THEMATIZATIONS OF SYNCRETISM IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF AFRICAN-BRAZILIAN RELIGIONS (1930-1940)

Abstract

This paper addresses the main thematizations of syncretism in the anthropology of African-Brazilian religions in the 1930s and 1940s. After proposing an overall presentation of the topic of syncretism in African-Brazilian literature between 1890 and 1960, I successively indicate the main authors who have written on the subject in the 1930s and 1940s, the typologies that they have proposed, how they have articulated ethnography and theory in their analysis, and the larger political and ideological environment that help to explain the importance of the topic ofsyncretism in the 1930s and 1940s. In the concluding section I establish some connections with ulterior thematizations of syncretism in the 1950s and 1960s.

Keywords Syncretism; history of anthropology; African-Brazilian religions; candomblé