ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the principal meanings attributed by social actors to their participation in the transnational religious networks. It explains Evangelical churches, primarily Pentecostal, which gather in transnational religious networks around religious agents who circulate among the Southern Cone countries of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. The Afro-Brazilian religions of Rio Grande do Sul are a complex formed by three ritualistic modalities: Batuque, Quimbanda, and Umbanda. Evangelicals and Afro-religious have different motivations for participating in transnational religious networks. The concept of transnationalization is associated with social networks, which ensures its specificity. The deceleration in the transnational flow between Argentina and Rio Grande do Sul was also influenced by the fact that different Argentine Afro-religious leaders in the 1980s cut ties with the Brazilian pais- and maes-de-santo and drew closer to Cuban and African religious leaders. Regardless, the transnational flow across Rio Grande do Sul, Argentina, and Uruguay has never ceased.
