Glossolalia, iniciation and alterity in pentecostalism

Abstract

The gift of tongues – how the glosso-
lalia is know among the pentecostals – is a kind of
pray that the belivers, in ecstasy, express themsel-
ves by means of an aparent unintelligible language,
followed by body expressions of the sentiments of
happiness, overflow, weeping, laughing, jumps and
gesticulation. This gift is very important in the Pen-
tecostal Theology because it is considerated, by the
believers, the irrefutable evidence of the Holy Spirit
baptism. It’s a ritualistic and institucional gift, that
occurs durind the cult and develop itself in the ins-
titucion – it’s a distinctive form of gifts that occurs
in relatives self-suficients process, like the faith-rea-
lers and the witch-doctors. I analyse the process of
aquisicion and development of glossolalia dialoging
with the Anthropology of Imaginary.