The forest rises, dust lifts, stones fall, and the earth trembles: the destruction of an afroindigenous temple in Chapada Diamantina National Park

Abstract

This article follows the relationship between jarê and the landscape through an ICMBio enforcement operation carried out in 2024 in Chapada Diamantina National Park (Bahia, Brazil), which resulted in the destruction of an afroindigenous temple and the removal of a caboclo settlement. The action disregarded the bonds among bodies, landscape, spirits, and care practices that shape the ways of living among jarê communities. The violence of the act is rendered invisible in the reconstruction process of the temple set in motion by ICMBio. In contrast, the settlements and paths traced by healers point to alliances that challenge the separation between nature and the supernatural. These alliances resist ecological simplification and constitute other ways of inhabiting that do not distinguish religion from nature. Inspired by Bispo dos Santos, I trace the effects of the spiritual and material attack on these temples and the collective mobilization that rises in response.