“Vovó não quer casca de coco no terreiro para não lembrar do tempo do cativeiro”. Memory and mediation in the umbanda terreiros

Abstract

The reflections presented in this article intend to propose an ethnographic reading of the Afro-Brazilian cult of Umbanda, in its political aspect. During the religious ceremony, some adepts incorporate spiritual entities that refer to typical social figures of Brazilian history, such as caboclos and pretos velhos, who concern the extermination of Indians and the enslavement of Africans. The aim of the text is to show how, through the ritual moment of incorporation, the cult of umbanda works as a strategy of memory, staging aspects of Brazil’s colonial and slave past. In fact, the return of these spirits in the bodies of mediums links these bodies to the African matrix, regardless of the colour of the skin, thus creating new narratives that allow to overcome a stigmatising and racist conception of the person. Then the field of religiousness can be interpreted as an arena of identity negotiation, in which spiritual entities appear in the role of mediators.