Reinventing Religions Syncretism and Transformation in Africa and the Americas

by Greenfield, Sidney M.; Droogers, André; R. Ferretti, Mundicarmo M.; Ferretti, Sergio F.; Klass, Morton; Motta, Roberto; Salamone, Frank A.; Sjørslev, Inger; Wetering, Ineke van; Zips, Werner

• ISBN13: 9780847688524
• ISBN10: 0847688526
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-02-14
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

Once a central concept in anthropology, syncretism has recently re-emerged as a valuable tool for understanding the complex dynamics of ethnicity, postcolonialism and transnationalism. Building on a century-long tradition of scholarship, this important book formulates a broader view of the mixing and interpenetration of religious beliefs and practices, primarily from Africa and Europe, highlighting the ways in which religions and cultures on both sides of the Atlantic have been assimilated and innovatively changed. Divided into four sections, the book focuses on religious syncretism in Brazil, Cuba, and other parts of the Caribbean and West Africa. Greenfield and Droogers have brought together an array of outstanding international scholars whose rich and varied essays on specific geographical locales and customs comprise an innovative and comprehensive view of the transference of religious traditions and their continuity and reformulation on two continents.

Author Biography

Andre Droogers is professor of the anthropology of religion at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam Mundicarmo Maria Rocha Ferretti is a professor in the department of social sciences at State University of Maranhao in the city of Sao Luis, Brazil, where she teaches and conducts research on popular culture and Afro-Brazilian religion. Sergio Ferretti is adjunct professor of anthropology in the department of sociology and anthropology at the Federal University of Maranhao in the city of Sao Luis Sidney M. Greenfield (co-editor) is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Morton Klass: Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Barnard College, Columbia University Roberto Motta is professor in the department of social sciences at the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil. Frank Salamone is professor of anthropology at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York Inger Sjorslev is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Anthropology of the University of Copenhagen. Ineke van Wetering, is affiliated with the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research Werner Zips is assistant professor at the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology (Ethnology) of the University of Vienna

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Symposium	9	(21)
Sidney M. Greenfield
Andre Droogers
Recovering and Reconstructing Syncretism	21	(22)
Andre Droogers
Sidney M. Greenfield
A Yoruba Healer as Syncretic Specialist: Herbalism, Rosicrucianism and the Babalawo	43	(12)
Frank A. Salamone
Population Growth, Industrialization and the Proliferation of Syncretized Religions in Brazil	55	(16)
Sidney M. Greenfield
Ethnicity, Purity, the Market and Syncretism in Afro-Brazilian Cults	71	(16)
Roberto Motta
Religious Syncretism in an Afro-Brazilian Cult House	87	(12)
Sergio F. Ferretti
The Presence of Non-African Spirits in an Afro-Brazilian Religion: A Case of Afro-Amerindian Syncretism?	99	(14)
Mundicarmo M. R. Ferretti
The Reinterpretation of Africa: Convergence and Syncretism in Brazilian Candomble	113	(18)
Sidney M. Greenfield
Possession and Syncretism: Spirits as Mediators in Modernity	131	(14)
Inger Sjorslev
Joana's Story: Syncretism at the Actor's Level	145	(18)
Andre Droogers
Ragga Cowboys: Country and Western Themes in Rastafarian-Inspired Reggae Music	163	(20)
Werner Zips
Polyvocality and Constructions of Syncretism in Winti	183	(18)
Ineke van Wetering
Seeking Syncretism: The Case of Sathya Sai Baba	201	(14)
Morton Klass
Index	215	(14)
About the Contributors	229