Oxala woke up in Bahia: The development of Yoruba religious communities in Salvador, Bahia, 1835--1986.

摘要

Using the trans-Atlantic slave trade as a point of departure, this work will examine the development of several Yoruba based religious communities in the city of Salvador, Bahia from the mid-19th to the mid-20 th century. Throughout the 18th and 19 th centuries, Yoruba communities led often by women, built upon & flourished within already existing African cultural & political structures. By the late 19th century, groups of these women had succeeded in constructing an institutional model of Yoruba religious practice which provided for a type of counter-hegemony to prevailing notions of white supremacy & the inherent superiority of European models of spiritual and power.;Using the published & unpublished works of late nineteen and early twentieth century researchers as primary sources, this work will trace the formation of three of these institutions, Casa Branca, Gantois and Opo Afonja, to demonstrate the various strategies of self-preservation & evolution used by Yoruba-based religious communities during these formative years in their development. From forming partnerships with influential & widely read researchers to altering key components of ancient religious traditions to fit their new & ever changing reality, these three institutions in particular not only flourished, but were held up by many in the Afro-Brazilian community as icons of "authenticity" whose organizational structures & religious practices needed to be emulated as closely as possible by newer temples in order to gain popular acceptance. As opposed to the traditionally held views of Yoruba based traditions being either syncretic traditions or a retention of ancient African traditions in the New World, this work will maintain that these houses were using Yoruba based familial structures to develop a cosmology that was not designed to preserve the past but to be fully integrated into modern life in, of course, a uniquely Bahian manner. In addition, this work emphasizes the roles played by major leaders within the leadership of the three temples in helping Yoruba religion gain not only full freedom of expression but also integration & acceptance into mainstream Brazilian culture.