A second general remark is that houses of recent foundation, when they want to stress their ritual fidelity to an African nation, usually do so by establishing some direct or indirect link with the matrix houses founded by Africans in the preAbolition period. In so doing, the 'religious nation' does not immediately remit to an abstract, imagined community sharing the same beliefs and ritual knowledge, but rather, in the minds of practitioners and devotees, it is anchored in very concrete congregations they can somehow relate to. It is at this basic sociological level of the house (ilé), and by connecting with the most prestigious and oldest local congregations, that a sense of ritual sharing and collective participation is activated. The imagination of a translocal and inclusive 'religious nation' that interconnects many congregations, unifying them into a larger community of belonging (its broadest expression being a transnational Atlantic community such as the Yoruba orisha religion), is only achieved as a byproduct of the first level of the house identification. In other words, the nation is first and foremost imagined around local congregations, often the oldest and most prestigious houses.