Reinventing religions : syncretism and transformation in Africa and the Americas / edited by Sidney M. Greenfield and André Droogers.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Greenfield, Sidney M.

Droogers, André.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Black people--Religion--Congresses.

Black people.

Syncretism (Religion)--Africa, Sub-Saharan--Congresses.

Syncretism (Religion).

Syncretism (Religion)--Latin America--Congresses.

Afro-Brazilian religions--Congresses.

Afro-Brazilian religions.

Black people--Religion.

Latin America.

Sub-Saharan Africa.

Genre:

Conference papers and proceedings.

Physical Description:

232 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield, [2001]

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.

Notes:

Recovering and reconstructing syncretism / André Droogers, Sidney M. Greenfield -- A Yoruba healer as syncretic specialist: herbalism, rosicrucianism and the Babalawo / Frank A. Salamon -- Population growth, industrialization and the proliferation of syncretized religions in Brazil / Sidney M. Greenfield -- Ethnicity, purity, the market and syncretism in Afro-Brazilian cults / Roberto Motta -- Religious syncretism in an Afro-Brazilian cult house / Sergio F. Ferretti -- The presence of non-African spirits in an Afro-Brazilian religion: a case of Afro-Amerindian syncretism? / Mundicarmo M.R. Ferretti -- The reinterpretation of Africa: convergence and syncretism in Brazilian Candomblé / Sidney M. Greenfield -- Possession and syncretism: spirits as mediators in modernity / Inger Sjørslev -- Joana's story: syncretism at the actor's level / André Droogers -- Ragga cowboys: country and western themes in Rastafarian-inspired Reggae music / Werner Zips -- Polyvocality and constructions of syncretism in Winti / Ineke van Wetering -- Seeking syncretism: the case of Sathya Sai Baba / Morton Klass.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0847688526

0847688534

OCLC:

44775173