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Paper short abstract:

Through examples from transnational research on Afro-Brazilian practices, this paper seeks to shift the role of the anthropologist as the authority who explains the culture of "the other" to the one of a mediator who opens paths for it to circulate.

Paper long abstract:

In 2020 a religious community of Afro-Brazilian Candomblé performed an artistic ritual in the main hall of one of the most prestigious European museums for contemporary art, the Martin Gropius Museum in Berlin. This paper draws upon the concept and mythology of Exu, West-African god of communication, who opens (and blocks) paths, for presenting my recent research activities involving Afro-Brazilian cultural practices in Brazil and Europe. The aim is to discuss possibilities of turning scientific investigation from an individual theoretical endeavor into a collective means of decolonisation, by prioritising non-Western epistemologies and situated knowledge production. My research turned me into a mediator connecting artistic, religious and academic institutions and individuals across continents – despite being a “Euro-Brazilian”, i.e. a white outsider in my field of research and, at the same time, an immigrant in Europe. From this experience, I propose to shift the role of the anthropologist as the authority who explains the culture of “the other” to the one of a mediator who opens paths for it to circulate. Academic privileges may turn into valuable tools in the service of the communities involved: to legitimate their claims, translate information, adapt presentation forms, increase their visibility while fostering transcultural understanding. Can we move from critical discourses on postcolonial anthropological practices to their practical, collaborative reparation? How can our privileges as European academicians contribute to it?