofre intervenções e interfere na configuração do sistema religioso local. Palavras-chave : Saberes de Cura. Natureza. Afroindígena. Interculturalidade. Amazônia Marajoara.The Amazon has been constituted, throughout its historical and socio-cultural formation, in an important area of beliefs towards healing knowledges that express interculturalism between the humans and the supernatural. Within the borders that separate and connect the colonial and contemporary times, written and oral memories bring up experiences where the native, colonial and diasporic religiosity configure themselves into a deep tinkering with nature and erect a pantheon of Afroindigenous deities in the region. In this article, under the theoretical guidance of Cultural Studies, Postcolonial Thought and Anthropology of Religions, we explore dialogues conducted with memories of a saint father, a medicine man, a Catholic nun and a “Pajé” (a female shaman or witch-doctor), besides the perceptions of a Catholic priest and writings of another female Shaman. The analysis of these sources shows that beliefs in healing knowledges, constituent aspects of Afro-indigenous cosmologies, translate specific modes with which Amazonian populations, especially the Marajoara Amazon ones, deal with enchanted beings, spirits, saints, African orishas in their religious practices. From this perspective, culture is perceived as a territory of interstitial experiences and nature is remade as a cultural landscape, once it suffers interventions and also interferes within the local religious system configuration. Keywords : Healing Knowledges. Nature. Afroindigenous. Interculturalism. Marajoara Amazon. (shrink)

Carolina Maria de Jesus, Abdias Nascimento, and Lélia Gonzalez are presented in this essay as Afro-Brazilian existentialist thinkers, whose global significance lies in their outlining philosophical interpretations of Brazil that center racial relations in the formation of the nation. By combining accounts of the lives and intellectual contributions of these thinkers, one can understand the core of each of their projects, whether in philosophical literature, sociological study of ethnic-racial relations, or philosophical anthropology. Part of a line of thought (...) in which the terms “black” and “existence” are put together, Jesus, Nascimento, and Gonzalez exemplarily proposed practices of decolonial knowledge production based on the notion that it is possible with the struggle for freedom and justice to reverse power structures that hierarchize human beings. (shrink)

In Cameroon, a monumental "statue of liberty" is made from scrap metal. In Congo, a thriving popular music incorporates piercing screams and carnal dances. When these and other instantiations of the aesthetics of Africa and its diasporas are taken into account, how are ideas of beauty reconfigured? Scholars and artists take up that question in this invigorating, lavishly illustrated collection, which includes more than one hundred color images. Exploring sculpture, music, fiction, food, photography, fashion, and urban design, the contributors engage (...) with and depart from canonical aesthetic theories as they demonstrate that beauty cannot be understood apart from ugliness. Highlighting how ideas of beauty are manifest and how they mutate, travel, and combine across time and distance, continental and diasporic writers examine the work of a Senegalese sculptor inspired by Leni Riefenstahl's photographs of Nuba warriors; a rich Afro-Brazilian aesthetic incorporating aspects of African, Jamaican, and American cultures; and African Americans' Africanization of the Santería movement in the United States. They consider the fraught, intricate spaces of the urban landscape in postcolonial South Africa; the intense pleasures of eating on Réunion; and the shockingly graphic images on painted plywood boards advertising "morality" plays along the streets of Ghana. And they analyze the increasingly ritualized wedding feasts in Cameroon as well as the limits of an explicitly "African" aesthetics. Two short stories by the Mozambican writer Mia Couto gesture toward what beauty might be in the context of political failure and postcolonial disillusionment. Together the essays suggest that beauty is in some sense future-oriented and that taking beauty in Africa and its diasporas seriously is a way of rekindling hope. Contributors. Rita Barnard, Kamari Maxine Clarke, Mia Couto, Mark Gevisser, Simon Gikandi, Michelle Gilbert, Isabel Hofmeyr, William Kentridge, Dominique Malaquais, Achille Mbembe, Cheryl-Ann Michael, Celestin Monga, Sarah Nuttall, Patricia Pinho, Rodney Place, Els van der Plas, Pippa Stein, Françoise Vergès. (shrink)

Portuguese enclaves in Brazil and Angola maintained bilateral trade and cultural exchanges from the sixteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century. While in Brazil the growth of the mulatto population appears as a key feature of Luso-Brazilian colonialism, and Afro-Brazilians have come to constitute the majority of the current Brazilian population, mulattos never exceeded 2 per cent of the Angolan population prior to the 1970s. And yet Luso-Brazilian miscegenation eventually became the bedrock of ‘lusotropicalism’, an (...) essential component of Portugal's colonial ideology in the second half of the twentieth century. To understand these paradoxes, beyond the demographic figures, this chapter examines the historical processes concerning mulattos as a group on both sides of the South Atlantic. Among its conclusions is that miscegenation is a necessary but insufficient condition for the growth of a mulatto population. (shrink)

In the final pages of Chapter V of Afro-Brazilian Religions Roger Bastide sees, at a given moment in the socio-religious evolution of Brazil, a process of social disorganization which in its extent affects not only blacks but also poor white nationals and stranded immigrants.* As generator of a “ social marginalization,” this process could only be the passage through “a moment of transition” characterized by “the exaggerated speed of change in the country.” According to Bastide, an “organic period” (...) follows: with the “proletarization of the blacks, the assimilation of the immigrants, the general rise in the standard of living of the masses, other phenomena of cultural and social reintegration will appear.” On the religious level the “spiritism of umbanda“ is the expression of this new phase. (shrink)

This article aims to problematize, through the theoretical contributions of the post-colonial studies, the catholic church’s colonization project towards the Amapaense Amazon’s popular catholicism - such as the Myth of Cobra Grande - constituted as a project evolved around eurocentric and judeo-christian assumptions to the detriment of afro-amerindian cultural, identity and religious expressions, of catholic communities in the urban and rural areas of the brazilian Amazon. The amazonian population develops strategies of resistance and re-existence in order to maintain (...) their religious traditions around festa dos santos, pilgrimages, festivities, rosaries, quermesses, and other activities as forms of origins establishment or origins return for the foundation of a narrative identity.. (shrink)

Husserl and Spatiality is an exploration of the phenomenology of space and embodiment, based on the work of Edmund Husserl. Little known in architecture, Husserl's phenomenology of embodied spatiality established the foundations for the works of later phenomenologists, including Maurice Merleau-Ponty's well-known phenomenology of perception. Through a detailed study of his posthumously published and unpublished manuscripts, DuFour examines the depth and scope of Husserl's phenomenology of space. The book investigates his analyses of corporeity and the 'lived body,' extending to questions (...) of intersubjective, intergenerational, and historical spatial experience, what DuFour terms the 'environmentality' of space. Combining in-depth architectural philosophical investigations of spatiality with a rich and intimate ethnography, Husserl and Spatiality speaks to themes in social and cultural anthropology from a theoretical perspective that addresses spatial practice and experience. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Brazil, DuFour develops his analyses of Husserl's phenomenology through spatial accounts of ritual in the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé. The result is a methodological innovation and unique mode of spatial description that DuFour terms a 'phenomenological ethnography of space.' The book's profoundly interdisciplinary approach makes an incisive contribution relevant to academics and students of architecture and architectural theory, anthropology and material culture, and philosophy and environmental aesthetics. (shrink)

The architecture of mosques in West Africa, specifically southwestern Nigeria, evidences the input of Africans who were involved with the design of the Baroque churches of Bahia, Brazil.

As discussões a respeito do sagrado na contemporaneidade têm ganhado relevância ao considerarmos as novas perspectivas que se abrem com a inclusão de alguns temas relativos à diversidade cultural e religiosa na sociedade brasileira. Cada dia é perceptível o crescente espaço que o sagrado ocupa na vida cotidiana das pessoas comuns. A presença do sagrado no cotidiano da cultura brasileira é uma marca que realça um relevante aspecto da identidade nacional. A cultura brasileira é uma cultura plural. Para além das (...) matrizes indígenas e européias, existe uma grande variedade cultural no âmbito da africanidade. O presente artigo objetiva analisar como esse elemento sagrado de caráter afro-brasileiro aparece nos enredos das escolas de samba do Rio de Janeiro durante os carnavais de 2011 e 2012. Nosso referencial são as letras dos sambas-enredos das escolas dos grupos C, D, e E que desfilam na Intendente Magalhães, subúrbio do rio de Janeiro. Palavras-chave: Religiosidade. Africana. Sagrado. Carnaval. Rio de Janeiro.The discussions about the sacred in contemporaneity have gained importance in considering new opportunities opening up with the inclusion of issues related to cultural and religious diversity in Brazilian society. It is noticeable the growing space that sacred plays in everyday life of ordinary people. The presence of the sacred in everyday Brazilian culture is a mark that highlights an relevant aspect of national identity. Brazilian culture is a plural culture. In addition to the indigenous and European origin, there is a great cultural variety in the scope of Africanity. This article aims to analyze how this sacred element of Afro-Brazilian characteristic appears in plots of samba schools in Rio de Janeiro during the carnivals of 2011 and 2012. Our references are the lyrics of the samba schools’ plots of groups C, D, and E, which parade on Intendente Magalhães Street, in a suburban area of Rio de Janeiro. Key words: African religiosity. Sacred. Carnival. Rio de Janeiro. (shrink)

In Cameroon, a monumental “statue of liberty” is made from scrap metal. In Congo, a thriving popular music incorporates piercing screams and carnal dances. When these and other instantiations of the aesthetics of Africa and its diasporas are taken into account, how are ideas of beauty reconfigured? Scholars and artists take up that question in this invigorating, lavishly illustrated collection, which includes more than one hundred color images. Exploring sculpture, music, fiction, food, photography, fashion, and urban design, the contributors engage (...) with and depart from canonical aesthetic theories as they demonstrate that beauty cannot be understood apart from ugliness. Highlighting how ideas of beauty are manifest and how they mutate, travel, and combine across time and distance, continental and diasporic writers examine the work of a Senegalese sculptor inspired by Leni Riefenstahl’s photographs of Nuba warriors; a rich Afro-Brazilian aesthetic incorporating aspects of African, Jamaican, and American cultures; and African Americans’ Africanization of the Santería movement in the United States. They consider the fraught, intricate spaces of the urban landscape in postcolonial South Africa; the intense pleasures of eating on Réunion; and the shockingly graphic images on painted plywood boards advertising “morality” plays along the streets of Ghana. And they analyze the increasingly ritualized wedding feasts in Cameroon as well as the limits of an explicitly “African” aesthetics. Two short stories by the Mozambican writer Mia Couto gesture toward what beauty might be in the context of political failure and postcolonial disillusionment. Together the essays suggest that beauty is in some sense future-oriented and that taking beauty in Africa and its diasporas seriously is a way of rekindling hope. Contributors. Rita Barnard, Kamari Maxine Clarke, Mia Couto, Mark Gevisser, Simon Gikandi, Michelle Gilbert, Isabel Hofmeyr, William Kentridge, Dominique Malaquais, Achille Mbembe, Cheryl-Ann Michael, Celestin Monga, Sarah Nuttall, Patricia Pinho, Rodney Place, Els van der Plas, Pippa Stein, Françoise Vergès. (shrink)

Bodies of afro descendant women carry not only the historical marks of suffering and dispossession. For they are also told stories of resistance, faith and ancestry, and as social constructions, such bodies are presented as drawings of the cultural diversity that permeates individual and collective identities. Thus, this paper has the approaches around the body beyond the biological and discusses further socio-cultural marks on afro descendant feminist bodies, making allusions and images appear in Brazilian literature and speeches (...) on such bodies. (shrink)

Despite secular trends in some countries, prestige-based authority in the form of religious leadership remains hugely influential in the everyday lives of millions of people around the world. Here, the costs and benefits of religious leadership are explored in an urban setting in northeastern Brazil. An economic game, within-group cooperation questionnaires, and social network analyses were carried out among adherents of an Afro-Brazilian religion. Results reveal that leaders display high levels of religious commitment and disproportionally provide cooperative services (...) to group members. On the other hand, initiates cooperate less than leaders but do not differ in levels of received cooperation or social cohesion measures. This may indicate some level of exploitation or free-riding. Demographic and group variables also appear to play an important role in the degree of social cohesion a group achieves. These findings are discussed in the context of non-Western urban settings where religious leadership may represent both an alternative to social advancement and a crucial source of material aid, social support, and a strong sense of community. (shrink)

The avant-garde has been popular for some time, but its popularity has tended to fly under the radar. This ¿popular avant-garde,¿ conceived as the meeting ground of the avant-garde and popular, avoids the divorce of art and praxis of which the avant-garde has been accused. The Popular Avant-Garde takes stock of the debates about both the ¿historical¿ (¿modernist¿) and posterior avant-gardes, and sets them in relation to popular culture and art forms. With a critical introduction that examines the concepts of (...) ¿the avant-garde,¿ ¿the popular,¿ and ¿the popular avant-garde,¿ the series of essays analyzes the way in which the avant-garde employs popular genres for political purposes, as well as how the popular acquires a critical function with respect to the avant-garde. Each of the volume¿s three sections considers a different aspect of the productive exchange between the avant-garde and popular: the popular avant-garde as a culturally hybrid and cross-border phenomenon; the play between the popular avant-garde and developments in media and technology; and the popular avant-garde¿s upending of conventional ideas about ¿the people¿ and ¿the popular.¿ The Popular Avant-Garde takes a fresh look at the now canonical Dadaist, Futurist, and Surrealist movements from the perspectives of gender and sexuality, and cultural and critical theory, while at the same time exploring less well-known avant-garde work in literature, film, television, music, photography, dance, sculpture, and the graphic arts. This volume¿s coverage of the American and Afro-American, Luso-Brazilian and Latin-American, East-European, and Scandinavian avant-gardes, in addition to the vanguards of Spain and other parts of Western Europe, will appeal to all those interested in avant-garde and popular art forms. (shrink)

Although there are many, mostly male, contemporary writers in Brazil whose narratives of urban violence and social inequality implicitly reflect the impact and legacy of slavery on contemporary society, it is interesting that this shameful period, and shockingly brutal events which seem to prove wrong the myths of gentle colonization and harmonious racial democracy, should be chosen as subject matter by four women writers. While very different novels, Adriana Lisboa’s Os Fios da Memória [The Threads of Memory], Conceição Evaristo's Ponciá (...) Vicêncio, Ana Maria Gonçalves's Um Defeito de Cor [A Defect in Colour] and Tatiana Salem Levy's Paraíso [Paradise] all deal frankly with the horrors of slavery and its aftermaths from the point of view of the most vulnerable member of colonial society: the enslaved African woman. This article analyses the ways in which these writers claim justice for their characters and remind readers that those excluded from official histories had names, faces and voices. (shrink)

Resumen: En el presente análisis proponemos una lectura del poemario Poemas da recordação e outros movimentos(2008) de Conceição Evaristo desde una perspectiva de la retórica subalterna, entendiendo lo anterior como la emergencia literaria de otras formas subjetivas. En este sentido afirmamos que en el poemario en análisis la subjetividad de la hablante se construye mediante la voz y el cuerpo femenino, afirmando la diferencia como sustento subjetivo. Abstract: In this analysis it is proposed a reading of the poetry collection of (...) Conceição Evaristo, Poemas da recordação e outros movimentos(2008) from subaltern rhetoric perspective. Understanding the aforementioned as the literary emergence of other subjective forms. In this regard, it is stated that in the poetry collection analyzed, the speaker’s subjectivity is constructed through the voice and female body, affirming difference as subjective sustenance. (shrink)

We report the results of a cross-cultural investigation of person-body reasoning in the United Kingdom and northern Brazilian Amazon (Marajó Island). The study provides evidence that directly bears upon divergent theoretical claims in cognitive psychology and anthropology, respectively, on the cognitive origins and cross-cultural incidence of mind-body dualism. In a novel reasoning task, we found that participants across the two sample populations parsed a wide range of capacities similarly in terms of the capacities’ perceived anchoring to bodily function. Patterns (...) of reasoning concerning the respective roles of physical and biological properties in sustaining various capacities did vary between sample populations, however. Further, the data challenge prior ad-hoc categorizations in the empirical literature on the developmental origins of and cognitive constraints on psycho-physical reasoning (e.g., in afterlife concepts). We suggest cross-culturally validated categories of “Body Dependent” and “Body Independent” items for future developmental and cross-cultural research in this emerging area. (shrink)

Automated neuropsychiatric batteries have been used in research and clinical practice, including for chronic diseases, such as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. The Pediatric Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics battery, originally developed for use in American-English speaking individuals, allows tracking of cognitive functions. It can be applied to people over 9 years old. The aim of this study was to translate and present initial validation data from the Ped-ANAM into Brazilian-Portuguese. We translated the battery according to Beaton’s guidelines. Psychometric properties were tested, (...) internal consistency was analyzed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, test-retest reliability by the intraclass correlation coefficient. Further, we measured the test execution speed at both times as a temporal stability. Principal component analysis was used for structural validity. Evidence of construct validity was assessed through assessment of the relationships with the Wechsler Intelligence Scales. All participants prior to the start of study related activities signed an informed consent form approved by the local ethics committee. A sample of 230 individuals [mean of age: 23 years; 65% females] was included; a subset of 51 individuals [mean of age: 18 years, 59% female] completed the Ped-ANAM twice to assess test-retest reliability, and another subset of 54 individuals [mean of age: 20.4 years; 67% female] completed the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children and Adult for assessment of the Ped-ANAM’s construct validity. Our results suggest that the internal consistency of the Ped-ANAM and its subtest test-retest reliability were excellent. There was no clustering in the Principal Components Analysis, suggestive of non-grouping of the evaluated variables. Construct validity assessment to the Wechsler Scales showed expected ranges of low to strong correlations. We concluded that, based on the results of this study, a cross-culturally validated Brazilian-Portuguese version of the Ped-ANAM has been developed and it is a reliable tool for the screening cognitive function. (shrink)

The Brazilian ayahuasca religions, Santo Daime, Barquinha, and União do Vegetal, have increasingly sought formal recognition by government agencies in Brazil and other countries to guarantee their legal use of ayahuasca, which contains DMT, a substance that is listed. This article focuses on new alliances and rifts that have emerged between and among different ayahuasca groups as they have sought and in some cases achieved formal recognition and legitimacy at the state and national levels in Brazil and abroad. It (...) presents a historical overview of the origin of the main ayahuasca religions, and their connections to the Amazon region and the state of Acre in particular, where the political environment has facilitated petitions seeking the elevation of ayahuasca as cultural and historical heritage in Acre and Brazil. This process has resulted in the active selection of certain symbolic, cultural, and historical elements and subtle changes in the ways various ayahuasca groups represent themselves in the public sphere. It also resulted in the reconfiguration of political alliances and a recasting of the historical facts regarding origins. The article reflects on notions of origin, place, authenticity, and tradition throughout the ongoing transformation of ayahuasca from “dangerous drug” to state and national heritage. (shrink)

Background: A short version of the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale comprising only re-experiencing symptom items has been recently validated on Japanese adults. This short-version-PDS had good psychometric properties among Japanese adults with and without posttraumatic stress disorder. The aim of this study was to translate and culturally validate the short-version-PDS for the Brazilian sociolinguistic context.Methods: A translation of the short-version-PDS was performed based on established guidelines. We enrolled 53 patients with PTSD as a potential comorbidity. The translation and cross-cultural adaptation (...) of the short-version-PDS included forward and back-translation by a Japanese Brazilian researcher and a certified translator; synthesis was achieved by consensus, backward translation, pilot test, and finalization. Content validity coefficient was used to assess quality of adaptation. Internal consistency was calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Spearman correlations were between the new short-version-PDS and the Brazilian version of the posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5, and a receiver operating characteristic curve was used to determine the best cut-off values for the short-version-PDS.Results: The short-version-PDS was well accepted by all subjects, none of the questions were experienced as inappropriate, and all questions of the 3 items were judged important. Item 1 presented CVCt = 0.92; item 2 had a CVCt = 0.87 and item 3 had a CVCt = 0.95. The internal consistency of the final version as measured by Cronbach's alpha was 0.78. The short-version-PDS scale correlated positively with the DSM-5 scale with a Spearman rho of 0.64 (95%CI [0.4-0.8], p 31.0 with sensitivity and specificity are 86.4 and 93.5%, respectively.Conclusions: This Brazilian Portuguese version of the short-version-PDS had good psychometric properties among Brazilian adults with and without PTSD. Transferability and generalizability of the cut-off scores should be further analyzed. (shrink)

This article investigates the existence of an original Brazilian legal culture. It parts from a critical examination of the key moments in the history of Brazil through the accounts of its most important scholars, such as Caio Prado Júnior, Darcy Ribeiro, Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, Wilson Martins, Oliveira Viana, Roberto Damatta, José Murilo de Carvalho, among others. It identifies in the Brazilian legal culture something one might call tradition of exception, which can be found in many of its (...) most prominent aspects, such as the persistent denial of any general or abstract regulatory standards, the uncritical introduction of foreign doctrines and legal patterns, the maintenance of aristocratic traditions in social life and the historical disregard of the Brazilian people as political subject. The article also offers a reflection on the problems and potentials of the current historic moment, in which for the first time Brazilians face the possibility of a genuine cultural emancipation. (shrink)

Afro-alemães são pessoas negras que tem um dos progenitores alemão e o outro negro de qualquer parte do mundo. Historicamente os que se identificam como afro alemães são desconectados da cultura alemã, há uma forte crença no país onde uma escolha silenciosa é feita: Ou você é alemão, ou negro. Uma vez negro, você não é alemão. A partir de duas poesias da poeta afro-alemã May Ayim, apresento uma reflexão sob a perspectiva histórica sobre motivos que levam (...) à elaboração e reelaboração de identidades e afirmação dos afro-alemães num contexto local e global. (shrink)

In this article, I bring together the archive of institutional activism of Niara Sudarkasa in the U.S. and the posthumous impact of activist and public administrator Marielle Franco. The 1970s historical sources show Sudarkasa’s institutional solidarity with students and faculty in the creation of one of the first Africana Studies departments in the U.S. Reading them, I articulate an ethos for the curation ‘715 Haven Street: Art Looks Back,’ a public digital art gallery comprised of art and history found in (...) the DAAS Papers (Department of Afroamerican and African Studies) housed in the Bentley Library’s digital and physical archives. The analysis of the primary sources is guided by an engagement with the ‘Marielle Effect,’ generating a historical parameter for Abolitionist solidarity between American, Brazilian, Latin American, African American, Diasporic, and ally scholarly communities. The discussion of these parameters is embedded in my discussion of the concept of pacification, a phenomenon of colonial and post-colonial policing that survives through the perpetuation of an extra-judicial policing impetus articulated along race, identity, legality, and sexual legitimacy of subjects. (shrink)

Corporate social responsibility refers to the duty of management to consider and respond to issues beyond the organization’s economic and legal requirements in line with social and environmental values. However, ‘management’ is constituted by real people responsible for routine decisions and formulation and implementation of policies. It can be said therefore that the ethical ideals and beliefs of these individuals – in particular their personal values – play an important role in their decisions. It is contended in this article that (...) the personal values of managers may contribute to the creation and maintenance of ‘CSR cultures’ in their organizations; that is, organizational cultures focused on ensuring environmental and social sustainability. Based on an exploratory study carried out in Brazil in 2008, this article explores the perceptions of five CSR managers in relation to the influence of their personal values on their work. The first part discusses the notion of CSR within the context of Brazilian society, the second provides a brief literature review on the link between values and organizational cultures and the third explores the perceptions of the participating managers, identifying the main thematic patterns that emerged in the study. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to reflect on how, from a philosophical point of view, race and politics are codependent categories. Based on reflections inspired by Michel Foucault, the article shows how this philosopher helps us to understand this interrelationship. As an example and an exercise in connecting thought with reality, it reflects on the difficulties historically undertaken by whiteness to prevent the black population from occupying spaces in the political arena. However, the reflections show that the strategies to (...) make the political agency of black people invisible have something to tell us. In dialogue with historiography, this reflection presents evidence of a black political philosophy and points to the need for Brazilian political philosophy to investigate its characteristics in order to contribute to eradicating the epistemicide that philosophy itself and other sciences have fed by not being predisposed to investigate, codify and present Afro-Brazilian philosophies in order to comply with the provisions of Laws 10.639/03 and 11/645/08. (shrink)

This paper argues that eighteenth-century Portuguese scientific policies promoted the inclusion of its main colony, Brazil, in the Enlightenment environment. This was accomplished by innovative initiatives, such as voyages to explore the colonial territory. Natural history activities, especially in mining, remained at the center of this political project and relied on co-opting groups of Portuguese in America. Based on the life of João da Silva Feijó, this article outlines the relevant connections between Feijó's scientific activities and the first Brazilian (...) national expedition in the 1850s, which led to discussion about developing the Brazilian nation. This analysis is aimed toward the growing consensus in historiography of the sciences that scientific activities practiced outside European centers gave rise to complex interactions involving the processes of mondialization of sciences and the construction of a local scientific context. (shrink)