Black Atlantic religion : tradition, transnationalism, and matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Black Atlantic religion : tradition, transnationalism, and matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé
Princeton University Press, c2005
- pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [343]-368) and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
ISBN 9780691059433
Description
"Black Atlantic Religion" illuminates the mutual transformation of African and African-American cultures, highlighting the example of the Afro-Brazilian Candomble religion. This book contests both the recent conviction that transnationalism is new and the long-held supposition that African culture endures in the Americas only among the poorest and most isolated of black populations. In fact, African culture in the Americas has most flourished among the urban and the prosperous, who, through travel, commerce, and literacy, were well exposed to other cultures. Their embrace of African religion is less a 'survival,' or inert residue of the African past, than a strategic choice in their circum-Atlantic, multicultural world.With counterparts in Nigeria, the Benin Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Trinidad, and the United States, Candomble is a religion of spirit possession, dance, healing, and blood sacrifice.
Most surprising to those who imagine Candomble and other such religions as the products of anonymous folk memory is the fact that some of this religion's towering leaders and priests have been either well-traveled writers or merchants, whose stake in African-inspired religion was as much commercial as spiritual. Morever, they influenced Africa as much as Brazil.Thus, for centuries, Candomble and its counterparts have stood at the crux of enormous transnational forces. Vividly combining history and ethnography, Matory spotlights a so-called 'folk' religion defined not by its closure or internal homogeneity but by the diversity of its connections to classes and places often far away. "Black Atlantic Religion" sets a new standard for the study of transnationalism in its subaltern and often ancient manifestations.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations vii Introduction 1 Chapter One: The English Professors of Brazil On the Diasporic Roots of the Yoruba Nation 38 Chapter Two: The Trans-Atlantic Nation Rethinking Nations and Transnationalism 73 Chapter Three: Purity and Transnationalism On the Transformation of Ritual in the Yoruba-Atlantic Diaspora 115 Chapter Four: Candomble's Newest Nation: Brazil 149 Chapter Five: Para Ingles Ver Sex, Secrecy, and Scholarship in the Yoruba-Atlantic World 188 Chapter Six: Man in the "City of Women" 224 Chapter Seven: Conclusion The Afro-Atlantic Dialogue 267 Appendix A: Geechees and Gullahs The Locus Classicus of African "Survivals" in the United States 295 Appendix B: The Origins of the Term "Jeje" 299 Notes 301 Bibliography 343 Index 369
- Volume
-
pbk ISBN 9780691059440
Description
Black Atlantic Religion illuminates the mutual transformation of African and African-American cultures, highlighting the example of the Afro-Brazilian Candomble religion. This book contests both the recent conviction that transnationalism is new and the long-held supposition that African culture endures in the Americas only among the poorest and most isolated of black populations. In fact, African culture in the Americas has most flourished among the urban and the prosperous, who, through travel, commerce, and literacy, were well exposed to other cultures. Their embrace of African religion is less a "survival," or inert residue of the African past, than a strategic choice in their circum-Atlantic, multicultural world. With counterparts in Nigeria, the Benin Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Trinidad, and the United States, Candomble is a religion of spirit possession, dance, healing, and blood sacrifice.
Most surprising to those who imagine Candomble and other such religions as the products of anonymous folk memory is the fact that some of this religion's towering leaders and priests have been either well-traveled writers or merchants, whose stake in African-inspired religion was as much commercial as spiritual. Morever, they influenced Africa as much as Brazil. Thus, for centuries, Candomble and its counterparts have stood at the crux of enormous transnational forces. Vividly combining history and ethnography, Matory spotlights a so-called "folk" religion defined not by its closure or internal homogeneity but by the diversity of its connections to classes and places often far away. Black Atlantic Religion sets a new standard for the study of transnationalism in its subaltern and often ancient manifestations.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations vii Introduction 1 Chapter One: The English Professors of Brazil On the Diasporic Roots of the Yoruba Nation 38 Chapter Two: The Trans-Atlantic Nation Rethinking Nations and Transnationalism 73 Chapter Three: Purity and Transnationalism On the Transformation of Ritual in the Yoruba-Atlantic Diaspora 115 Chapter Four: Candomble's Newest Nation: Brazil 149 Chapter Five: Para Ingles Ver Sex, Secrecy, and Scholarship in the Yoruba-Atlantic World 188 Chapter Six: Man in the "City of Women" 224 Chapter Seven: Conclusion The Afro-Atlantic Dialogue 267 Appendix A: Geechees and Gullahs The Locus Classicus of African "Survivals" in the United States 295 Appendix B: The Origins of the Term "Jeje" 299 Notes 301 Bibliography 343 Index 369
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