Abstract
This Note presents an analysis of a heterodox science (parapsychology) in a Third World context (Brazil). In Brazil, there is a relative absence of the academic, secular parapsychology of North America and Western Europe, and instead the rival schools of the Catholic Church and the Spiritist movement structure and define parapsychology. Explanatory models involving boundary-work strains and interests help clarify the peculiar structure of Brazilian parapsychology, but they do not explain why this structure exists in the first place, nor why it seems so well adapted to Brazil. Answering this question requires examination of the dual, Afro-Catholic nature of the Brazilian religious system, as well as the importance of personalistic and hierarchical values in Brazilian culture.
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