Abstract

RAFAEL, Ulisses Neves. Much ado about nothing or “whispered shango”: an ethnography of the “1912 racket” in Alagoas, Brazil. Etnográfica [online]. 2010, vol.14, n.2, pp.289-310. ISSN 0873-6561.

In June 1939, Gonçalves Fernandes visited Maceió, almost thirty years after the episode that became locally known as “1912 racket”, involving the destruction of almost every afro-religious cult house in the state’s capital and neighbouring towns. Gonçalves Fernandes noticed the existence of a religious modality that he called “silent candomblé”, having dedicated to the subject all the first chapter of his book O Sincretismo Religioso no Brasil. The ceremonies carried out in cult houses in Maceió in that period are described by Fernandes as a closed liturgy, with neither dances and chants nor the excitement caused by the drums, being, therefore, ceremonies surrounded by mystery and secret where whispering and non-fancy attitudes prevailed.

Keywords : religious persecution; Maceió/AL; 1912 racket; whispered shango.

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