Umbanda and Batuque in the Southern Cone: Transnationalization as cross-border religious flow and as social field

ALEJANDRO FRIGERIO

The Diaspora of Brazilian Religions

Brill

Lugar: Boston; Año: 2013; p. 165 - 195

Afro-Brazilian religions arrived in Argentina in the late 1960s, experienced a rapid growth in the 1980s with the return of democracy to the country, and are at this moment witnessing a second phase of growth. This chapter will describe this evolution, analyzing it within a transnational frame of reference. I see the growth of Afro-Brazilian religions in the Southern Cone as an example of transnationalization from below, one that is not primarily caused by immigration, since these religions were not taken to Argentina or Uruguay by Brazilian migrants. Thus far, transnationalism ‘from below’ has been conceptualized in two main ways: either as the circulation or flow of people and/or different goods from one country to another or as the establishment of a social field composed by a variety of networks that transcend national boundaries. These ways of conceiving transnationalism are not mutually exclusive, but each of them highlights, different social processes and consequences. Here I shall try to employ both, in order to show how they shed light different aspects of the transnationalization of Afro-Brazilian religions.