A labyrinth of mirrors: Orientalisms, immigration and discourses about the nation in Brazil

Este artigo analisa a constituição do orientalismo brasileiro nos séculos XIX e XX, interrogando como diferentes dispositivos discursivos articulam-se em torno de objetos construídos como parte de um “oriente” de modo a produzirem distintos regimes de verdade, projetos de realidade e hierarquias culturais. Esta análise do orientalismo brasileiro mostra como ele constitui um campo de discursos, representações e práticas que refletem os imaginários sociais e as ansiedades culturais que circulavam tanto na sociedade brasileira quanto nas comunidades de imigrantes médio-orientais e seus descendentesThis paper analyzes the constitution of Brazilian orientalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It interrogates how discrete discursive regimes articulate around objects constructed as part of an imagined “Orient” as well as which regimes of truth, projects of reality, and cultural hierarchies are produced by them. This analysis of Brazilian orientalism shows how it constitutes a field of discourses, representations and practices that create discrete regimes that reflect the social imaginaries and cultural anxieties that circulate in both the Brazilian society and the communities of Middle Eastern immigrants and their descendant

Ritual, experiência mística e lei islâmica nas comunidades Sufis de Alepo, Síria

Este artigo trata dos processos de elaboração e criação cultural provocados pela adoção local de sistemas jurídicos supralocais ou transnacionais, analisando como os princípios da lei islâmica são incorporados concepções de pessoa, justiça e ordem social entre os adeptos do Sufismo em Alepo, na Síria. O foco da análise está voltado para as mediações, transações e práticas disciplinares - assim como para as autoridades e/ou especialistas que as comandam - que permitem que elementos da lei islâmica sejam incorporados como princípios organizacionais da persona e do self dos agentes sociais, assim como da ordem pública. Os dados etnográficos usados neste texto foram coletados durante meu trabalho de campo nas comunidades Sufis de Alepo, na Síria, de 1999 a 2001 e, novamente, em maio/junho de 2002

TRANSFORMAÇÕES DO PAGANISMO ROMANO

In this text we explore the transformations ocurred in the context of roman paganism, linking the religious process with the social changings in Rome from the Republic to the Christian Empire. Roman paganism was invaded by greek religious forms with the military leaders and after, or the emperors, that became the caracteristic of the "religious renew" of Augustus. The Pax Roman brought an anprecedent moving of populations beliefs and the spreading among the romans of cults from places like Egypt, Minor Asia and Persia. With the Christian Empire. the prohibition of the public cults and the violence against the pagans and their's temples, destroied the mecaninsms of renewing of paganism as a sister?' of beliefs, leading to its declive and desintegattion

Le stigmate du p éché: la l épre au Moyen-Âge

O percurso da lepra e dos leprosos durante o período medieval constitui um objeto privilegiado para o estudo do impacto de uma doença sobre determinada sociedade e dos mecanismos sociais envolvidos na percepção, delimitação e destino das doenças, pois ela atingiu o Ocidente medieval em um momento em que este se definia de forma excludente em relação à alteridade. Os dispositivos que a Idade Média criou para superar a desestruturação trazida pelo advento da lepra, excluindo os leprosos do convívio social e encerrando-os em um universo à parte, o qual despertava, ao mesmo tempo, medo, desconfiança e ódio, tiveram uma enorme aceitação social. Assim, a segregação e o confinamento que se cristalizaram em tomo dos leprosos, apareceram, por muito tempo, no tratamento que a sociedade ocidental dispensou aos seus párias; além disso, a própria medicina ocidental os incorporou como base da ação terapêutica, em que o isolamento dos doentes passou a ser uma via obrigatória para a cura.SimThe trajetory of leprosy and lepers in the Medieval period is a special subject to the study of the impact of a disease on a determined society, and of the social mechanisms implicated on the perception, delimitation, and destiny of the diseases, for it achieved the Medieval Occident in a time when it was defining itself in an excluding way in relation to a change. The mechanisms that the Middle Ages created to overcome the desestabili­zation caused by the forthcoming of leprosy, keeping the lepefs away from the social contact, and locking them in a world apart, that caused fear, suspicion, and hate at the same time, were very well accepted by the society. Therefore, during a long time, the segregation, and confinment that were fixed around the lepers appeared in the treatment that occidental society gave to its social outcasts; moreover, the occidental medicine itself incorporated them as base for the therapeutic action, in which the segregation of pacients became the compulsory way to cure.Le parcours de la lépre et des lépreux durant la période médieval constitue un sujet privilégié pour l' étude d'une maladie sur une société determiné et des mécanismes sociaux engagés dans la perception, delimitation et destin des maladies, car elle a atteint l' occident medieval a un moment ou celui-ci se précise de façon à exclure tout changement. Les dispositifs que le Moyen-Âge a crée pour surmonter la destructuration apporté par l' avénement de la lépre, excluant les lépreux de la fréquentation sociale et les enfermant dans un univers à part, en éveillant, en même temps, peur, méfiance et haine, ont eu une énorme acceptation sociale. Ainsi, la ségrégation et le confinement qui se sont cristallisés autour des lepreux, se sont présentés, pendant longtemps, dans le traitement que la société occidentale a accordé a ses parias; de plus, la médicine occidentale les a incorporé comme base d'action terapeutique, ou l'isolement des maladies est devenu un chemin obligatoire vers la cure

Dangerous Liaisons: Sufism and the State in Syria.

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The Anthropologist and the Initiated: Reflections on the Ethnography of Mystical Experience among the Sufis of Aleppo, Syria

The construction of the religious self of the members of the Sufi communities in Aleppo, Syria, is achieved through the embodiment of principles of the Sufi tradition as a form of corporality that the author calls the mystical body. This corporality is shaped and enacted in the mystical experiences that the Sufis have during the rituals and religious practices linked to their initiation into the mystical path of Sufism. Thus, the author aims at raising some questions about the ethnographic practice of embodied phenomena such as the mystical experiences among the Syrian SufisSimEn Syrie, la construction du self religieux des membres des communautés soufies d’Alep se réalise à partir d’une incorporation des principes de la tradition soufie, en tant que forme particulière de corporalité, que l’auteur nomme: le corps mystique. Cette corporalité est déterminée et guidée par les expériences mystiques que les soufis partagent lors de leur initiation à la voie, grâce à des rituels et des pratiques religieuses. Ainsi, l’auteur s’interroge sur la pratique ethnographique appliquée à un phénomène incorporé, tel que les expériences mystiques des sufis syrien

Arab Ethnicity and Diasporic Islam: A Comparative Approach to Processes of Identity Formation and Religious Codification in the Muslim Communities in Brazil

The Arab community in Brazil comprises an estimated 4–6 million immigrants and their descendants and was created by an almost continuous flux of immigrants from the Middle East (Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine) since the nineteenth century. While until the 1970s the Arab immigrants were Christians in their great majority, since the 1980s most immigrants from the Middle East are Muslims. The Muslim community in Brazil has about 1 million members today. The Muslim presence is almost exclusively urban, with important communities in São Paulo, Foz do Iguaçu, Curitiba, and, to a lesser extent, Rio de Janeiro. The vast majority of Muslims in Brazil are Arab Middle Eastern immigrants from Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Territories or their descendants. There are also some African immigrants (from Senegal and Nigeria) and a small but growing number of Brazilian converts without any Muslim or Arab ancestry. Arab Muslim communities and identities in Brazil are formed by very complex articulations between transnational and local interpretations and practices of Islam and Arab identities, which emerge and gain reality within the cultural and sociological framework of each locality. Therefore, this article aims to analyze the constitution of Muslim identities among Arabic-speaking immigrants and their descendants in Brazil, showing how the relation between Arab ethnicity and Muslim identity is shaped by processes that connect local, national, and transnational realities.Si

The Religious Dynamics of the Syrian-Lebanese and Palestinian Communities in Brazil.

This article analyzes the role of religious identities in the constitution and negotiation of the cultural differences and social position of the Arabic-speaking immigrants in Brazil since the end of the nineteenth century. Religious identity was an important form of social classification for both the immigrants and the Brazilian society. Among the immigrants, affiliation to one of the many religious communities present in the Middle East provided access to institutions and networks of solidarity within the larger group of Arabic-speaking immigrants in Brazil. Conversely, conversion to Catholicism was an important element in the process of cultural integration that was expected to accompany upwards social mobility in the Brazilian society. Religious imaginaries and religious identities were intertwined with the ethnic and national identities that the Arabic-speaking immigrants mobilized in order to build a community and negotiate their presence in the Brazilian society. Therefore, this analysis will focus on in the role of religious traditions and institutions in the ways through which Arab, Syrian-Lebanese and Palestinian ethnicity have been negotiated, transmitted and reinvented in Brazil.Si

Pilgrimage, Commodities and Religious Objectification: The Making of Transnational Shiism Between Iran and Syria

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