Layered Diasporas

Abstract

The introduction, “Layered Diasporas,” discusses Palmares in relation to concepts and events in Brazil and also Africa and Latin America. The “layered diasporas” that shaped Palmares are explored through the book’s five thematic parts. Part I, “War and Conquest,” situates the violences leveled against Palmares during the seventeenth century and its legacies after that. Part II, “People,” examines the human lives and diasporas emanating out of Palmares. Part III, “Spirits,” discusses African and Afro-diasporic religious beliefs and practices. Part IV, “Places,” employs environmental history to trace post-1695 legacies of Palmares. Part V, “Deaths and Rebirths,” traces the story of Palmares into the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries.