O Fazer-se do povo de santo: política, religiosidade negra e imprensa na Bahia (1970-1980)

Abstract

The thesis examines the formation of the Povo de Santo (Afro-Brazilian religious community) in Bahia inquiring relevant press news which reflect the social, racial, political, and cultural dimensions of such a experience. Newspapers published in Salvador in the seventies of the twentieth century provide an ostensive collection of evidence of the making of this political-religious identity. The making of the Povo de Santo is here apprehended within the boundaries and circuits of a social history of culture, involving a tense, rough and unpredictable process of continuities and changes in discourses, values, and social practices. In that sense, the dialogue with anthropology has been recognized as a productive contribution. The text addresses individual and collective experiences of Afro Brazilian priests and priestesses, examining relations of domination and power, in an attempt to demonstrate how the Povo de Santo made itself, beyond the walls of the temples, in its encounters and conflicts with and within the public sphere