HAR is pleased to announce one of the latest releases from Encyclopédie Bérose des histoires de l’anthropologie: an article (in English) presenting the history of Afro-Brazilian religious studies from a fresh perspective. A Portuguese version is also available.
BEROSE Reference: Morais, Mariana Ramos de, 2025. “Afro-Religious Anthropology at the Crossroads: Towards Other Histories of the Discipline in Brazil,” Encyclopédie Bérose des histoires de l’anthropologie. https://doi.org/10.70601/2k735b7.
This article examines the intersections between Afro-religious and anthropological practices, seeking to retell the history of the anthropology of Afro-Brazilian religions. It traces this field from its foundational studies at the turn of the twentieth century through the early decades of the twenty-first century, highlighting shifts in the discipline—particularly regarding researchers’ involvement with the religious practices they study. Accordingly, the article pays close attention to the theoretical and methodological approaches adopted by authors from diverse intellectual traditions, as this area of anthropology brings together Brazilian and international scholars trained both in Brazil and elsewhere, while also including Afro-religious practitioners themselves.
The article reviews the formation of the anthropology of Afro-Brazilian religions as documented in the literature, emphasizing the engagement of researchers with the communities they studied, especially practitioners of Candomblé. Mariana Morais then turns to authors whose significance has been increasingly recognized within an anthropology that now more explicitly asserts the presence of Black scholars in its history and practice. In this broader effort to retell the histories—and stories—of the anthropology of Afro-Brazilian religions, Afro-religious practitioners who conducted research on their own traditions, as well as those who later became professional anthropologists, emerge as central figures.
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