ETHNICITY, NATIONALITY AND SYNCRETISM IN POPULAR RELIGIONS OF BRAZIL

In Brazilian popular religions, alongside and often mixed with Iberian -derived popular Catholicism, Amerindian survivals are found mainly in Catimbo, while Candomble (or Xango) has clear African (mainly Yoruba) roots. The followers of these cults are prone to stress the ethnic or igins, indeed (in spite of all syncretisms) the ethnic purity of their beliefs, yet they are at the same time very much oriented toward the national market of consumers of religious good and services. This kind of identitophagy has also been associated with essays to establish a synthetic national religion, often conceived as the prototype of the r eligion of a brave, postmodern world. ...