Les Compagnons invisibles : femmes et cultes de possession Umbanda et Mina (Belém, Brésil)
Institution:
Paris, EHESSDisciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
Women who come from underprivileged sections of the population make up the majority of the followers of the cults of possession in urban brazil. As a first step in the study, we pointed put the way in which adherence is conceive. Initially foreseen as a total submission to the spirits'will, it cedes its place to a representation of a "harmonious" relationship where, through the learning of the dual role of the medium and the spirit in accordance with the sexual division of work in the domestic group, the spirit is established in the role of the daughter-of-saint's companion. Furthermore, the analysis aimed at clarifying the place and attributes of each category of the supernatural word. We were able to demonstrate that the caboclos, through their representation, enable each medium to assert itself as a singular being within the cult group and the neighborhood; that the exus represent the world's virtualities; and that the orixas, powerful and distant dibinities rarely dwelling in the medium, act as mediator between the cults and the global society. It was therefore possible to restore unity in the field of the cults of possession by abandoning perspective which predominated up until that time.
Abstract FR:
Les cultes de possession du bresil urbain comptent parmi leurs fideles une majorite de femmes issues des segments defavorises de la population. On a, dans un premier temps de ce travail, mis en evidence comment la conception de l'adhesion, au depart envisagee comme une soumission totale a la volonte des esprits, cede la place a la representation d'une relation "harmonieuse" ou, a travers l'apprentissage du double role de medium et d'esprit en accord avec la division sexuelle du travail au sein du groupe domestique, l'esprit est instaure dans le role de compagnon des filles de saint. Par ailleurs, l'analyse s'est attachee a degager la place et les attributs de chaque categorie du monde surnaturel. On a pu montrer que les caboclos permettent a chaque medium, par la representation donnee, de s'affirmer comme etre singulier au sein du groupe culturel et du quartier, que les exus representent les virtualites du monde, et les orixas, les puissantes et lointaines divinites habitant rarement les mediums, occupent la position de mediateur entre les cultes et la societe globale. Il a ete ainsi possible de redonner son unite au champ des cultes de possession en abandonnant la perspective classificatoire qui predominait jusque la.