Alternative modernities: statecraft and religious imagination in the Valley of the Dawn

Many new religions promote the emblems and institutions of modern nation-st ates. In this article, I consider an example from Brazil, analyzing the mim etic relations between its modernist capital, Brasilia, and a millenarian a nd ecstatic religion called the Valley of the Dawn located on the city's ou tskirts. I focus on the project of salvation that each sponsors and on a re ligious ritual that Stages a judicial event associated with the state. Argu ing against compensatory explanations, I suggest that both state and religi on are performances, mutually critical, of the same paradigm of modernity.