Fetishes and Monuments: Afro-Brazilian Art and Culture in the 20th Century: 6 (Remapping Cultural History, 6)

Sansi, Roger

ISBN 10: 1845453638 ISBN 13: 9781845453633

Publisher: Berghahn Books, 2007

Synopsis

One hundred years ago in Brazil the rituals of Candomblé were feared as sorcery and persecuted as crime. Its cult objects were fearsome fetishes. Nowadays, they are Afro-Brazilian cultural works of art, objects of museum display and public monuments. Focusing on the particular histories of objects, images, spaces and persons who embodied it, this book portrays the historical journey from weapons of sorcery looted by the police, to hidden living stones, to public works of art attacked by religious fanatics that see them as images of the Devil, former sorcerers who have become artists, writers, and philosophers. Addressing this history as a journey of objectification and appropriation, the author offers a fresh, unconventional, and illuminating look at questions of syncretism, hybridity and cultural resistance in Brazil and in the Black Atlantic in general.

About this title

About the Author

Roger Sansi is a Lecturer in Anthropology at Goldsmith’s College, London .He has conducted research on Afro-Brazilian art and culture in Brazil. Recently he has worked on the history of the term “fetish” in the Lusophone Black Atlantic.

Edition details

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1845453638
• ISBN 13: 9781845453633
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 224