Between Tradition and Globalization Institutional Revivalism in Arab Christian Communities in Brazil
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This article analyzes revivalist projects promoted by Arab Christian institutions in Brazil as a response to the crisis faced by ethno-religious communities in recent decades, marked by the distancing of people of Arab descent from sacred spaces and the need to adapt liturgies to the Brazilian context. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2022 and 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Minas Gerais, the article shows that revivalism, while coordinated with ecclesiastical authorities in the Middle East and the diaspora, relies on local dynamics to succeed. Drawing from the cases of the Catedral Ortodoxa São Nicolau do Rio de Janeiro (Saint Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro) and the Maronite Parish of Saint Charbel in Campinas (Paróquia Maronita São Charbel do Rio de Janeiro), I identify three central axes of these initiatives: the valorization of ritual tradition and its performative techniques, the transmission of religious knowledge, and the promotion of community events, treated here as social situations. By emphasizing the active role of religious institutions in the construction of identities in the diaspora, the article contributes to studies on religion and ethnicity in the age of globalization and secularization.
Article Details
Section
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors will maintain copyright and cede the journal the right to publish, unde license Creative Commons-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Attribution 2.0 Generic.
Authors are responsible for textual content, taking into consideration that the journal uses anti-plagiarism tool and adheres to the ethical guidelines for publication of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Code of Ethics American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Code of Good Scientific Practice - FAPESP, and the Council of Science Editors (CSE).
For translated articles or those in foreign languages, please contact the responsible editors to avoid conflicts of copyright policy regarding publication.
How to Cite
References
Asad, T. (1993). Genealogies of religion: Discipline and reasons of power in Christianity and Islam. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Bakour, H. B. (2007). A Igreja Ortodoxa Antioquina na cidade do Rio de Janeiro: Construção e manutenção de uma identidade religiosa diaspórica no campo religioso brasileiro [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Federal Fluminense].
Bandak, A. (2015). Exemplary series and Christian typology: Modelling on sainthood in Damascus. In A. Bandak & L. Højer (Eds.), The power of example: Anthropological explorations in persuasion, evocation and imitation (pp. 47–63). Royal Anthropological Institute.
Barth, F. (2000). O guru, o iniciador e outras variações antropológicas. Contracapa.
Barth, F. (2005). Etnicidade e o conceito de cultura. Antropolítica, (19), 15–30.
Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The location of culture. Routledge.
Bogomilova, N. (2004). Reflexions on contemporary religious revival: Religion, secularization, globalization. Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe, 24(4), 1–11.
Buzalka, J. (2008). Syncretism among the Greek Catholic Ukrainians in Southeast Poland. In S. Mahieu & V. Naumescu (Eds.), Churches in-between (pp. xx–xx). Lit Verlag.
Cruz, R. A. B. (2018a). Lugares de interseção: Espaços sagrados melquitas e dinâmicas identitárias no Líbano [Tese de doutorado, Universidade Federal Fluminense].
Cruz, R. A. B. (2018b). Primos em Minas: Processos de construção identitária na comunidade árabe de Juiz de Fora. Autografia.
Cruz, R. A. B. (2023). Turismo religioso e construção identitária entre os cristãos libaneses do Rio de Janeiro. Trabalho apresentado na XIV Reunião de Antropologia do Mercosul, Universidade Federal Fluminense.
Cruz, R. A. B. (2024). Arenas of Charisma: Memory and devotion to Abūnā Bshara Abou Mourad in the construction of the Greek Catholic community in Lebanon. Revista Antropolítica, 56(3), 1–23.
Durkheim, É. (1968). Formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse: Le système totémique en Australie (5ª ed.). Presses Universitaires de France. (Obra original publicada em 1912)
El-Ghandour, T. (2024). A caminho da salvação: Reflexões para o dia a dia. Literaturaforte.
Gluckman, M. (1987). Análise de uma situação social na Zululândia moderna. In B. Feldman-Bianco (Org.), Antropologia das sociedades contemporâneas: Métodos (pp. 237–364). Global.
Hannerz, U. (1996). Transnational connections: Cultures, people, places. Routledge.
Hervieu-Léger, D. (1999). Le pèlerin et le converti: La religion en mouvement. Flammarion.
Hervieu-Léger, D. (2000). Religion as a chain of memory (S. Lee, Trans.). Rutgers University Press.
Herzfeld, M. (2005). Cultural intimacy: Social poetics in the nation-state. Routledge.
Ho, E. (2006). The graves of Tarim: Genealogy and mobility across the Indian Ocean. University of California Press.
Karam, J. T. (2009). Um outro arabesco: Etnicidade sírio-libanesa no Brasil neoliberal (D. Bottman, Trad.). Martins Fontes. (Obra original publicada em 2007)
Knowlton, C. (1961). Sírios e libaneses: Mobilidade social e espacial. Anhambi.
Mendes, N. R. (2013). “Líbano no coração”: Revivalismo religioso e mobilização étnico-nacional na comunidade maronita do Rio de Janeiro [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade Federal Fluminense].
Pinto, P. G. H. da R. (2010). Árabes no Rio de Janeiro: Uma identidade plural. Cidade Viva.
Roudometof, V., Agadjanian, A., & Pankhurst, J. (2005). Eastern Orthodoxy in a global age: Tradition faces the 21st century. Rowman Altamira.
Tambiah, J. S. (1985). Culture thought and social action. Harvard University Press.
Truzzi, O. (1997). Patrícios: Sírios e libaneses em São Paulo. Hucitec.
Truzzi, O. (2016). Religiosidade cristã entre árabes em São Paulo: Desafios no passado e no presente. Religião e Sociedade, 36(2), 266–291.
Truzzi, O. (2019). Sírios e libaneses no oeste paulista – décadas de 1880 a 1950. Revista Brasileira de Estudos Populacionais, 36, 1–27.
Whitehouse, H. (2000). Arguments and icons: Divergent modes of religiosity. Oxford University Press.