Samba in the Night [Hardcover]

David J. Hess (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1994

This book is an absorbing account of an anthropologist's fieldwork and explorations into alternative religions in Brazil that invites the reader into the mysterious world of spirit mediums, poltergeists, psychic surgery, exorcism, and spiritual healing.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Hess, an anthropologist, takes us on a spiritual journey through Brazil's eclectic mystical religions. He covers Spiritism, Kardecism, Umbanda, Candomble and other alternative religions, some with roots in Africa, others of more recent vintage. He emphasizes how race and social class are reflected in the sectarian divisions among these various groups. He also writes of his own personal spiritual search, and of his encounters with such startling phenomena as exorcism, the removal of cysts by psychic surgery, spirit mediums and poltergeists.

From Library Journal

Hess (anthropology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst.) has written an ethnography of his personal journey through Spiritism as well as Kardecism, Umbanda, Candomble, and other alternative religions in Brazil. The emphasis is on Spiritism, a philosophy grounded in science with Christian morality, which is likened to the Brazilian form of Zen Buddhism with talking. Hess's accessible narrative takes the reader on a journey through spirit mediums, psychic surgery (cyst removal), exorcism, and poltergeists. The journey is neither a travelog of Brazil nor a synthesis of the Brazilian religious scene but a fieldwork study of the complex way in which race and social class influence religion. A popular overview of Brazilian religion and society. For appropriate collections.
L. Kriz, Sioux City P.L., Ia.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 214 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press; 1St Edition edition (October 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231084323
• ISBN-13: 978-0231084321
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,346,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars My Summer Vacation, January 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Samba in the Night (Hardcover)

That's what this book's title should be. I have actually read the book, in case you're wondering. The author lacks a minimum knowledge of African religions, of Spiritism as structured by Kardec in France, of how both migrated and evolved in Brazil, and of the Brazilian culture and idiosyncrasy. Finally he absolutely lacks the scientific method one could expect from an anthropologist(perhaps because he attempted to write a paperback novel rather than a scientific study). This book could easily have been written by an undergraduate correspondent of, say, "Let's go Brazil". French Professor Roger Bastide, albeit repeating many of the mistakes that most novices in the field of non-orthodox religions make, had at least a better understanding of the Brazilian history and social strata. Hess' book is very weak.

4.0 out of 5 stars an excellent account of Brazilian religion, April 29, 2011

By 

John Norvell (Claremont, CA NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samba in the Night (Hardcover)

I'm an anthropology professor and a Brazil specialist. This book was innovative and valuable when it first came out and still is. I used it just this year (2011) in a course on Brazil at a top-tier US college. It is an excellent introduction to spiritism, umbanda, and candomblé as practiced in Brazil, and it fulfills its promise of showing how the beliefs and practices of these lived traditions are integrated in wider Brazilian social life. Its methods and writing style are fully compatible with the standards of anthropological ethnographic research established in the 1980s. The author's success in his subsequent career also reinforces its value. Any review which starts out "I have not read this book, but..." should be dismissed out of hand, of course. This book deserves a higher rating.

8 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Can I really trust what I would read in this book ?, April 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Samba in the Night (Hardcover)

I have not actually read the book, so perhaps I have no right to write any comments on it based solely on the bits of information presented in this page. But if you're curious to find out why I took the time to write this, please read on.

First and foremost, Spiritism and Kardecism are two different words for the same belief system. Allan Kardec compiled this doctrine in the 19th century, which he called "Spiritism" to make a clear distinction between this belief system and the broader term "Spiritualism". The latter word refers to the idea of the existence of the immortal "soul" and so one could say that any religion that embraces this idea is spiritualist. Spiritism, on the other hand, is a very well defined belief system composed of philosophical, scientific and religious facets. It does not support mysticism and does not favour the execution of any type of ritual.

Spiritism is a lesson of love and everlasting life in a continued pursuit of self-improvement and harmony with all the creation throughout multiple existences. The title of this work alone seems to associate this doctrine with "music" and "night" giving me the impression that the book is off to a bumpy start. While "music" and "night" are elements of rituals in Afro-Brazilian religions like Umbanda and Candomble, they could not have any relation to a doctrine, which as I said before, has no rituals. It saddens me to see that a scholarly work such as this one can have a title which taken out of context would help to induce one to a misconception. Even if all the facts are set straight as the text goes on, having spotted such contradictory associations in the book's title has lead me to believe that my time would be better spent reading alternative sources.

I suggest the potential reader of this book be aware of these facts before taking to heart the ideas exposed in it and point the interested to the authoritative texts compiled by Allan Kardec which are the most honest and accurate portraial of what Spiritism is all about.