1st Edition
Religion, Migration, and Mobility The Brazilian Experience
Focusing on migration and mobility, this edited collection examines the religious landscape of Brazil as populated and shaped by transnational flows and domestic migratory movements. Bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives on migration and religion, this book argues that Brazil’s diverse religious landscape must be understood within a dynamic global context. From southern to northern Europe, through Africa, Japan and the Middle East, to a host of Latin American countries, Brazilian society has been influenced by immigrant communities accompanied by a range of beliefs and rituals drawn from established ‘world’ religions as well as alternative religio-spiritual movements. Consequently, the formation and profile of ‘homegrown’ religious communities such as Santo Daime, the Dawn Valley and Umbanda can only be fully understood against the broader backdrop of migration.
Contributors draw on the case of Brazil to develop frameworks for understanding the interface of religion and migration, asking questions that include: How do the processes and forces of re-territorialization play out among post-migratory communities? In what ways are the post-transitional dynamics of migration enacted and reframed by different generations of migrants? How are the religious symbols and ritual practices of particular worldviews and traditions appropriated and re-interpreted by migrant communities? What role does religion play in facilitating or impeding post-migratory settlement? Religion, Migration and Mobility engages these questions by drawing on a range of different traditions and research methods. As such, this book will be of keen interest to scholars working across the fields of religious studies, anthropology, cultural studies and sociology.
Introduction: Religion, Migration, and Mobility: Setting the Scene
Cristina Maria de Castro and Andrew Dawson
Part 1: Migration
1 Perceptions and Practices of the Hijab among Muslim Migrants in Brazil
Cristina Maria de Castro
2 Christian Religiosity among Arabs in Brazil: Challenges Past and Present
Oswaldo Truzzi
3 Brazilian Jewish Communities: Globalization and Glocalization
Marta F. Topel
4 Japanese ‘Immigrant Buddhism’ in Brazil: Historical Overview and Current Trends
Frank Usarski
5 Post-migratory Identity Formation among Pentecostal Bolivian Migrants in São Paulo
Márcia M. C. M. de Souza and Silas Guerriero
6 Religion and Life among Armenian Brazilians
Roberto Grün
Part 2: Mobility
7 Transnational Trajectories and Regional Migratory Networks: Brazilian Religious Mobility Across the Southern Cone
Ari Pedro Oro
8 New Religious Movements and Globalizing Brazilian Modernity
Andrew Dawson
9 From Brazil to the World: The New Christian Missionaries
Cecília L. Mariz
10 Forest, City, and World: The Regional and Global Expansion of Santo Daime
Glauber Loures de Assis
Biography
Cristina Maria de Castro is Professor of Sociology of Religion at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Andrew Dawson is Professor of Modern Religion in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University, UK.
"Religion, Migration and Mobility: The Brazilian Experience is a valuable contribution to religion and migration studies. The authors employed multi-disciplinal approaches and varied research methodologies in demonstrating how migration and transnational flows shape Brazil’s contemporary religious landscape." –Vivienne SM. Angeles, La Salle University, USA
"Brazil is one the most religiously diverse countries of the world. Cristina Maria de Castro and Andrew Dawson highlight how Brazil’s religious landscape has been shaped by both transnational flows and domestic dynamics associated with migration. The book is an important contribution that furthers our understanding of the complex processes of religious localization in globalizing societies." –Tuomas Martikainen, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
