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Anthropos.Pdf ANTHROPOS 109.2014: 135 – 147 Spirit Possession in Brazil The Perception of the (Possessed) Body Bettina E. Schmidt Abstract. – Spirit possession is the core religious practice in Introduction most Afro-American religions. It is usually described as “mount- ing”; the spirit “rides” the body of the devotee as a horseman Concepts such as spirits, souls, gods, or demons “cut rides a horse. The description projects the image that a spirit takes control over the body of the medium and “uses” the hu- against the grain of our natural expectations about man medium; the body of the person is passive and submissive, how things work in the real world” (Tremlin 2006: ​ while the spirit is active and dominant. However, this view does 87). Things are usually described as “real” when not reflect the highly elaborate discourse about spirit possession we can touch and measure them, when they have a in Brazil. The article is based on fieldwork among communities of Afro-Brazilian and Spiritist traditions in São Paulo, Brazil. physical quality or at least when we can repeatedly Based on subjective narratives about bodily experience and the test them in a laboratory. But there is “something” academic debate about body and mind, the article contributes in possession that escapes our understanding, as van to a wider understanding of the possession experience. [Brazil, de Port states (2005: ​152). Gods, spirits, souls, reli- spirit possession, trance, candomblé, umbanda, spiritism, body gion in general, are products of cognition. While it concept, mediumship] is possible to describe the phenomenon of posses- Bettina E. Schmidt, Dr. habil., University of Wales Trinity St sion, and even to classify such experiences accord- David; M. A. in cultural anthropology (Marburg 1989); PhD with ing to their function, etc., it seems difficult to go a thesis about ethnicity and religion in Puerto Rico (Marburg beyond the indigenous understanding of it (see Cra- 1995); habilitation with a monograph about Caribbean religions panzano 2005: ​8687). Anthropologists have collect- in New York City (Marburg 2001). – Her academic interests in- clude the anthropology of religion, diaspora identity, religious ed numerous accounts of local explanations from experience, urban studies, medical anthropology, and gender is- all over the world, and many have argued for the sues. – Her main fieldworks were conducted in Mexico, Puerto validity of these perceptions (e.g., title of a book Rico, Ecuador, New York City, and, more recently, in São Paulo, chapter “It Is Not for Us to Judge”, in Klass 2003, Brazil. – She has published extensively on Caribbean and Lat- derived from Lewis 2003). This attitude, however, in American religions, identity, cultural theories and migration and is, e.g., co-editor of “Spirit Possession and Trance. New In- must not be confused with antiscientific mysticism. terdisciplinary Perspectives” (London 2010). – See also Refer- Pyysiäinen makes an important point when he states ences Cited. that “whether a given explanation is valid should be judged on the basis of evidence and logical coher- ence of the argument, not on the basis of a religious [or anti-religious] agenda” (2008: 3). However, ac- “The whole problem is not quite the phenomenon; cording to Crapanzano (2005: ​8693) possession it is the way we look at the phenomenon” confirms “the belief in the spirits” – but that which (José Jorge de Morais Zacharias, interview on is based only on belief is not regarded as scientif- April 15, 2010). ic evidence. On the other side, from the believer’s point of view, religious knowledge “cannot be con- 136 Bettina E. Schmidt sidered representational or theoretical”: the devo- fore presenting excerpts from my interviews with tees argue that their knowledge about God or any narratives about the perception of the bodily dimen- other supernatural being “does not depend on our sion of possession experiences from an indigenous capacities for knowing, but on God’s own self-rev- perspective. The second part will discuss the narra- elation” (Pyysiäinen 2003: ​229 f.). It seems that the tives in dialogue with the different areas of scholarly gap between the position of the devotees and the po- debate. The aim is to show how each of the perspec- sition of the scholars are insuperable. tives can contribute to our understanding of the pos- This article considers the discourse about pos- session experience. session among mediums in Brazil, that is, the un- derstanding of the experience among people expe- riencing the so-called spirit possession. The analysis Trance, Possession, and Mediumship in Brazil will be based on subjective narratives collected via open-ended interviews in São Paulo, Brazil. Since Ethnographic Context I want to explore the indigenous, in this case Brazil- ian possession religions adepts’ view of the physical In the 2010 census, 64.6 percent of Brazilians dimension of the possession experience, the focus claimed to belong to the Roman Catholic Church, of this article will be on the perception of bodily but with a declining tendency over the last three dec- transformation. I will report, for instance, how peo- ades. A growing number of Brazilians belong to one ple from different religious traditions responded of the numerous Evangelical Churches (22.2 per- when asked about their feelings during the expe- cent in 2010 with a rising tendency). In sum, nearly rience; whether there is a difference depending on 90 percent of Brazilians claim to belong to a Chris- the approaching entity; and whether they remem- tian Church. The remaining 10 percent are spread ber physical changes. The article will also deal with between Spiritists (2 percent), adherents to an Afro- the complex issue of how to include the ideas of Brazilian religion (0.3 percent), agnostics or atheists devotees that have a possession experience inside (8 percent), and members of another religion, such an academic discourse without falling into non-ac- as Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism.1 These ademic, religiously motivated and unscientific ex- numbers, however, do not represent all practitioners planations. of Spiritist or Afro-Brazilian religions since many In my research, however, I did not follow the people avoid being identified with an Afro-Brazil- path that many anthropologists working on Afro- ian tradition, despite the fact that the religions have Brazilian religions have taken; I did not attempt been legalised. Chesnut estimates that half of all to experience the incorporation myself. Although Brazilians have visited an Umbanda centre at least I was often told that it is impossible to describe it, once, usually during a personal crisis and that 15– and that I need to experience it, I decided to main- 20 percent of Brazilians (app. 30 million) practise tain my scholarly distance and remain a participant Umbanda or one of the other Afro-Brazilian reli- observer instead of an observing participant. Since gions regularly (2003: ​106 f.). Especially Umbanda it is very common for anthropologists studying re- has the image of being a provider of physical and ligions to “go native” and initiate into a religious spiritual healing services, which leads to the estima- community, this decision puts me in opposition to tion that many more Brazilians attend regularly Um- many colleagues (see also Capone 2010). Despite banda rituals without considering themselves to be my fascination for the deities that emerged during members of the religion (Engler 2009b: 556). my research among adherents of Afro-Caribbean re- Experiences with extra-sensual and extra-motor- ligions (Schmidt 2008), which are very similar to ic phenomena go therefore much further than the the deities in Afro-Brazilian religions, I could not statistics in the national census suggest and Brazil- overcome my reluctance to commit myself to the ian culture and society can be characterised by an religious obligations. Consequently, my research enormous openness towards so-called paranormal has to rely exclusively on narratives collected from experiences and a willingness to speak about them practitioners in Brazil. I can include my own expe- (Machado 2009: ​17 f.). Although this characterisa- riences only as an observer who attended numerous tion cannot be substantiated by national data, only rituals. I have no evidence to prove the accurateness by a small survey of students in São Paulo, it is re- of these subjective narratives about a phenomenon that is in the end ineffable. 1 The national census of 2010 can be accessed via the website The article is divided into two sections, one eth- of the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (Brazil- nographic and another analytical. I will start with a ian Institute for Geography and Statistics): < http://www. brief introduction into the ethnographic context be- sidra.ibge.gov.br > [24. 08. 2012]. Anthropos 109.2014 Spirit Possession in Brazil 137 markable that 82.7 percent of the respondents men- to most rituals. If it occurs outside the community tioned experiences with extra-sensual phenomena of the terreiro (site of a religious community), it is and 55.9 percent with extra-motoric phenomena regarded as a sign that the person needs to become (Machado 2009: 232). initiated and join the community. Equally impor- In the centre of this article are a variety of re- tant is the discovery of one’s fate, through an oracle ligions grouped together under the label Spiritism reading by a priest (jogo de búzios), and the ritual and Afro-Brazilian religions. Scholars usually de- sacrifices to the orixás (usually but not exclusive- scribe this ensemble as a continuum of religious ly animals). The devotion to the orixás consists of practices, with Spiritism on one end, and the Afri- lifelong obligations and the fulfilment of extensive can derived traditions, such as Candomblé, on the rituals. other end. This description does not imply a hierar- On the other side of the continuum is Spiritism, chy of traditions, however, or any sense of exclu- also called Kardecism.
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