MOBILITY AND SPIRITUAL AGENCY: TRANSNATIONALISATION OF AFRO-BRAZILIAN RELIGIONS IN MADRID FROM ILÊ OGUM OIÁ AXÉ ODARA
Anthropology of Religion; Afro-Brazilian Religions; Agency of Spiritual Entities; Mobility; Transnationalization.
This thesis investigates how the mobility of people and the agency of spiritual entities influence the transnationalization of Afro-Brazilian religions. The research focuses on the Ilê Ogum Oiá Axé Odara, in Madrid, Spain, where Umbanda, Quimbanda, and Batuque de Nação Jeje-Ijexá are practiced. To achieve the proposed objective, an ethnography was carried out, guided by a willingness to be affected by the field (Favret-Saada, 2005) and an attention to ways of inhabiting the world (Ingold, 2015), based on the shared construction of knowledge. Analyzing the trajectories of the priest Raul de Ogum and his movements between Brazil, Uruguay, and Spain, the thesis examines how these movements contributed to the religious formation and flow of Afro-Brazilian religions. From this perspective, the analysis adopts the notion of movement (Ingold, 2018). The terreiro, in turn, asserts itself as a space of belonging, sustained by doctrines that act as pedagogies to ensure its legitimacy and the continuity of religious practices. The mobility of people is also presented as an important factor in the formation and consolidation of the terreiro, as it is through this mobility that the ethnoscape (Appadurai, 2004) of practitioners, whose trajectories converge in this space, is configured. The anthropologist's own role is understood as part of this dynamic, favoring the expansion of contact networks. Finally, the thesis discusses the agency of spiritual entities as a central dimension in the production of bonds, the expansion of networks, and the consolidation of the terreiro as a legitimate space for religious experience. The agency of these entities is conceptualized through a dialogue with classical debates on agency (Gell, 2016; Ortner, 2007; Latour, 2012) and with recent reflections on the social life of spirits (Blanes and Espírito Santo, 2014). It is concluded that the transnationalization of Afro-Brazilian religions is shaped both by human trajectories and by the agency of spiritual entities.