New Age Religions in Belem, Brazil: Between Cosmopolitism and Local Identity

This article examines the penetration of groups and religious doctrines connected with New Age phenomenon in Belem, Para. While highlighting the existence of groups with no fixed leadership and eclectic individual searches, the research also discusses the existence of a set of religions and doctrines with give strong emphasis to the collective element. I characterize those groups as New Age Religions because they add value to a New Age sense of community, built from patterns inscribed in modernity. The existence of New Age Religions in Belem indicates pluralization of the religious field in the Amazon, influenced by new experiences and identities that arose in modernity.