“Who can own the abode of gods?”

Land, terrain, terreiro

Abstract

What happens when orixás, ancestors and spirits extrapolate the walls of terreiros to settle in bureaucratic documents and agencies? What occurs when they produce the metropolis and else the very architecture of institutions? The present article explores the reciprocal contamination between nomos (the normative world of the state) and axé (the afro-atlantic normative world), based on the first process of recognition of a candomblé temple (Casa Branca do Engenho Velho, in Salvador, Bahia) as national cultural heritage in Brazil during the 80’s. Throughout the conflict (both over tenure and ontology) involving the maintenance of the dwelling of black gods, contrasting imaginations about land (and its reconversion to ground) and nation (in its interwoven multiplicity) cohabitate in discourses and practices of the povo-de-santo as well as in mythologies and rites of public staff, dispossessing the meanings of city, rights, heritages and patrimonies.