Marcelo Niel
Studia Religiologica, Volume 51, Issue 3, 2018, pp. 209-218
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.015.10099This article is an ethnography of Candomblétransnationalization to the city of New York. I describe the journeys of three Brazilian mães-de-santo (mothers-of-saints), who have carried their practices and knowledge with them from Brazil. I report how they settled in the city, the dialog with urban space in a megalopolis, the changes that have occurred in the rituals, and the potential transpositions to this new space, their clientele and motivations. It aims to comprehend the importance of the Candomblé itinerary as one of the main components responsible for its maintenance, establishment and expansion in Brazil and in other parts of the world. The connecting points of this article were the stories of three Brazilian mothers-of-saints who moved to New York City, carrying with them Candomblé rituals practiced in Brazil, transposing them to this new place, having to discuss and rethink their practices in the North American context, reinventing traditional religious settings or, rather, inventing traditions, and dialoging with the concept of reinvention of tradition, as proposed by Roy Wagner (1975). An important topic found in this reinvention process is a change of hierarchy, as a more horizontal interaction system is adopted by the mothers-of-saints with their devotees and clients, as opposed to the more vertical model which prevails in the Brazilian terreiros (places of worship). Following the work of the three mothers-of-saints, aiming to transpose religion to a new context, I describe their encounters with their devotees, who seek health care and well-being through the use of plants and prayers during rituals and religious ceremonies.