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Searching for Africa in Brazil: Power and Tradition in Candomblé

Searching for Africa in Brazil: Power and Tradition in Candomblé Book Reviews / Journal of Religion in Africa 41 (2011) 124-133 131 Capone, Stefania, Searching for Africa in Brazil: Power and Tradition in Candomblé, Dur- ham/London, Duke University Press, 2010, 320 pp., 978 0 8223 4636 4, US$23.95. Stefania Capone’s Searching for Africa in Brazil provides an important contribution to the study of Afro-American religions that highlights the intellectual, political, and ritualistic complexities of Candomblé. The work is in its third edition, is translated from French to English for an American audience, and draws from over ten years of ethnographic field- work in Salvador de Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. Accordingly, Capone deconstructs anthro- pologically derived notions involving Candomblé ‘orthodoxy’ and ‘tradition’ as being constructed by religious and intellectual elites who seek legitimacy and authority on the basis of a ‘mythic’ Africanity, rather than indigenous African retentions. Through ethno- graphic narratives, Capone then reveals a ritualistic dynamism and ambiguity within Candomblé that, she argues, is part of a uniquely fluid Brazilian religious continuum. Consequently, this study serves as a significant critique of the power dynamics that have structured the Afro-Brazilian religious field in general, and a call for continued scholarly inquiry on religious syncretism. Yet it may only http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Religion in Africa Brill

Searching for Africa in Brazil: Power and Tradition in Candomblé

Toure, Abu J.
Journal of Religion in Africa , Volume 41 (1): 131 – Jan 1, 2011
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0022-4200
eISSN
1570-0666
DOI
10.1163/157006611X558438
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Book Reviews / Journal of Religion in Africa 41 (2011) 124-133 131 Capone, Stefania, Searching for Africa in Brazil: Power and Tradition in Candomblé, Dur- ham/London, Duke University Press, 2010, 320 pp., 978 0 8223 4636 4, US$23.95. Stefania Capone’s Searching for Africa in Brazil provides an important contribution to the study of Afro-American religions that highlights the intellectual, political, and ritualistic complexities of Candomblé. The work is in its third edition, is translated from French to English for an American audience, and draws from over ten years of ethnographic field- work in Salvador de Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. Accordingly, Capone deconstructs anthro- pologically derived notions involving Candomblé ‘orthodoxy’ and ‘tradition’ as being constructed by religious and intellectual elites who seek legitimacy and authority on the basis of a ‘mythic’ Africanity, rather than indigenous African retentions. Through ethno- graphic narratives, Capone then reveals a ritualistic dynamism and ambiguity within Candomblé that, she argues, is part of a uniquely fluid Brazilian religious continuum. Consequently, this study serves as a significant critique of the power dynamics that have structured the Afro-Brazilian religious field in general, and a call for continued scholarly inquiry on religious syncretism. Yet it may only

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Journal of Religion in Africa – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2011

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