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Religious Matrifocality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Renato Ortiz
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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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 27 , Issue 105 , March 1979 , pp. 38 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 In this see M. Lewis, Ecstatic Religion, London, Penguin Books, 1971.

* A lexicon of terms used by Afro-Brazilian religions is given at the end of the article.

2 Ruth Landes, "A Cult Matriarchat and Male Homosexuality", Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, vol. XXXV, 1940, pp. 386-397.

3 Ruth Landes, The City of Women, New York, The MacMillan Company, 1947.

4 Ruth Landes, "A Cult Matriarchat and Male Homosexuality", p. 393.

5 Edson Carneiro, Candomblés da Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Ed. Ouro.

6 Arthur Ramos, Pesquisas Estrangeiras sôbre o Negro Brasileiro in Acultu ração Negra, Rio de Janeiro, Ed. Cia Nacional, 1942, pp. 183-195; and Melville J. Herskovits, "The City of Women," American Anthropologist, vol. L, n. 1, 1948, pp. 123-125.

7 For a discussion of the attitude of Arthur Ramos toward Ruth Landes see Edson Carneiro, U ma Falseta de A. Ramos, in Ladinos e Crioulos, Civilisação Brasileira, 1964, pp. 223-227.

8 Arthur Ramos, op. cit.

9 Melville J. Herskovits, op. cit.

10 René Ribeiro, "Personality and the Psychosexual Adjustment of Afro-Brazilian Cult Members," Journal de la Société des Américanistes, t. LVIII, 1969, pp. 110-119; Roger Bastide, As Religiões Africanas no Brasil, Saõ Paulo, Ed. USP, 1971; Nunes Pereira, A Casa das Minas, Rio de Janeiro, 1947; Seath and Ruth Leacock, Spirits of the Deep, Doubleday Natural History Press, New York, 1972.

11 Binon Cossard, O Candomblé Angola, thèse de 3e cycle, E.P.H.E., 1970, p. 43.

12 René Ribeiro, op. cit., p. 111.

13 Vivaldo da Costa Lima, quoted by René Ribeiro, op. cit., p. 111.

14 René Ribeiro, op. cit., p. 113

15 Binon Cossard, op. cit., p. 226.

16 Jean Ziegler, Les Vivants et la mort, Paris, Le Seuil, 1975, chap. 1.

17 René Ribeiro, op. cit.

18 On this see Nina Rodrigues, L'Animisme fétichiste des Nègres de Bahia, Bahia, 1900.

19 Nancie Gonzalez, Toward a Definition of Matrifocality in Afro-American Anthropology, New York, Whitten and Szwed, ed., 1970, pp. 231-243.

20 For a more detailed analysis of the hierarchical organization of Candomblé, see Edson Carneiro, op. cit.

21 Binon Cossard, op. cit., p. 84.

22 Edson Carneiro, Os Candomblés da Bahia, op. cit., p. 341.

23 Binon Cossard, op. cit., p. 225.

24 Roger Bastide, Les Candomblés de Bahia, Paris, Mouton, 1958.

25 Binon Cossard, Le Rôle de la femme de couleur dans les religions afro brésiliennes in La Femme de couleur en Amérique latine (Roger Bastide, ed.), Editions Anthropos, 1974, p. 79.

26 Edson Carneiro, op. cit., p. 133.

27 Ruth Landes, "A Cult Matriarchat and Male Homosexuality", p. 397.

28 On this see Maria Isaura Pereira De Queiroz, "Amérique Latine: une image nouvelle,", La NEF, Paris, n. 38, Oct.-Dec., 1969, pp. 60-67.

29 Renato Ortiz, La Mort blanche du sorcier noir, thèse de 3e cycle, E.P.H.E., 1975, pp. 116-120.

30 Renato Ortiz and Paula Montero, "Contribuição para o estudo quantitativo da religião umbandista," (to appear in Ciência e Cultura, published by the So ciedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência, Saõ Paulo).

31 For a religious explanation of homosexuality according to the principle of reincarnation see Byron T. Freitas and Tancredo da S. Pinto, Camba de Umbanda, Rio de Janeiro, Ed. Aurora, p. 99.

32 On synchretism see Roger Bastide, "Contribuição ao estudo do sincretismo católico-fetichista" in Estudos Afro-Brasileiros, Saõ Paulo, Ed. Perspectiva, 1972, pp. 159-192.

33 The Umbandist cosmos is divided into seven "lines," that is, seven spiritual groups: 1. Oshala. 2. Yemanjá. 3. Shangô. 4. Ogun. 5. Oshossi. 6. Children. 7. Old-Blacks.

34 Our observations are in reference only to the states of Saõ Paulo and of Guanabara.

35 See Deoscoredes and Juana Santos, "La religion nagô génératrice de valeurs culturelles au Brésil," Colloque de Cotonou, Ed. Présence Africaine, 1970, pp. 156-171.

36 On the role of books see Renato Ortiz, op. cit.

37 For a discussion of this subject see Roger Bastide, Les Amériques noires, Paris, Payot, 1973, pp. 37-47.

38 Melville J. Herskovits, L'Héritage du Noir, Présence Africaine, 1966.

39 Edward F. Frazier, The Negro Family in the United States, Chicago, 1939.

40 Frazier, "The Negro Family in Bahia," American Sociological Review, 7 (4), 1942, pp. 465-478.

41 Raymond Smith, The Negro Family in British Guiana, London, 1956.

42 M.I. Pereira de Queiroz, "Enfance et adolescence dans les favelas brésilien nes," Carnets de l'Enfance, n. 7, Jan. 1968, pp. 71-93.

43 Oscar Lewis, Antropologia de la Pobreza, Fondo de cultura económica, Mexico, 1963.

44 Renato Ortiz, La Mort blanche du sorcier noir, op. cit.

45 Eva Blay, "O Trabalho Feminino," Cadernos, Centro Estudos Rurais e Urbanos, University of Saõ Paulo, n. 6, 1973, pp. 129-145.

46 Oscar Lewis, Ecstatic Religion, op. cit.