Without Shibboleths: Yoruba classes in Batuque terreiros and the linguistic nationalism hypothesis

This study observes the study of the yor & ugrave;b & aacute; language by afro-religious groups in Brazil experimenting with the sociolinguistic concept shibboleth, to consider the hypothesis of the imagination of a transatlantic national community. We present the Yor & ugrave;b & aacute; classes of mestre Cica de Oyo in the terreiro of m & atilde;e Sandra de Xapana in Alvorada (RS, Brazil). The language is learned from the Afro-Brazilian cosmopolitics, establishing relations of courtesy and diplomacy that value difference, to enrich liturgical rituals and community memory, as a connecting skill with the heterogeneous and counter-colonial etymology. The study of yor & ugrave;b & aacute; does not seek normative homogenization, challenging the thesis of the ecclesification of the cult of the orix & aacute;s and of reafricanization as a competition for original purity. In conclusion, we discard the shibboleth hypothesis: the study of the language does not establish norms to build a transatlantic Yor & ugrave;b & aacute; nation. On the contrary, it activates agencies between nations, basins, houses, ancestors, gods and devices, valuing multiplicity as a heritage of the Afro-Brazilian matrix.