Page 49 - Aesthetic Formations Media, religion, and the Sense

34 Mattijs van de Port

is such that considerable variation is found in doctrine as well as in ritual
(Capone 1999; Santos 1995; Wafer 1991; Matory 2005). The autonomy of
individual terreiros is further increased by the absence of a central institu-
tion with enough power to impose a canon of Candomblé orthodoxy. This
multifariousness of religious practices does not mean, however, that the
Candomblé universe is heading toward ever greater fragmentation. Cultists
retain a strong sense of community, especially now that the cult is threat-
ened by increasingly powerful Pentecostal churches, which have designated
Candomblé as the prime site of “devil worship” (see also Oosterbaan in
this volume). Another force that seems to work toward homogenization,
rather than fragmentation, comes from a relatively small number of ter-
reiros belonging to the Nagô-Ketu tradition. With historical records that
go back to the first half of the nineteenth century; with a highly presti-
gious clientele of artists, intellectuals, media celebrities, and local politi-
cians; and with the “certificates” of purity and authenticity conferred by
generations of anthropologists who have studied them, the Nagô-Ketu ter-
reiros have managed to acquire so much prestige and status that their par-
ticular understanding of the “religion of the orixás” is highly influential
among the more peripheral terreiros in Salvador. Many of the latter try to
mimic the rituals, ceremony, and aesthetics of the more prestigious cult
houses and seek to incorporate some of their doctrinal rigor and orthodoxy
(on the ascendancy of the Nagô cult in Candomblé, see Capone 1999;
Dantas 1988; Parés 2006).
Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá is one of these prestigious terreiros in Salvador. Of
all the terreiros, it is probably most actively engaged in reconstructing a
public face for Candomblé. The Cultural Week was very much part of this
effort.

A Polite Request to Please, Shut Up

Long before the Cultural Week took place, Mãe Stella wrote a booklet
called Meu Tempo é Agora (My Time Is Now, 1993): a curious mixture of
autobiography, religious guidebook, and etiquette manual for terreiro life.
She wrote:

Our religion is so strong and so mysterious that it raises the curiosity of
those who are outside. They seem to think that a host of curious questions,
sometimes even impertinent ones, is synonymous with knowledge. But I
tell you, those ways are dangerous, leading into true labyrinths, and with
3
dire results. I therefore advise the visitors and friends of the Axé: don’t ask
questions, just observe! (Azevedo 1993, 88)