Exploring the Spiritual Landscape of Sidney Greenfield
From Brooklyn to Brazil: The Anthropologist's Journey
Join us as we delve into the early life of Sidney Greenfield, a pioneering anthropologist who has profoundly influenced the understanding of religion in both Brazil and the United States.
The Remarkable Journey of Sidney Greenfield
Sidney Greenfield rocketed from a humble beginning in Brooklyn to the top of his profession in anthropology. Although his parents were never interested in religion, somehow Greenfield is now one of the leading authorities on religion among Brazilians and an astute observer of the new trends among Christian nationalists. Greenfield goes where the evidence is, whether in the Caribbeans Islands, the jungles and favelas of Brazil, or the mushrooming religious congregations of Brooklyn.
On Journey TV, we start coverage of his story from Brooklyn to graduate school. Later, we plan on covering his scholarship up to today.
Sidney Greenfield's Legacy in Anthropology
Pioneering Research in Brazil
“The first time I witnessed a Spiritist surgery, a young man named Jose Carlos Ribeiro inserted a used scalpel taken from a tray that I was holding, and plunged it into the eye of an elderly man. The patient did not move….”
Inspired Research on Brazilian Pentecostalism in NYC
Insights into religious syncretism
This book highlights the ways in which religions and cultures on both sides of the Atlantic have been assimilated and innovatively changed. The book focuses on religious syncretism in Brazil, Jamaica, and other parts of the Caribbean and West Africa.
Institutional Affiliations
Professor of Anthropology Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Co-chair of the Columbia University Seminars on Brazil, Studies in Religion and Contents and Methods in the Social Sciences.
Research
Ethnographic research in Barbados and New Bedford, Massachusetts, but mostly in Brazil, and ethnohistorical and historical research in Portugal and the Atlantic Islands on problems ranging from family and kinship, patronage and politics, the history of plantations and plantation slavery and entrepreneurship to Spiritist surgery, religion and healing, spirit medium-ship, syncretized religions and Evangelical Protestants in Brazilian politics.
Publications
He is author and/or editor of nine books, producer, director and author of five video documentaries, and has published some 150 articles and reviews in books and professional journals.
Insights on NYC Religions
David Gibson on The Odyssey, Pope Leo & AI
Timeline of Golem in NYC from Biblical times to AI
20251005
Sukkot ends tonight! The meaning of our journey with Rabbi Soloveichik
Rabbi Dr. Meier Soloveichik, Congregation Shearith Israel and The Straus Center, Yeshivah University
