Uprooted Africans brought as slaves to Brazil carried with them a collective memory, including elements of their religion and medicine. The Yoruba orisha and the Christian saints have been thoroughly assimilated; sculptures made in Brazil in the first half of the twentieth century still show clearly the survival of the Yoruba influence combined with Christian iconography. Examples of Shango wands, twin figures (ibeji) and representations of Eshu confirm this conclusion.
Uprooted Africans brought as slaves to Brazil carried with them a collective memory, including elements of their religion and medicine. The Yoruba orisha and the Christian saints have been thoroughly assimilated; sculptures made in Brazil in the first half of the twentieth century still show clearly the survival of the Yoruba influence combined with Christian iconography. Examples of Shango wands, twin figures (ibeji) and representations of Eshu confirm this conclusion.
The article reviews the book "Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé," by J. Lorand Matory. "My extensive use of superlatives throughout this review should make it clear that I find the book to be invaluable and extraordinarily well researched. With that said, Black Atlantic Religion is not for the reader interested in the spiritual and/or practical side of Candomblé (e.g., practices/rituals, theology, internal hierarchy, etc.). In fact, I would argue that by focusing on the humanity of the practitioners (their interests, desires, strategies, and ideologies), Matory depicts Candomblé more as a political organization than a religious one." --Michael Iyanaga
Blacks; Women; Brazil; South America; Book reviews; PERRY, Keisha-Kkan Y; BLACK Women Against the Land Grab: The Fight for Racial Justice in Brazil (Book)
