International Journal of Language & Literature

Afro-Derived Religions on the Web and Global Diaspora
Ricardo Oliveira de Freitas

Abstract
Through websites, mailing lists, discussion groups and social networks focused on issues of religiosity of African origins, I evaluate the contribution of the Internet to the creation of a new network of sociability that is built through the replacement of the real terreiro (sacred houses where candomblé’s rituals take place) by the virtual terreiro. The text analyses also the transformations experienced by religions centered on oral tradition into hypertextual religions, by [re]configuring themselves in the virtual space, image-text space, hypertext space. This fact points to a new reality: the democratization of knowledge (even of the secret, the liturgical knowledge) and the opening to a new configuration of the diasporic Afro-derived religious field as a space for the global dissemination of Afro-derived religions, with the offer of magical-religious services or as an identity resource; a moment in which the Internet transforms religions previously considered as religions for minorities into global religions and, hence, in inclusive religions.

Full Text: PDF      DOI: 10.15640/ijll.v12n2a1