Peter Burke - Um supermercado de religiões

For me, it was a surprise when I got here for the first time, in the 80s, and the first impression was a variety of religions: Candomble, Umbanda, Catholicism, many kinds of Protestantism, etc. And, in the beginning, I thought the individual would choose only one of these options, and, like in a supermarket, you’ll choose and leave, then I learned it was not like this. My Brazilian family are of Italian and Spanish descent, but, once, in a New Year’s Eve, my wife dressed me all in white, to enter the sea, at the Copacabana beach, with a white flower to praise Yemaja. All of that was normal, one day going to the mass, another praising Yemaja. Of course there are much stronger examples of that, people initiated in Candomble, then celebrating it in a mass in a local church. Also in medicine, because in England it’s much more normal to believe either in medicine, you can call it scientific, orthodox medicine, or alternative medicine. Here, at least my Brazilian family will choose, one day, one option, if it doesn’t work, they will choose the other. So, different domains, such as religion and medicine, as a cultural historian, I started thinking that this might be the special, particular way of Brazilian culture, a great difference between today’s Brazil and England.