One Term Covering Two Different Syntheses

Casa de santo names the same basic unit, a household gathered around a religious lineage, in both Cuba and Brazil, but the term covers two traditions that developed the idea in different directions. In Cuba it overlaps closely with the ile of Santeria, a household built around Yoruba orisha worship reorganised under slavery and paired with Catholic saints for cover and correspondence.

In Brazil the term extends beyond Candomble's terreiros to cover the houses of Umbanda, a tradition that only took shape in the early twentieth century, chiefly in and around Rio de Janeiro, out of a deliberate blending of Afro-Brazilian spirit and orisha devotion with Kardecist spiritism, a French inspired movement organised around communication with the dead through mediums, and with elements drawn from Brazilian popular Catholicism and indigenous spirits as well. An Umbanda casa de santo can therefore look doctrinally quite different from a Candomble terreiro even while using the same vocabulary of house, godparent and religious family, since Umbanda's spirit guides, its emphasis on mediumship and its more explicitly Brazilian, syncretic self understanding set it apart from Candomble's closer adherence to specifically Yoruba, Fon and Central African ritual forms.