Santo Daime

Glossary

Religious syncretism

Religious syncretism is the blending of two or more belief systems into something new, or the absorption of elements from an unrelated tradition into an existing one.

A useful lens for this glossary

Scholars distinguish syncretism from related ideas such as multiple religious belonging, where a person practices two traditions side by side without merging them, and from polytheism, which describes belief in many gods rather than the mixing of traditions as such.

Santo Daime is itself often described as a syncretic tradition, drawing together Catholic devotion, Amazonian indigenous plant knowledge, and — through its alliance with Umbanda — Afro-Brazilian religious practice. Many of the entries elsewhere in this glossary, from saints paired with Orixás to shared ritual vocabulary, are instances of that broader pattern.