"Historical Archaeology and the Material Expressions of Religiosity in African Diaspora in Brazil in the 18th and 19th Centuries"
Historical reports from the nineteenth-century, in northern Brazil, describe maroon settlements with “houses of saints”. These houses presented, in their interior, “extravagant dolls made of wood, gourds fulfilled with herbs, and stones”. Starting from this kind of description and based on historical, ethnographic and archaeological sources, this lecture will explore the material expressions of Bakongo religiosity in Africa and in the Portuguese America from the 18th century to the present.
