The workshop APPROACHES TO SPIRITUAL AND RITUAL PRACTICES IN AFRO-LATIN AMERICAN RELIGIONS, led by Prof. Dr. Lucio Menezes Ferriera of the Federal University of Pelotas (Brazil) and a Bonn International Fellow for 2026, is aimed at students and researchers from the University of Bonn, as well as from other universities, who are interested in the materiality of Afro-Latin American spiritual practices.
Drawing on objects from the BASA Museum, Prof. Dr. Menezes will address this topic through three specific segments: 1. Stories beyond the human in the Black Atlantic, 2. ‘Means of survival’ in the archives of the African diaspora, 3. Ancestral technologies and the archaeology of spiritual practices in Afro-Latin America. This will enable participants to gain new perspectives on Afro-Latin American archaeological, cultural and social anthropological studies and to engage more deeply with them in current debates.