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Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais

Print version ISSN 0102-6909

Abstract

PINHO, Patricia de Santana. Decentering the United States in the studies of blackness in Brazil.Translated byPatrícia Pinho. Rev. bras. ciênc. soc. [online]. 2006, vol.2Selected edition, pp. 0-0. ISSN 0102-6909.

The predominance of Eurocentric or US-centric perspectives in the social sciences has strengthened the notion that there is an exclusive model of modernity, experienced firstly in the economic centers of the world, and only later adopted in the 'peripheries.' This same logic can be found in studies of blackness in Brazil which have frequently characterized the black experience in the U.S.A. as the most 'modern within the African Diaspora.' In this article I develop a theoretical reflection which aims to overcome the centrality of the United States in the studies of blackness, recovering the notion of the African Diaspora as a multi-centered configuration. In order to do so, I examine the position of the city of Salvador da Bahia as an important center for the formation of the modern world, as well as for the construction of contemporary black identities.

Keywords : Blackness; Modernity; Bahia; World city; Roots tourism.

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