DOC Waterloo: In the Footsteps of the Commanders by Jonathan Gillespie-Payne in History

Description

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.