Ancestral Echoes
When the Beat Becomes a Crime Meter: Brazilian Courts Tell Cops to Back Off the Terreiros
It starts the same way almost every time: a neighbor calls, the cops show up, the drums fall silent. Afro-Brazilian terreiros—those sacred yards where atabaques mark the rhythm of the gods—are often treated like noisy bars rather than temples. The charge is always the same: “perturbação do sossego”