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Macumba
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Also known as Spiritism, Candomblι and Umbanda.
The Macumba religion is practiced by a large number of Brazilians, and involves the
apparent possession of worshippers by
their gods; in a process that in some respects resembles that of Voodoo
ceremonies. There is an initiation ceremony before anyone can become a member of one of
the numerous Macumba cults. The initiate having gone into a trance,
the priest must decide which god has taken possession, in order to prescribe the
appropriate ceremony. This involves animal sacrifice after which blood is smeared on the
initiate; during deep trance, suggestions are made for changes in behavior and for
obedience to the cult. During worship, drumming and dancing encourage worshippers to go
into trance-states in which their faces often violently change expression, and they
sometimes become totally exhausted. On coming out of their trance, they usually know
nothing of what has happened during the ceremony, but their behavior is often changed.
Shamanism has always been a major
feature of the supernatural in Brazil. A Brazilian shaman
is a man, or sometimes a woman, who while in a trance can talk to spirits and with their
help see into the future, cure illness, and diagnose diseases before a conventional doctor
can do so.
Shamanism in Brazil is often
hereditary. However, sometimes the power is suddenly recognized in a person, and a local
shaman will undertake to train such a man to recognize his own individual spirit —
usually a bird or animal — and to open himself to it so that he can be possessed. The
most prestigious spirit of Brazilian shaman is that of the jaguar. The shaman uses certain
tools — a ground rattle or a maraca — to gain the spirit's attention, and takes
drugs to help him into a trance-state. The trance-states are like theatrical performances,
usually seen by firelight and at night. To cure an illness, the shaman will blow tobacco
smoke on the part of the body affected, and then apparently suck out the illness.
Brazilian Indians are careful of their
souls — and with reason, for these are often stolen away. A shaman is sometimes hired
to search for the missing souls of relatives, and to see that they are returned to their
bodies. A soul can fly from its body at the sight of a ghost, or on an encounter with the
Tupi Anyang, a terrifying spirit with long hair and a boneless body which engages in
erotic activity. The Tupi shaman was often as important as the chief of a tribe: some
powerful shaman persuaded whole tribes to follow them from one part of the country to
another — often in search of the land of Maira, a sort of Mexican Eldorado. At the
end of the journey they would build a house and dance in it day or night without sleep or
food, in the conviction that it would eventually rise into the sky and endow the dancers
with magical properties.
After death,
most shamans turn into jaguar spirits; so they are usually buried as far from the tribe as
convenient, thorn bushes planted around the grave to keep their ghosts
from haunting.
Related
audio:
Live at the
Macumba Club Part 2
Pontos De
Macumba: Afro-Brazilian...
Related
books:
Kingdoms Come:
Religion and Politics in Brazil.
MacUmba: The
Teachings of Marie-Jose, Mother of the Gods.
MacUmba: White
and Black Magic in Brazil.
Sacred Leaves of
Candomble: African Magic, Medicine, and Religion in Brazil.
Samba in the
Night: Spiritism in Brazil.
Spirits and
Scientists: Ideology, Spiritism, and Brazilian Culture.
Spirits from the
Margins: Umbanda in Sγo Paulo.
Spiritism and the
Beginnings of Christianity.
Struggle for the
Spirit: Religious Transformation and Popular Culture in Brazil and Latin America.
Studies in
Spiritism.
The American
Focus on Satanic Crime: America Bewitched : The Rise of Black Magic and Spiritism.
The Brazilian
Popular Church and the Crisis of Modernity.
The City of Women.
The Taste of
Blood: Spirit Possession in Brazilian Candomble.
Trance Healing
and Hallucination: Three Field Studies in Religious Experience.
Umbanda:
Religion and Politics in Urban Brazil.
Women, Religion,
and Social Change in Brazil's Popular Church.
Further
info:
Santeria and
Macumba.
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