Media, authority and gentrification in Afro-Brazilian religions
Keywords:
media and religion, Afro-Brazilian religions, gentrification, hierarchy and power, digital cultures, COVID-19Abstract
This article examines how the increasing use of digital media in Afro-Brazilian religions particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic - has reshaped ritual practices, forms of authority, and modes of knowledge transmission. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research in Candomblé and Umbanda communities, it argues that this “digital turn”, stemming from a “crisis of the body,” as the centrality of physical presence - essential for the circulation of sacred energy - is challenged by technological mediation. At the same time, these transformations expand access to ritual knowledge, destabilize traditional hierarchies, and enable the emergence of new religious actors, especially younger practitioners, more adept in digital environments. The article further explores how these shifts intersect with broader processes of religious gentrification, through which practices are increasingly adapted to urban, transnational, and middle-class audiences, becoming more “portable,” didactic, and aligned with contemporary values. Ultimately, it suggests that digitalisation both mitigates moral tensions and fosters the commodification and pedagogization of sacred knowledge, profoundly reshaping how religion is practiced, learned, and legitimised.
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