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An indifferent society may end up To the advance of obscurantism, it is began to be punished for expressing
victimized by its inertia. Brazil is a secular necessary to respond with information themselves critically about the ongoing
country, the Constitution protects all and legal action. The darkness has always conflict in the Middle East, particularly if
religious manifestations and there is used an alliance with violence to reach it was unfavorable to the State of Israel.
freedom of worship. It is necessary its objective, which is undoubtedly the Attacks against free expression have
to report and react. The denunciation establishment of a theocracy, a theocratic, become commonplace. In November, the
of art! Brazilian report on the case of dogmatic and authoritarian State. We venerable Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei had
sabotage of the Our Sacred Collection are now witnessing the emergence of an his exhibitions in London, New York and
had positive repercussions from civil “evangelical” current of drug trafficking, Paris suspended after questioning the war’s
society. IpHaN, responding to a request the so-called “narcopentecostalism”, arguments on social media. Other artists,
from the Museum of the Republic, officially claiming prominence in the communities such as actress Susan Sarandon and singer
adopted the collection›s name as Nosso and hills of Rio de Janeiro. The mystical Roger Waters, lost agents and contracts
Sagrado (its previous name, coined by the association between evangelicals and because of their critical attitude.
Civil Police, was Black Magic Collection). Israeli symbols is also pronounced in this But it’s difficult to cover the sun with
In 2023, the Minister of Human Rights context – there is even an area named Israel a sieve. On Hollywood Oscar night in
and Citizenship, Silvio Almeida, signed Complex by a criminal faction. Complexo early March, music and film superstars
an agreement with the Museum of the de Israel is the name given to the group like Billie Eilish and Mark Ruffalo sported
Republic to promote a survey of all of favelas dominated by drug trafficker red pins in support of a ceasefire in the
processes in Brazil involving the seizure Álvaro Malaquias Santa Rosa, known as Gaza Strip. There were also protests
of objects from Afro-Brazilian cults. Shared Peixão, who dominates the areas of Cidade outside the Kodak Theater, one of the
management was also established (the first Alta, Vigário Geral, Parada de Lucas, Cinco places where the Oscars ceremony was
in the country) between the museum and Bocas and Pica-pau. Around 134 thousand held, with hundreds of protesters calling
religious leaders of African origin (led by people live there. The expansion of the for an end to the massacre. And, upon
Mãe Meninazinha, from Ilê Omolu Oxum, gang to two locations that have never been receiving his award for Best Foreign Film,
in São João do Meriti). Now, the researcher dominated by drug traffickers is also being Briton Jonathan Glazer, the director of
and former curator of the Instituto dos investigated: Estrada do Porto Velho and Zone of Interest, a film based on a story
Pretos Novos, Marco Antônio Teobaldo, Rua Lyrio Maurício da Fonseca, in the Brás about the Nazi concentration camp in
is doing a pioneering master›s thesis de Pina region. Auschwitz (based on a novel by Martin
(supervised by Mario Chagas, director Theologian Romi Bencke, who is pastor Amis), also drew attention to the massacre
of the Museu da República), on Terreiro of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran in the Middle East. Taking the stage with
Museology, to update the academy on the Confession in Brazil, points out a clear producer James Wilson, Glazer, who is
importance for the historical and intangible polarization around the biblical image Jewish, said: “All of our choices are made
heritage of the terreiros. He himself is an of the God of War (or God of Armies), an to reflect and confront ourselves with the
iaô (son of a saint) of Ilê Omolu Oxum, image that sacralizes the subjugation of one present. Not just to say ‘look what they did’,
and has already had other agreements people over another and ethnic cleansing; but also ‘look at what we’re doing now’. Our
between Ilê and the museology faculty at an anti-image of the sacred, contrary to film shows that dehumanization leads us
Unirio. And, recently, at an international life, because it authorizes bombings, to the worst,” he said.
museum congress in Sicily, he included censorship and prohibits any attempt at
the Museology of Terreiro in the event’s peace. “There is a tendency towards the CULTURaL WaR / ReLIgION [pageS 62 TO 71]
final document. The importance of this is advancement of a religious culture that
the technical recognition, on the part of is less open in relation to behavior, arts AGAINST
museology, that one cannot take a piece of and acceptance of other religions. This is FUNDAMENTALIST
land, a sacred artifact of ancestral worship, noticeable in Brazil through a Christianity ERASION, THE STRENGTH
and treat it with conventional European that is increasingly self-centered and
methods: placing it in a showcase, closed to accepting new agendas on OF THE SHAMANS
classifying and restoring the based on human rights and cultural and religious bY LUIz bOLOgNeSI*
the traditional parameters of museology. diversity. Moralism is taking precedence
It is a significant advance. over the ability to welcome, without prior thE EVangEliCal, Jesuit, Capuchin
Afro cults have been the target of religious censorship, the different manifestations and now neo-Pentecostal Protestant
hatred for centuries, and this hatred is being of human creativity”, analyzed Romi. “In violence, which is based on this evangelical
renewed among neo-Pentecostal hosts. other countries, like India, we see the same Protestant church that comes from the
A few days ago, in Sepetiba, in the West thing, only in the Hindu version. I think that, United States and invades Latin America
Zone of Rio, faithful from the Ogum Beira if the Brazilian State better understood the from the 1960s onwards – begins, in
Mar Spiritist Center found their Umbanda meaning of secularism guaranteed in the fact, in the 1950s, but it is in the 1960
terreiro overturned and with images of saints Constitution, its agents could play a relevant that it invades –, which takes over here,
broken, an action that has been constantly role in guaranteeing coexistence between is an ideological process of capital
repeated. It is not exclusive to Brazil: there is different world views. Unfortunately, domination. These neo-Pentecostals are
intolerance on all sides. Often, fear is an ally however, governments tend to establish a also attacking indigenous villages, places
of obscurantists, as in the recent case of a utilitarian relationship with religious groups, of African religiosity, Candomblés and
university in Texas, Houston, which canceled with only possible electoral gains as their Umbandas, and destroying everything,
Pakistani artist Shahzia Sikander’s lecture horizon. This happens both from parties but it is a process that begins in the 16th
due to attacks she suffered for a public art that present themselves as left-wing or century, so we have to have this historical,
sculpture called Witness, a figure with goat progressive, as well as from right-wing retrospective view.
horns and tentacular arms. A Texas far- and extreme-right parties.” I understand that it is an extremely
right group accused the figure of praising Censorship is also expanding. In the violent process. Alongside gender violence,
“satanic images”. wake of informational hegemony, artists it is the most violent process in America,

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