Fetishes and Monuments

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.

Roger Sansi is a Lecturer in Anthropology at Goldsmith’s College, London .He has conducted research on Afro-Brazilian art and culture in Brazil. Recently he has worked on the history of the term “fetish” in the Lusophone Black Atlantic.

Roger Sansi is a Lecturer in Anthropology at Goldsmith’s College, London .He has conducted research on Afro-Brazilian art and culture in Brazil. Recently he has worked on the history of the term “fetish” in the Lusophone Black Atlantic.