Emotions and religion across the Atlantic: senses and lusophone orixás
Etnografica January 1, 2021 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.4000/etnografica.10440 via OpenAlex
Summary
Afro-Brazilian religions in Portugal offer practitioners emotional freedom through possession and incorporation of entities, alongside acceptance of diverse races, sexual preferences, and beliefs. However, initiation and rituals are strongly hierarchical, requiring obedience to norms for advancement. Individuals navigate these contradictory emotions to negotiate their identities both within and outside the religious group. The analysis connects emotional behavior, performance, and authenticity, drawing on ethnographic case studies of Afro-Brazilian religions' expansion in Portugal.
Study at a glance
| Design | qualitative study |
|---|---|
| Population | practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions in Portugal |
| Key finding | Practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions in Portugal manage contradictory emotions—between expressive freedom and hierarchical ritual norms—to negotiate their identities. |
Abstract
For the past 30 years, the Afro-Brazilian religions have crossed the Atlantic, reaching Portugal. One of the aspects that the Portuguese find most appealing is the possibility of expressing their emotions freely, either through possession and the incorporation of entities whose performances are directly connected with a sense of emotional freedom, or because these religions proclaim a clear openness and acceptance of different races, sexual preferences or even other religious beliefs. Nevertheless, the process of becoming initiated as well as the ritual sequences are both strongly hierarchical, obeying norms that should not be transgressed in order to advance in one’s religious career. Split between such contradictory emotions, individuals manage them as a means to negotiate their identities within the religious group and outside of it (Wulff 2007). I will expand on the issues of emotional behavior, performance, and authenticity, connecting them with the case-study of the expansion of the Afro-Brazilian religions in Portugal. In order to do this, the performative side (Beeman 2007; Schechner and Appel 1990) of these religions and the relationship between emotions and issues of authenticity – anchored on the seminal work compiled by Thomas Fillitz and Jamie Saris in the book Debating Authenticity (2013) – will be discussed.