A B S T R A C TAlternative politics of democracy shape and are shaped by dominant forms of democracy in circular fashion. In 2009 practitioners of Brazil's many Afro-Brazilian religions gathered in Salvador to develop a religiously grounded mode of democratic politics. Mobilizing a religious formulation of respect, participants in the gathering subsumed government ideals of democratic practice under Afro-Brazilian religious norms of hierarchy and the social order that they presupposed. These efforts were predicated on an artful combining and adapting of democratic and religious discourses and interactional practices. The Afro-Brazilian religious politics of democracy that was articulated by this political project did not only reflect religious valorizations of hierarchy but it also established a new foundation for democratic politics in Brazil. [alternative democracy, active citizenship, deliberation, religious activism, respect, Afro-Brazilian religions, Brazil] Políticas alternativas de democracia moldam e são moldadas por formas dominantes de democracia de maneira circular. Em 2009 praticantes das várias religiões afro-brasileiras se reuniram em Salvador para desenvolver um modo de política democrática com fundamentos religiosos. Mobilizando uma formulação religiosa de respeito, os participantes da reunião subordinaram os ideiais governamentais de prática democrática a normas religiosas afro-brasileiras de hierarquia eà ordem social que tais normas pressupõem. Esses esforços se basearam na astuta combinação e adaptação de discursos e práticas interativas de caráter democrático e religioso. A política religiosa afro-brasileira de democracia articulada por esse projeto político não apenas refletia valorizações religiosas de hierarquia, mas também estabeleceu um novo fundamento para a política democrática no Brasil. [democracia alternativa, cidadania ativa, deliberação, ativismo religioso, respeito, religiões afro-brasileiras, Brasil]

Este artigo estende a análise de Ana Paula Mendes de Miranda quanto à complexa relação entre as ideologias raciais brasileiras e a hostilidade às religiões de matriz africana, bem como à "política dos terreiros" advinda dessa relação, situando-as em um contexto mais amplo de debates sobre o tipo de sociedade que o Brasil é e deveria ser. Para este fim, será examinado como as noções de racismo religioso, de discriminação e preconceito religioso e de liberdade religiosa foram e são articuladas de diferentes maneiras por tribunais brasileiros e por militantes de religiões de matriz africana, e como essas articulações são diferentemente posicionadas e constitutivas das contestações sobre as relações entre Estado e religião.

Latin American state efforts to recognize ethnically and racially marked populations have focused on knowledge and expertise. This article argues that this form of state recognition does not only call on subaltern groups to present themselves in a frame of expertise. It also pushes such groups to position themselves and their social and political struggles in a matrix based on expertise and knowledge. In the context of early 2000s Brazil, the drive to recognition led activists from the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé to reimagine the religion's practitioners' longterm engagements with scholars and scholarly depictions of the religion as a form of epistemological exploitation that had resulted in public misrecognition of the true source of knowledge on the religion: Candomblé practitioners.To remedy this situation, the activists called on Candomblé practitioners to appropriate the "academic's tools," the modes of representation by which scholarly expertise and knowledge were performed and recognized by the general public and state officials. This strategy transformed religious structures of expertise and knowledge in ways that established a new, politically efficacious epistemological grounding for Candomblé practitioners' calls for recognition.But it also further marginalized temples with limited connections or access to scholars and higher education. [politics of recognition, politics of expertise, state recognition, Candomblé religion, Brazil] RESUMEN Esfuerzos estatales Latinoamericanos para reconocer poblaciones marcadasétnica y racialmente se han enfocado en conocimiento y pericia. Este ensayo argumenta que esta forma de reconocimiento del estado no sólo llama a grupos subalternos a presentarse así mismos en un marco de pericia, sino también presiona a tales grupos a posicionarse así mismos y sus luchas sociales y políticas en una matriz basada en pericia y conocimiento. En el contexto de Brasil de principios de los 2000s, el impulso al reconocimiento llevó a los activistas de la religión Afrobrasileña Candomblé a reimaginar los compromisos de largo plazo de los practicantes de la religión con investigadores y representaciones académicas de la religión como una forma de explotación epistemológica que había resultado en desreconocimiento público de la verdadera fuente de conocimiento de la religión: los practicantes de Candomblé. Para remediar esta situación, los activistas llamaron a los practicantes de Candomblé a apropiarse de las "herramientas académicas," los modos de representación por los cuales la pericia y el conocimiento investigativo se llevaron a cabo y fueron reconocidos por el público en general y los funcionarios del estado.Esta estrategia transformó las estructuras religiosas de pericia y conocimiento en formas que establecieron una nueva base epistemológica eficaz políticamente para los llamamientos por reconocimiento de los practicantes de

Allegations of religious intolerance push courts to deliberate on questions that are constitutive of the problem space of secularism. In addition to legal opinions on the character and scope of religious freedom vis-à-vis conflicting rights, these arbitrations result in authoritative statements on what constitutes religion, how it may inhabit public space, and, ultimately, what interests and values underpin the national collective. This article analyzes three high-profile court cases alleging religious intolerance against Afro-Brazilian religions that were tried in Brazil during the first two decades of the 2000s. It demonstrates how at this time of rapid religious transformation the adjudication of such cases acted as a key site for the Brazilian legal establishment to redefine the place of religion in the broader context of rights and laws that regulate religion in public spaces.