Umbanda: Religion and Politics in Urban Brazil

Diana DeG. Brown's Umbanda, Religion and Politics in Urban Brazil, published by Columbia University Press in 1994, is an academic monograph examining Umbanda, the Brazilian religion blending African, Indigenous, Catholic and Spiritist elements, and its entanglement with twentieth century Brazilian politics, including how the movement sought social legitimacy and state recognition during periods when African derived religion faced discrimination. Brown conducted direct fieldwork within Umbanda communities in Brazil. Its strength is treating Umbanda's development as inseparable from Brazilian political history rather than describing its ritual practice in isolation from the social pressures that shaped it. Its limit is that the fieldwork and analysis are grounded in a specific period of twentieth century Brazilian history, so a claim about Umbanda practice or its political standing today needs more recent scholarship alongside this historically grounded account.