Apesar dos estudos sobre o tema das religiões de matrizes africanas já realizados no país, ainda subsiste o desconhecimento e a discriminação em relação a elas, por parte significativa da população brasileira. Não obstante a produção existente é imperativa a necessidade de novas abordagens e perspectivas de análise. Esse é o objetivo desta Comunicação: traduzir numa linguagem clara e fundamentada as práticas rituais, a configuração do espaço sagrado e o culto as divindades do panteão africano, especificamente do Candomblé. O texto (...) apresenta uma compreensão e interpretação do sistema religioso dessa religião, tendo como base pesquisa recente realizada nos terreiros do município de Contagem, região metropolitana de Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Finalmente, o trabalho reconhece a complexidade do universo simbólico ora apresentado, reafirmando a necessidade de novos estudos sobre o tema, a fim de tornar esse universo compreensível e cada vez mais familiar. Tarefa não muito fácil, mas necessária enquanto exigência legal e democrática do direito de culto de todos os cidadãos. Palavras-chave : Candomblé. Terreiro. Orixá. Iniciação. Mitos.Although studies on the subject of African Brazilian religions, there still remains the ignorance and discrimination towards them for a significant part of the population. Notwithstanding the existing production, new approaches and perspectives of analysis are needed. For this purpose, the present study translates into clear language some ritual practices, the configuration of the sacred space and worship performed to the deities of the African pantheon, specifically the Candomblé. The text presents an analysis and interpretation of the religious system of that religion, based on a recent survey conducted in the “terreiros” of Contagem, a metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Finally, the paper acknowledges the complexity of the symbolic universe of that region and reaffirms the need for further research on the topic, in order to make this reality understandable and increasingly familiar. This task is not easy, but it is necessary as a legal requirement and also as a democratic right of worship for all citizens. Keywords: Candomblé. Terreiro. Orisha. Initiation. Myths. (shrink)

Brazilian spiritistic religions have developed along elaborate historical and cultural trajectories with spirit mediumship as a central feature of ritual practice in Candomblé, Umbanda, Kardecismo, and similar groups. In these studies, several Brazilian spiritistic practitioners who worked as mediums were interviewed and, in some cases, tested with psychological measures for dissociation using the Dissociative Experiences Scale, for absorption using the Tellegen Absorption Scale, and for sexual orientation using the Kinsey Scale. Few significant gender differences were noted in these measures. In (...) two cases, psychophysiological measures were employed including electroencephalography, heart rate, skin conductance, and electromyography. In general, the research participants scored highly on measures of dissociation while scoring in the average range on absorption (using U.S. norms). The psychophysiological results indicated that for the two spiritistic practitioners investigated overall peripheral autonomic nervous system activation was negatively associated with sympathetic cortical level deactivation. The data suggested a psychophysiological incongruence between the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system functioning on the part of the two practitioners. However, the two variables were positively associated and congruent in data obtained from a control subject. Interview data identified five ways in which mediums received their "call to heal," visions, dreams, and unexpected incorporations being the most frequent factors cited. One medium who engages in surgical procedures was observed; tissues were collected from ten clients and were found to be consistent with the site of the surgery. In conclusion, it is apparent that mediumship is a complex phenomenon, one deserving of further investigation by anthropologists, psychologists, and sociologists interested in human consciousness, in indigenous health care, and in the psychophysiology of practitioners who claim to work under the direction of spirit entities. (shrink)

A diversidade dos cultos e práticas religiosas afro-brasileiras e a consequente multiplicidade das suas experiências já foram ressaltadas pelos estudiosos do fenômeno principalmente na virada do milênio. Propomos-nos nesse texto a discutir de que forma essas religiões conseguiram preservar traços marcantes das culturas e crenças passadas de geração em geração e ao mesmo tempo, modernizar suas práticas e modos de vivenciar a experiência religiosa uma vez que precisam adaptar-se aos novos tempos e, portanto, a novas expectativas e anseios dos praticantes. (...) O cenário em que estabelecemos este debate é o estado de Pernambuco, mais particularmente as religiões afro-brasileiras nesse estado. O exercício metodológico aqui realizado parte das nossas experiências de campo, juntamente com entrevistas realizadas, somadas as reflexões teóricas a partir das quais chegamos a compreensão que o “Candomblé” em Pernambuco se moderniza tentado conservar as suas tradições. As práticas religiosas estão mais abertas, mais espetacularizadas, agora também fazem parte do patrimônio histórico da sociedade. Palavras-chave: Modernização. Fenômeno religioso. Espetacularização. Cultura. Candomblé.The diversity of Afro-Brazilian cults and religious practices as well as the resulting multiplicity of its experiences has already been highlighted by researchers of the religious phenomenon, mainly in the turning of the millennium. In this text we propose to discuss in which way those religions were able to preserve hallmarks of the cultures and beliefs passed on through generations and at the same time modernize its practices and ways of living the religious experience once they need to adapt to the new times and, therefore, to new expectations and wishes of the believers. The scenario in which we establish this debate is the state of Pernambuco, particularly the Afro-Brazilian religions in this state. The methodological exercise herein fulfilled comes from our field experiences, alongside with interviews made, and added to the theoretical reflections from which we arrive to the comprehension that the “Candomblé” in Pernambuco modernizes itself by trying to preserve its traditions. The religious practices are more open, more spetacularized, and now it is also a part of society’s historical heritage. Keywords: Modernization. Religious Phenomenon. Spetacularization. Culture. Candomblé. (shrink)

O presente artigo pretende analisar a ideia de pessoa entre os yorùbás da África Ocidental, a partir da conceção de orí , i. e., a cabeça, entendida entre eles como portadora de personalidade e destino, ideia amplamente difundida pela literatura sobre a matéria da personalidade humana e sentidos de destino. A partir do orí , adentrar-se-á pela problemática da predestinação entre os yorùbás e o sentido do ritual de alimento à cabeça, o b ọ rí, entre os yorùbás, com referência (...) aos afro-brasileiros do Candomblé. A problematização conduzir-nos-á à constatação da pluralidade interpretativa do objeto, ao mesmo tempo que nos deixará diante da questão linguística da tradução dos conceitos, facto que influi na própria construção teológica. Ao mesmo tempo estaremos diante da construção histórica da religião yorùbá, notoriamente uma religião dinâmica e mutável que se fabrica nos diálogos com o cristianismo e islamismo. Processos de transformação que, aliás, são transponíveis para o Brasil, onde a celebração do orí se apresenta de modo diferenciado face à realidade autóctone africana. Palavras-chave : Yorùbás. Concepção de pessoa. Orí. Predestinação. Bọrí.The present paper aims to analyze the idea of person among the Yorùbá people of Western Africa, taking into account the conception of orí , i.e., the head, which is understood by them as the bowl of human personality and destiny. Those ideas are clearly present in the plural literature concerning the human personality and its destination among the Yorùbá people. Taking the orí as starting point, I shall problematize the predestination idea among the Yorùbá and the meaning of the b ọ rí , the ritual presented as ‘feeding-the-head’. Such process will be extended to Afro-Brazilian religious system named Candomblé. The problematization will guide my observation to the dramatic plurality of interpretations concerning destiny, while it will spell out the linguistic dilemmas around the translation of concepts. Those dilemmas influence, clearly, the theological construction of the object. At the same time, the paper will deliver us to the evidence of the historical construction of Yorùbá religion, which is a mutable and dynamic religious expression, highly crossed with Christianity and Islam (in African contexts). Those processes of transformation are also clear in Brazil, where the celebration of orí has different religious attitudes comparing to African native ones. Keywords: Yorùbá. Idea of person. Orí. Predestination. Bọrí. (shrink)

Husserl and Spatiality is an exploration of the phenomenology of space and embodiment, based on the work of Edmund Husserl. Little known in architecture, Husserl's phenomenology of embodied spatiality established the foundations for the works of later phenomenologists, including Maurice Merleau-Ponty's well-known phenomenology of perception. Through a detailed study of his posthumously published and unpublished manuscripts, DuFour examines the depth and scope of Husserl's phenomenology of space. The book investigates his analyses of corporeity and the 'lived body,' extending to questions (...) of intersubjective, intergenerational, and historical spatial experience, what DuFour terms the 'environmentality' of space. Combining in-depth architectural philosophical investigations of spatiality with a rich and intimate ethnography, Husserl and Spatiality speaks to themes in social and cultural anthropology from a theoretical perspective that addresses spatial practice and experience. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Brazil, DuFour develops his analyses of Husserl's phenomenology through spatial accounts of ritual in the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé. The result is a methodological innovation and unique mode of spatial description that DuFour terms a 'phenomenological ethnography of space.' The book's profoundly interdisciplinary approach makes an incisive contribution relevant to academics and students of architecture and architectural theory, anthropology and material culture, and philosophy and environmental aesthetics. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung In diesem Beitrag geht es vor dem Hintergrund verschiedener Neokapitaltheorien um Bestimmungsmöglichkeiten eines spirituellen bzw. religiösen Kapitals und die solchen Kapitalformen zugrunde liegenden Begriffe von Religion und Spiritualität. Ein eigener Ansatz wird in die Diskussion gebracht, der eine Ausdifferenzierung in spiritualisierendes und spirituelles, exoterisches religiöses und esoterisches religiöses Kapital vorschlägt. Die vorgeschlagenen Begriffe werden anhand aktueller Entwicklungen in der afrobrasilianischen Candomblé-Religion erörtert.

Resumo "O candomblé aceita o homossexualismo porque é uma religião que não tem pecado. Não interessa se você seja homem, mulher ou gay. Não importa a opção sexual. (...) Você pode ver. É uma religião de homossexuais". É assim que um filho-de-santo responde a uma pergunta sobre a notável presença de homossexuais iniciados na religião dos orixás. Se comparadas a outras denominações hostis e indiferentes às orientações não-heterossexuais, o candomblé e outras devoções afro-brasileiras são, de fato, mais tolerantes à participação (...) de homossexuais, permitindo-lhes ocupar todos os postos previstos na hierarquia ritual. Embora estejam entre as expressões religiosas que menos discriminam o indivíduo por razões de preferência sexual, percebemos por meio da literatura especializada e de uma pesquisa de campo, realizada na região metropolitana de São Paulo, que os candomblecistas também empregam em seus discursos argumentos ou narrativas míticas, certos princípios e valores seculares articulados à moralidade cristã e que dão sustentação à hierarquia de sexo/gênero - conforme alguns sacerdotes, as categorias homem/mulher e masculino/feminino devem corresponder às expectativas sociais esperadas para cada ser sexuado. Em virtude disso, tratar de homossexualidade nas comunidades-terreiro, ao contrário do que possa parecer, é um tema delicado, restrito e rodeado de tabus. Palavras-chave: Candomblé; Gênero; Sexualidade; Homossexualidade." Candomblé accepts homosexualism because it is a religion where sin does not exist. It does not matter whether you are a man, a woman or gay. Your sexual choice does not matter. [...] You can see it. It is a religion of homosexuals." This is how a filho-de-santo answers a question about the remarkable presence of homosexuals initiated into the orixás ' religion. If compared to other denominations, hostile or indifferent to nonheterosexual orientations, candomblé and other Afro-Brazilian religions are indeed more tolerant to the participation of homosexuals, allowing them to hold all positions in the ritual hierarchy. However, based on the literature and on a field research carried out in the São Paulo metropolitan region, we realized that those affiliated to candomblé , although following one of the religions with the lowest degree of prejudice against individuals due to their sexual preference, also employ in their discourse arguments or mythical narratives, secular principles and values articulated with Christian morality, which support the sex/gender hierarchy: according to some priests, man/woman and male/female categories must correspond to the social expectations of each sexual being. Thus, on the contrary, approaching homosexuality in Afro-Brazilian religious communities is a delicate and restricted matter, surrounded by taboos. Key words: Candomblé; Gender; Sexuality; Homosexuality. (shrink)

Esta obra pretende atender uma necessidade referente ao tema imposto pela Lei 10.639, de 09 de janeiro de 2003, que inclui nos currículos escolares a temática afro-brasileira. Não é uma obra que aborda preceitos, rituais, mitos e fundamentos religiosos. Mas sim que trata de questões éticas, sociais, filosóficas e históricas sobre o culto aos Orixás no Brasil.

Trilogia da ancestralidade : ensaios de filosofia Africana -- Introdução -- I. Verso e re-verso da pureza nagô -- II. Da pureza nagô à (re) Africanização -- III. Da (re) Africanização à ancestralidade -- Considerações finais.

Theology as a science reflects the phenomena that in some way constitute the experience of faith in society, that is, looking at the world and the various periods of history with the help of the various sciences: anthropology, the sciences of religion and sociology. With the black traffic of the African continent, came the various customs lived in Africa: culture, religiosity, African myths, beliefs in the Orixás, all these elements constituted the Brazilian cultural imaginary. Thus syncretism arises as a (...) form of resistance and survival of faith. The Church with the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar declarations opens a new way of being in the world, valuing dialogue with other religions and cultures. (shrink)

This article explores the history of Vodou from outlawed African dance to revolutionary magic to depoliticized national Haitian religion and popular dance, its present reduction to Diaspora interpersonal healing, and a possible future. My first section, on Kate Ramsey’s The Spirits and the Law: Vodou and Power in Haiti, reveals Vodou as a sociopolitical construction of racist legal oppression of Africana dances rituals, and artistic-political resistance thereto. My second section, on Karen McCarthy Brown’s Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in (...) Brooklyn, a “postmodern ethnography” of intersectional oppressions and Black female Haitian resistance in the Diaspora, foregrounds the figure of Gedelia, a feminist variant on Papa Gede, central Vodou spirit (lwa) of resurrection and healing. Finally, my last section, on the “observing participant” analyses of Black dance anthropologist Yvonne Daniel’s Dancing Wisdom: Embodied Knowledge in Haitian Vodou, Cuban Yoruba, and Bahian Candomblé, finds a dancing Gedelia in her centering of Oyá, a warrior spirit of storms and death. On this basis, I propose the figure of tornadic black angels as a possible magical tool (in Vodou, a pwen, or “point”) intended to re-spiritualize and thereby re-politicize the secularized and whitewashed social Latin dance called “salsa” for social justice. (shrink)

The penetration of the Amazon region by the great religious movements of Europe and Africa began with the first phases of colonial domination, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The initial influence to be felt was Iberian Catholicism (the religion of the conquerors), which spread along the rivers as missions sprang up here and there. This period of missionary activity continued for over a century, bringing with it a host of consequences, most notably waves of epidemics that killed millions (...) of natives. Nevertheless, an initial “syncretic alliance” was forged in the missions between shamanism and Catholicism.From another quarter came legions of black slaves, exiled to the New World during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to replace the decimated native workforce; with them they brought their own religions and religious practices, which they transplanted, in a more or less transformed state, to all corners of the South American continent. The resulting Afro-American religions were practiced secretly by broad masses and in this way were fused with Amerindian religions (the case of pagelano in Brazil) and with “official” forms of Catholicism (tcmbanda and candomblé, among others). (shrink)

La evangelización es el resultado de la unión entre la libertad de expresión y la libertad religiosa. Al buscar convencer sobre la veracidad de sus creencias, puede constituir discursos de odio religioso, fomentar la intolerancia, la hostilidad y la discriminación contra minorías históricas y socialmente estigmatizadas. Algunas obras publicadas por líderes católicos y evangélicos fueron objeto de juicios, acusadas de promover el odio religioso mediante la demonización de los Candomblés, de las Umbandas y del Espiritismo. Las mismas surgen de los (...) imaginarios para concretizarse luego en violencias físicas y morales. Las crecientes prácticas de intolerancia religiosa desafían la laicicidad del Estado, y es en este marco que nos cuestionamos, respecto de las religiones afro-brasileñas: cuáles son los argumentos constitucionales presentados por el Supremo Tribunal Federal para no reconocer ni responsabilizar el discurso evangelizador de los cristianos que se manifiesta como discurso de odio; por qué los criterios constitucionalmente reconocidos para caracterizar el discurso de odio racial no fueron aplicados de manera coherente e íntegra en el juicio sobre evangelización y discurso de odio religioso; bajo qué argumentos el discurso de odio contra las religiones de matrices africanas puede ser considerado racismo religioso; qué otras dimensiones presenta el racismo religioso en la sociedad brasileña; cómo se manifiesta el racismo religioso en tanto apropiación cultural y racismo ambiental. (shrink)

Evangelization is the result of the union between freedom of expression and religious freedom. When one attempts to convince someone of the truthfulness of one's beliefs, one can construct discourses of racial hatred, foment intolerance, hostility, and discrimination against minorities that are historically and socially stigmatized. Works published by catholics and evangelicals have been the object of lawsuits in which they were accused of promoting religious hatred by demonizing Afro-Brazilian religions such as candomblé, umbanda, and spiritism. This imaginary later leads (...) to concrete moral and physical violence. The growing practices of religious intolerance defy the State's lay character. I therefore question the arguments presented by the Supreme Court not to recognize or make accountable Christians' evangelizing discourse that manifests itself as hate speech; why the constitutional criteria recognized to characterize racial hate speech have not been applied in coherent and integral fashion in the trial that dealt with evangelization and religious hate speech; under what arguments hate speech against religions of African matrix can be considered religious racism; what other dimensions religious racism takes in Brazilian society; how religious racism manifests itself as cultural appropriation and environmental racism. (shrink)

The presence of women in possession cults has frequently been noted. Thus women are usually the priviliged religious participants in Haitian Voo-doo and in the African Bori Hausa. Even allowing for the distinction of whether the role of religious chief is held by a male or a female, it seems women are in the majority in the cases representing almost the totality of those cultists who fall into a trance. In this article we propose to compare the position of women (...) within two possession cults in Brazil. One, Candomblé is of African origin; the other, Umbanda, is a synthesis of African religions, Catholicism, and the spiritism of Allan Kardec. We shall attempt in each case to associate the religious position of women with the social position they exercise in each society. (shrink)

This paper is a critic analysis of a doctorate thesis and a master dissertation, which subjects are the samba and the afro religions in the city of São Paulo. Both consider the samba and the religion as manifestations and cultural expressions through which the black population in afro-diaspora rebuilded and reupdated memories via religiosity, rythm, dance and performan.

The penetration of the Amazon region by the great religious movements of Europe and Africa began with the first phases of colonial domination, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The initial influence to be felt was Iberian Catholicism (the religion of the conquerors), which spread along the rivers as missions sprang up here and there. This period of missionary activity continued for over a century, bringing with it a host of consequences, most notably waves of epidemics that killed millions (...) of natives. Nevertheless, an initial “syncretic alliance” was forged in the missions between shamanism and Catholicism.From another quarter came legions of black slaves, exiled to the New World during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to replace the decimated native workforce; with them they brought their own religions and religious practices, which they transplanted, in a more or less transformed state, to all corners of the South American continent. The resulting Afro-American religions were practiced secretly by broad masses and in this way were fused with Amerindian religions (the case of pagelano in Brazil) and with “official” forms of Catholicism (tcmbanda and candomblé, among others). (shrink)

As religiões de matriz africana no Brasil possuem um rico e complexo sistema de crenças, ritos e mitos que caracterizam a sua experiência religiosa. Este trabalho limita-se a estudar alguns temas religiosos do Candomblé de raiz nagô. A ideia de criação funda-se na concepção de um duplo cosmos, organizado em dois planos: o universo físico (aiyê) e o seu duplo espiritual (órum). Deus (Olorum), concebido como ser supremo e criador de todos os outros seres, estabelece relação com os seres humanos (...) pela mediação dos ancestrais coletivos (Orixás) e familiares (Egúns). Não há uma separação nítida entre os Orixás, enquanto divindades relacionadas às forças da natureza, e os ancestrais fundadores do povo. A partir dessas concepções, destaca-se o Axé como o elemento mais importante dessa tradição, perpassando todo o seu drama religioso na busca de uma experiência na participação na força vital (Deus), envolvendo a vida dos adeptos e as suas relações sociais na comunidade do terreiro de Candomblé. Palavras chave: Espiritualidade nagô. Religiosidade afro-brasileira. Axé.The religions of African origin in Brazil have a rich and complex system of beliefs, rites and myths, which characterizes their religious experience. This work aims to study some of the religious themes' Candomblé Nago. The idea of ​​creation is based on the design of a dual cosmos, organized in two levels: the physical universe (Aiye) and its spiritual double (Orum). God (Olorun), conceived as the supreme being and creator of all other beings, establishes relationship with humans through the mediation of collective ancestors (Orishas) and their families (EGUNS). There is no clear separation between the Orishas as deities related to the forces of nature, and the founding ancestors of the people. Based on these concepts, the Axe is highlighted as the most important element of this tradition, passing all his religious drama in search of an experience of participation in the life force (God), involving the lives of followers and their social relations within the community of Candomblé titled Terreiro. Key-words: Nago spirituality. Afro-Brazilian religiosity. Axé. (shrink)