Date of Award
Spring 2022
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Historical & Political Studies; College of Arts & Sciences
First Advisor
Dr. Jennifer Riggan
Abstract
A significant number of practitioners of modern alternative spiritualities adopt rituals, histories, and worldviews from at least one culture that is not their own. The widespread commodification of ideas and values enables the consumption of spiritualities much like the material goods that practitioners may also purchase. The power dynamics between those engaged in cultural appropriation and the group from which they appropriate influence the negative effects of appropriation. The hierarchical power structures of race, class, and colonialism characterize acts of cultural appropriation. Whether an act of borrowing is syncretism or cultural appropriation can often be determined by examining these power differences.
The following analysis will first give a brief background of the primary religions written about in “The Tarot of the Orishas,” Candomblé and Umbanda, and their reception in Brazil (Zolrak and Durkon, 2013). Then it will examine the way Zolrak’s discourse reflects one of the many nuanced interpretations of Umbanda, as well as the cultural heterogeneity of syncretic religion in Brazil. The discourse from the book is presented alongside the context of Brazil’s “politics of whitening,” which attempted to scrub African elements out of the country’s multiculturality. Finally, it will examine the role of Indigeneity in Umbanda and the Noble Savage discourse and imagery present in Zolrak’s interpretation of Umbanda. "The Tarot of the Orishas'' embodies the nuances and intersections in syncretism and cultural appropriation.
Recommended Citation
Park, Rachel, "Cultural Appropriation or Religious Syncretism? An Analysis of the “Tarot of the Orishas”" (2022). Capstone Showcase. 5.
https://scholarworks.arcadia.edu/showcase/2022/is/5
Included in
Latin American Languages and Societies Commons, Other Religion Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons
Cultural Appropriation or Religious Syncretism? An Analysis of the “Tarot of the Orishas”
A significant number of practitioners of modern alternative spiritualities adopt rituals, histories, and worldviews from at least one culture that is not their own. The widespread commodification of ideas and values enables the consumption of spiritualities much like the material goods that practitioners may also purchase. The power dynamics between those engaged in cultural appropriation and the group from which they appropriate influence the negative effects of appropriation. The hierarchical power structures of race, class, and colonialism characterize acts of cultural appropriation. Whether an act of borrowing is syncretism or cultural appropriation can often be determined by examining these power differences.
The following analysis will first give a brief background of the primary religions written about in “The Tarot of the Orishas,” Candomblé and Umbanda, and their reception in Brazil (Zolrak and Durkon, 2013). Then it will examine the way Zolrak’s discourse reflects one of the many nuanced interpretations of Umbanda, as well as the cultural heterogeneity of syncretic religion in Brazil. The discourse from the book is presented alongside the context of Brazil’s “politics of whitening,” which attempted to scrub African elements out of the country’s multiculturality. Finally, it will examine the role of Indigeneity in Umbanda and the Noble Savage discourse and imagery present in Zolrak’s interpretation of Umbanda. "The Tarot of the Orishas'' embodies the nuances and intersections in syncretism and cultural appropriation.