Blessed Anastacia: Women, Race and Popular Christianity in Brazil

by Burdick,John

• ISBN13: 9780415912594
• ISBN10: 0415912598
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-10-13
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The weakness of Brazil's black consciousness movement is commonly attributed to the fragility of Afro-Brazilian ethnic identity. In a major account, John Burdick challenges this view by revealing the many-layered reality of popular black consciousness and identity in an arena that is usually overlooked: that of popular Christianity. Blessed Anastaciadescribes how popular Christianity confronts everyday racism and contributes to the formation of racial identity. The author concludes that if organizers of the black consciousness movement were to recognize the profound racial meaning inherent in this area of popular religiosity, they might be more successful in bridging the gap with its poor and working-class constituency.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	1	(24)
ONE The Everyday Wounds of Color Negras in Love, Family, and Work	25	(26)
TWO Spirited Languages The Field of Popular Christianity in Rio de Janeiro	51	(38)
THREE The Politics of Mystical Substance Black Women and the Catholic Inculturated Mass	89	(30)
FOUR What is the Color of the Holy Spirit? Racial/Color Meanings in Pentecostalism	119	(30)
FIVE The Eyes of Anastacia Political Readings of a Popular Catholic Devotion	149	(32)
SIX The Politics of Ethnography Translating Knowledge Claims into Practice	181	(18)
Conclusion An Agenda for the Ethnography of Social Movements	199	(8)
Notes	207	(16)
Bibliography	223	(18)
Index	241