In this text, I study Afro-Brazilian religions (Candomblé and Umbanda) and the ways these adapt themselves culturally in the German context, producing hybridisms and reviving European pagan practices. In the first section of the text, I present how paisand mães de santo circulate through the artistic field, creating opportunities for them to construct ritual spaces in which religious practices are conducted and future adepts are recruited. I then analyze cases in which pais de santodo not participate in this artistic field, or even have their own terreirosor initiate filhos de santo. Finally, I consider ritual adaptations and the ways of relating to the economic and spiritual necessities of potential clients. In these cases, Afro-Brazilian religions end up being in close proximity to New Age practices currently common in European cultures.

This paper explores Candomblé rituals from the perspective of human-environment relations, taking into account not only human followers, but also animals, plants and artifacts that are necessary for the making of Candomblé terreiros. While this process of interaction between different realms is codified by strict rules and prescriptions, it also adapts according to the environment where the Candomblé community is located. Drawing from fieldwork data collected in a Candomblé terreiro that has been active in Italy for almost two decades, this paper aims at presenting the challenges and adaptations of the religious practice in different natural landscapes. By taking into account the spatial composition and the material culture involved in the Italian terreiro and its references in Brazil, this work re-thinks how Candomblé practitioners relate to the cultural and ecological environments.

The so-called Transatlantic Traffic imposed new linguistical and cultural configurations on the three continents involved in this tragedy: Africa, America and Europe. Such configurations acquire a complex of dynamics that, nowadays, we speak of flux and reflux of traffic, because of the intense and broad cultural and social exchange between these continents. Religion is one of the main or fundamental elements that is diluted in the cultural exchanges between Africa and America, especially those of the so called Sudanese nations, which receive various denominations: santeria, vodun, and Candomblé, among others. I will deal with the presentation of the Jeje nagô pattern in order to promote a dialogue, taking in account manifestation in Cuba, Haiti, Brazil and Benin. I will choose, describe and analyse from a comparative perspective a sample of songs and ritual lexicon (including terms of kinship) of Dahomean and Ewé-Fon origin in arará santeria, vodun in Haiti, and Mina-jeje candomblé in Brazil in one part of the study, and in the other part, with the vodun of Benin. This experience will undoubtedly shed light on the diversity and richness of meanings attributed from cultural and social relations in religious spaces and in society as a whole.

This article seeks to show, through an examination of music and Pretos Velhos entities, the transnationalisation and the adaptation of an Afro-Brazilian cult of possession (Umbanda) in a French, Belgian and Swiss contexts. By analysing songs, dances and rhythms, I focus on the diacritical characteristics from Pretos Velhos entities in Umbanda and on the discourses of mediums (during and after possession), to emphasize the representation of these entities in their adaptation society. The purpose of this article is to show howthe Pretos Velhos, and also music (rhythms and dances), are one strategic point of adaptation of Afro-Brazilian cults. The work of imagination (here conveyed by music), shows the transcendence of a historical symbol by a European romantic symbol (the storyteller) that will create this new area where the Umbanda can adapt to the European contexts.

This 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.