Perhaps of interest.

Best,
Roberto


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From: H-Net Staff <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 7:46 AM
Subject: H-Net Review Publication:  Shirey on Capone, 'Searching for
Africa in Brazil: Power and Tradition in Candomblé'
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Stefania Capone.  Searching for Africa in Brazil: Power and Tradition
in Candomblé.  Durham  Duke University Press, 2010.  xiv + 316 pp.
$84.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8223-4625-8; $23.95 (paper), ISBN
978-0-8223-4636-4.

Reviewed by Heather Shirey (Art History, St. Thomas University)
Published on H-AfrArts (March, 2013)
Commissioned by Jean M. Borgatti

Brazilian Candomblé and the Reinvention of Tradition

Following the lead of pioneering scholar Raymundo Nina Rodrigues in
the early twentieth century, many of the significant scholarly
publications on Candomblé have focused on a small number of
_terreiros _(places of worship) located in Salvador da Bahia,
associated with the Nagô tradition. Scholars whose work has formed
the core of traditional Candomblé scholarship (for example, Nina
Rodrigues, Roger Bastide, Ruth Landes, Arturo Ramos, and Juana Elbein
dos Santos, and, in the art historical context, Mikelle Smith
Omari-Tunkara) have largely privileged three specific _terreiros _in
Salvador: Engenho Velho, known as Casa Branca; Ilê Axé Opó
Afonjá; and Gantois. This body of canonical scholarship tended
toward the presentation of a codified, systematized version of
Candomblé, one based on ritual practice rooted in West African, and
specifically Yoruba, systems of thought, thereby unifying Candomblé
as a singular religion in spite of its lack of a central authority.
Stefania Capone's work, in contrast to this dominant thread in the
scholarship, views Candomblé as a religion defined by its
heterogeneity, fluidity, and multiplicity of practice. Capone's
_Searching for Africa__ in Brazil _deconstructs notions of "purity"
and "tradition" that are central to a large body of research on
Candomblé. Her broad questions about the invention and reinvention
of tradition have relevance beyond the study of Candomblé, and may
also be applied to other religious traditions in the African
diaspora.

Capone's work, drawing on fieldwork experience in Salvador and Rio de
Janeiro spanning more than a decade, examines the constructed
concepts of orthodoxy and tradition, scrutinizing the roles that
various actors, particularly Candomble's intellectual and religious
elite, have played in this process. More specifically, Capone
addresses the shifting discourse on Exu as a way of revealing the
ways in which notions of the "pure" and the "degenerate" have been
constructed in Candomblé. Her extensive exploration of Exu takes her
beyond the Candomblé of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, delving into such
traditions as Batuque in Rio Grande do Sul, Tambor de Mina in
Maranhão, and Xangô in Pernambuco and Sergipe. Capone's significant
investigation of Exu in Umbanda is particularly rich, contributing to
her analysis of the evolution of discourse and practice over time.

Capone acknowledges her significant debt to Beatriz Góis Dantas's
influential 1988 publication, _Vovó Nagô e Papai Branco: Usos e
abusos da Africa no Brasil _(translated as _Nagô Grandma and White
Papa: Candomblé and the Creation of Afro-Brazilian Identity_
[2009]), which challenged the concept of "Nagô purity." Dantas
argued that intellectuals had played a conscious role in constructing
ideas of "purity" in Candomblé. Building on the groundwork that
Dantas laid, Capone focuses on the role that Candomblé leaders
themselves played and continue to play in this process. Capone argues
that an elite leadership within the religion shaped the way that
Candomblé has been presented to intellectuals who came from outside
the tradition.

From the art historical perspective, it is disappointing that the
author does not focus significant attention on Candomblé's complex
visual universe, which would have strengthened her argument about
Candomblé's essential multiplicity and fluidity. Although Capone
does include some illustrations, they are largely secondary to her
argument. Her discussion of representations of Exu remains very
general, whereas a more systematic analysis of the wide range of
materials and forms used to represent Exu's various manifestations
would, in fact, be enlightening. Although the lack of engagement with
Candomblé's material culture makes the book of limited significance
to the general reader in the field of art history, it does indeed
open many doors for art historical research.

_Searching for Africa in Brazil__ _was first published in French in
1999, followed by a translation into Brazilian Portuguese in 2004.
This excellent 2010 translation makes Capone's enlightening research
readily available to an English-speaking audience. This book is a
crucial contribution to the study of Candomblé from an
anthropological and historical perspective. Her overview of the
history of Candomblé scholarship is sophisticated, yet accessible to
a reader with little previous knowledge of the topic. Some parallel
questions about Candomblé have been addressed by such scholars such
J. Lorand Matory (_Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition,
Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé_
[2005]) and Paul Christopher Johnson (_Secrets, Gossip, and Gods: The
Transformation of Brazilian Candomblé_ [2005]), and reading these
works together would allow for an interesting dialogue to emerge.

Citation: Heather Shirey. Review of Capone, Stefania, _Searching for
Africa in Brazil: Power and Tradition in Candomblé_. H-AfrArts,
H-Net Reviews. March, 2013.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=33075

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States
License.