ABSTRACT

Anthropologists have long emphasized the ethnic aspects of Candomblé, analyzing it as an African or Afro-Brazilian religion, or focusing on specific ethnic traditions within it. More recently, several revisionist works have approached Candomblé as simply a religious recourse—one of many in a generic spiritual marketplace—arguing that Candomblé leaders use ethnicity and concepts of ethnic purity to attract followers. The case of Vila Flaviana, a Salvador Candomblé terreiro (house) that reopened in the early 1990s after having been effectively closed since 1940, however, reveals that Candomblé culture is more complex than either of these approaches suggests. 1 Vila Flaviana’s reopening under the guidance of Valnízia P.O., its young mãe-de-santo (priestess) and the great-granddaughter of the terreiro’s founder, reveals the complex set of networks and dynamic tensions that pervade modern Candomblé.