The development of Yorùbá Candomblé communities in Salvador, Bahia, 1835-1986

This project is an attempt to bring together the many fragments of history concerning the Yoruba religious community and their rise to prominence in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, from the mid-nineteenth to the late-twentieth centuries. Given the scarcity of primary sources for this particular subject, it focuses mainly on the works of early Bahian ethnographers as primary sources (even as it analyzes these sources' inherent weaknesses, such as the inability to corroborate much of their information and the cultural biases from which they were constructed), while also incorporating newspaper accounts, police records, oral interviews, and a variety of other innovative forms of evidence. The result is a fascinating historical study of a community characterized by a profound secrecy and a remarkable ability to manipulate or deliberately mislead outside researchers to preserve their own self-interests and protect what they feel is privileged information. --Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction How the Yoruba Became Nagô....Pages 1-13 The African Nations of Salvador....Pages 15-32 The Dispersal of the Yoruba People....Pages 33-48 The Institutionalization of Yoruba Female Power in Nagô Candomble....Pages 49-72 Self-Defense Strategies in Bahian Candomble in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries....Pages 73-102 The Reassertion of Male Participation in the Candomble Priesthood....Pages 103-129 The Popularization of Candomble in the Mid- to Late Twentieth Century....Pages 131-147 Back Matter....Pages 149-200