Bahian white: the dispersion of candomblé imagery in the public sphere of bahia
ABSTRACTFor most of its history, candomble was a marginal and persecuted spirit possession cult. From the 1920s onward, however, the cult evolved into the “trademark” of Bahia, a state in northeastern Brazil. The color white—a spotless and impeccable white—has come to dominate the public face of the cult: evoking positive connotations such as cleanliness and purity, the color helped to portray candomble as the splendid cultural heritage of the Bahian state as well as a respectable African religion. However, the “politics of white” has always been intersected by a “poetics of white,” as Bahian artists, writers, and other image producers sought to destabilize the condoned meanings of white. Hinting at that which is absent from the impeccable surfaces of candomble's public appearance, this “poetics of white” produced a layered public understanding of the cult. As people engage in speculations over the “true” candomble that lies hidden behind its public facade, claims to be “in the know” reconfigure the notio...
Religious circulation in Transatlantic Africa
This special issue explores and analyzes the ways in which African or Africanderived religions travel in the contemporary transatlantic space. By accounting for the recreation of African religions in culturally diverse contexts, this issue aims to discuss different forms of religious circulation between Africa, Europe, and theAmericas. Here, the term religious circulation is a heuristic device as an invitation to consider new transnational circuits, while it also describes forms of sociocultural and religious mobilities. It highlights the multi-directional character of religious flows that expose the connections and (dis)continuities in the making of Africa in the Atlantic world. In this framework, we pay particular attention to the role of ‘mutable mobiles’ in the circulation of religions – things, discourses, and practices that spread over various sites and differentmoments in time, takingdifferent shapesbut coexisting inoneparticular Atlantic space. The transatlantic space functions as a hub of African religiosities in the making. Studies about religion and globalization have explored how religious practices and discourses are transported, transformed, and reinvented when transferred to new places (e.g. Csordas 2009; Hüwelmeier and Krause 2009). In line with the broader field of transnational studies that examines the multiple ties and interactions that link people or institutions across the borders of nation-states (Basch et al. 1994; Levitt and Glick Schiller 2004; Vertovec 2009), scholars have been looking at the role of religion, in particular, in the movement and integration of migrants (e.g. Grillo 2004; Leonard et al. 2006; Levitt 2007; Van Dijk 2004; Wilkinson 2006). Many of these studies focus on South-North and East-West links, ranging from transnational Islam in Europe to the presence of African or Latin American migrant churches in Europe or NorthAmerica. The latter introduced the issue of ‘reversemission’ as an important subject of discussion that corrects the dominant vision of the globalization of Western Christianity, showing the importance of Southern Christianity (Adogame 2013; Freston 2009; Knibbe and van der Meulen 2009; Währisch-
Natural Radioactivity of Intrusive-Metamorphic and Sedimentary Rocks of the Balkan Mountain Range (Serbia, Stara Planina)
Stara Planina (also known as the Balkan mountain range) is known for numerous occurrences and deposits of uranium and associated radionuclides. It is also famous for its geodiversity. The geologic framework is highly complex. The mountain is situated between the latitudes of 43° and 44° N and the longitudes from 22°16′ to 23°00′ E. Uranium exploration and radioactivity testing on Stara Planina began back in 1948. Uranium has also been mined in the zone of Kalna, within the Janja granite intrusive. The naturally radioactive geologic units of Stara Planina are presented in detail in this paper. The main sources of radioactivity on Stara Planina can be classified as: 1. Granitic endogenous—syngenetic–epigenetic deposits and occurrences; 2. Metamorphogenic—syngenetic; and 3. Sedimentary, including occurrences of uranium deposition and fluctuation caused by water in different types of sedimentary rocks formed in a continental setting, which could be classified under epigenetic types. The area of Stara Planina with increased radioactivity (higher than 200 cps), measured by airborne gamma spectrometry, is about 380 square kilometers. The highest values of measured radioactivity and uranium grade were obtained from a sample taken from the Mezdreja uranium mine tailing dump, where 226Ra measures 2600 ± 100 Bq/kg and the uranium grade is from 76.54 to 77.65 ppm U. The highest uranium (and lead) concentration, among all samples, is measured in graphitic schist with high concentrations of organic (graphitic) material from the Inovska Series—99.47 ppm U and 107.69 ppm Pb. Thorium related radioactivity is the highest in granite samples from the Janja granite in the vicinity of the Mezdreja granite mine and the Gabrovnica granite mine tailing dump, and it is the same—250 ± 10 Bq/kg for 232Th, while the thorium grade varies from 30.82 to 60.27 ppm Th. In gray siltstones with a small amount of organic material, the highest radioactivity is related to potassium—2080 ± 90 Bq/kg for 40K.