Page 51 - Aesthetic Formations Media, religion, and the Sense

36 Mattijs van de Port

crucial role in the attempts of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá to police the boundaries
of its imagined religious community; how the performance of silence
(which paradoxically requires a constant breaking of the silence) seeks to
contain noninitiates in the role of ignorant yet awestruck spectators, and
how priestly power over religious meaning can thus be regained.

The Public Life of Candomblé

In Bahia, Candomblé has always been a public presence, but, for reasons
that I have elaborated elsewhere, from the 1920s onward Candomblé has
become the “mastercode” of contemporary Bahian culture politics: its
symbols, images, myths, philosophies, rhythms, and aesthetics have been
endlessly reworked and publicly displayed to signify Bahia’s unique cul-
tural character (Dantas 1988; Johnson 2002; Santos 2005; Van de Port
2006, 2007). Huge statues representing the orixás have been erected at
central points in the Bahian capital Salvador, Candomblé terreiros have
been put on the list of the state’s historical monuments, and—as can be
deduced from the opening night of the Cultural Week—politicians regu-
larly appear in front of the cameras with Candomblé priestesses to make
sure that their links with the Candomblé universe are publicly known. On
the commercial front, Bahiatursa, the state tourist organization, is fully
involved in the dispersion of Candomblé imagery so as to create a recog-
nizable and marketable profile on the global market for exotic travel: a visit
to a nightly ceremony of Candomblé is now an obligatory element in the
Bahian tourist program. Shopping malls, hotels, streets, and condomini-
ums have been named after the orixás. Advertising agencies time and again
seek recourse to Candomblé imagery to sell products as varied as typewrit-
ers, apartment buildings, garden furniture, and insurances.
As stated, this overall interest in the cult, and the ubiquitous presence of
Candomblé imagery in the Bahian public sphere, has produced a steady
stream of visitors to the terreiros, seeking knowledge by asking questions:
tourists, journalists, artists, intellectuals, and a large number of anthropolo-

gists. Consequently, the cult is inscribed into an ever more colorful fan of
narratives as to its meaning and significance. Social movements—blacks,
gays, ecologists, feminists, progressive Catholics—have “discovered” the
expressive potential of Candomblé, recognizing it as a proto form of their
emancipatory struggles and politics, and have come to understand Cando-
mblé as the “exemplary gay friendly religion,” a “site of black resistance,” and
“a form of ecological consciousness.” In other circuits Candomblé has been
interpreted as a kind of astrology, as the immaterial cultural heritage of the