Synopses & Reviews
Searching for Africa in Brazil is a learned exploration of tradition and change in Afro-Brazilian religions. Focusing on the convergence of anthropologistsandrsquo; and religious leadersandrsquo; exegeses, Stefania Capone argues that twentieth-century anthropological research contributed to the construction of an ideal Afro-Brazilian religious orthodoxy identified with the Nagandocirc; (Yoruba) cult in the northeastern state of Bahia. In contrast to other researchers, Capone foregrounds the agency of Candomblandeacute; leaders. She demonstrates that they successfully imposed their vision of Candomblandeacute; on anthropologists, reshaping in their own interest narratives of Afro-Brazilian religious practice. The anthropological narratives were then taken as official accounts of religious orthodoxy by many practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions in Brazil. Capone draws on ten years of ethnographic fieldwork in Salvador de Bahia and Rio de Janeiro as she demonstrates that there is no pure or orthodox Afro-Brazilian religion.
Challenging the usual interpretations of Afro-Brazilian religions as fixed entities, completely independent of one another, Capone reveals these practices as parts of a unique religious continuum. She does so through an analysis of ritual variations as well as discursive practices. To illuminate the continuum of Afro-Brazilian religious practice and the tensions between exegetic discourses and ritual practices, Capone focuses on the figure of Exu, the sacred African trickster who allows communication between gods and men. Following Exu and his avatars, she discloses the centrality of notions of prestige and powerandmdash;mystical and religiousandmdash;in Afro-Brazilian religions. To explain how religious identity is constantly negotiated among social actors, Capone emphasizes the agency of practitioners and their political agendas in the andldquo;return to roots,andrdquo; or re-Africanization, movement, an attempt to recover the original purity of a mythical and legitimizing Africa.
Review
andldquo;Searching for Africa in Brazil is a major piece of scholarship. Through careful historical research and vivid ethnographic detail, Stefania Capone demonstrates that conceptual pairs such as pure/impure, religious/magical, traditional/modernized, and communal/individualistic have long played a major role in highly self-conscious and overtly politicized representations of Afro-Brazilian religion. This is so both in regards to practitionersandrsquo; discourses aimed at legitimizing their forms of practice at the expense of their rivalsandrsquo; and in regards to the changing views of anthropologists who sought a definitional monopoly over what could count as andlsquo;African,andrsquo; andlsquo;traditional,andrsquo; and so forth.andrdquo;andmdash;Stephan Palmiandeacute;, author of Wizards and Scientists: Explorations in Afro-Cuban Modernity and Tradition
Review
andldquo;The translation of this outstanding work into English is a real service to scholars. Searching for Africa in Brazil is a well researched and carefully argued examination of the ongoing disputations about the origins and transformations in Candomblandeacute;. Stefania Capone is particularly insightful regarding the role that outsiders have played in shaping disputes about authenticity, sources, and their relation to African origins.andrdquo;andmdash;Anani Dzidzienyo, co-editor of Neither Enemies nor Friends: Latinos, Blacks, Afro-Latinos
Review
andldquo;[T]he volume still stands admirably on its own. . . . [A] fascinating survey of the history of the field. . . . Capone is especially illuminating in her reading of anthropology and its reification of tradition. . . . Caponeandrsquo;s frank reflections on the field are thought provoking and important. . . .andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Stefania Caponeandrsquo;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 Candomblandeacute;. . . . Caponeandrsquo;s study is indeed a pivotal contribution to the discourse on Afro-Brazilian, Black Atlantic, and African Diasporic studies. Her argument is grounded in solid historical assessments of anthropological treatments of Afro-Brazilian religions, provides extensive footnotes that detail field work experiences of the author and pioneers in the field, and includes a comprehensive bibliography of works on Afro-American religions and Yoruba spirituality.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Anthropologists and anthropology graduate students will find this volume rich and rewarding. Historians such as myself will take much from the several chapters that trace the evolution of ideas about competing branches of Candomblandeacute; beliefs. Capone presents a forceful challenge to long-accepted anthropological methods of studying Candomblandeacute; (and, by extension, other religions), pointing out the problematic propensity of students to follow in their advisorsandrsquo; footsteps by visiting the same sites.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;The originality of this work lies in the disclosure of the incestuous unions between temple and university that together produced a particular version of African tradition. This kind of analysis is not new, but Caponeandrsquo;s study is particularly effective because of its anchoring in the close microstudy of the dramatic changes of andlsquo;traditionandrsquo; in Candomblandeacute; as those very changes are then reworked as deeply African. . . . It would seem then that this triumph of the tropes of African andlsquo;originsandrsquo; and andlsquo;authenticityandrsquo; over their rivals in a meta-economy of signs, even for those not of African descent, a semiotic battle richly described in this work, offers pressing new questions for the next generation of research. Stefania Caponeandrsquo;s careful, intelligent study has laid the groundwork to make those sorts of reflections possible.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[A]n excellent monograph about Afro-Brazilian religious traditions, in particular Umbanda and Candomblandeacute;.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Searching for Africa in Brazil is one of the most descriptively rich and analytically insightful treatments of AfroBrazilian religion to date. Every student and ethnographer of Candomblandeacute; will undoubtedly do their research a great service if they read this book.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Analyzes the politics of the "Africanness" of Afro-Brazilian religion, focusing on the conflicts and interplay between academics and practitioners over the past century.
Synopsis
An ethnography of Afro-Brazilian religious traditions including Candombland#233; shows that the lines separating one tradition from another are much less fixed than anthropologists and Afro-Brazilian religious elites have maintained.
About the Author
Stefania Capone is a Professor at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Paris Ouest Nanterre (France). She is the author of Les Yoruba du Nouveau Monde: Religion, ethnicitandeacute; et nationalisme noir aux Etats-Unis.