Spirit Possession in Brazil: The Perception of the (Possessed) Body Author(s): Bettina E. Schmidt Source: Anthropos , 2014, Bd. 109, H. 1. (2014), pp. 135-147 Published by: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43861689 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Anthropos This content downloaded from 212.219.61.210 on Wed, 25 Aug 2021 08:07:52 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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 inIntroduction 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 thetest 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 J is possible to describe the phenomenon of posses- Bettina E. Schmidt, Dr. habil., University of Wales Trinity sion,St 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- This content downloaded from 212.219.61.210 on Wed, 25 Aug 2021 08:07:52 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 136 Bettina E. Schmidt sidered representational fore presenting excerpts from my interviews with or theoretical": the devo- tees argue narratives that about the perception oftheir the bodily dimen- knowledge about God or any other supernatural sion of possession experiences from an indigenous being "does not depend on our capacities forperspective. The second knowing, part will discuss the narra- but on God's own self-rev- elation" (Pyysiäinen tives in dialogue with the different areas of scholarly 2003: 229 f.). It seems that the gap between debate. The aimthe is to show how eachposition of the perspec- of the devotees and the po- sition of the tives can contribute scholars to our understanding of the pos- are insuperable. This article session experience. considers the discourse about pos- session among mediums in Brazil, that is, the un- derstanding of the experience among people expe- riencing the Trance, Possession,so-called and Mediumship in Brazil spirit possession. The analysis will be based on subjective narratives collected via open-ended Ethnographic interviewsContext in São Paulo, Brazil. Since I want to explore the indigenous, in this case Brazil- ian possession In the 2010 census, religions 64.6 percent of Brazilians adepts' view of the physical dimension claimed of to belong to thethe Roman Catholic Church,possession experience, the focus of this article but with a declining tendency will over the last three dec- be on the perception of bodily transformation. ades. A growing number of Brazilians I belongwill to one report, for instance, how peo- ple from different of the numerous Evangelical Churches (22.2 per- religious traditions responded when asked cent in 2010 withabout a rising tendency). In sum, nearlytheir feelings during the expe- rience; whether 90 percent of Brazilians claim to belongthere to a Chris- is a difference depending on the approaching tian Church. The remaining 10 percent entity; are spread and whether they remem- ber physical between Spiritists changes. (2 percent), adherents to an Afro- The article will also deal with the complex Brazilian religion (0.3issue percent), agnostics or atheists of how to include the ideas of devotees that (8 percent), and members have of another religion, such a possession experience inside an academic as Judaism, Islam,discourse Hinduism, or Buddhism.1 These without falling into non-ac- ademic, religiously numbers, however, do not represent all practitioners motivated and unscientific ex- 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 This content downloaded from 212.219.61.210 on Wed, 25 Aug 2021 08:07:52 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Spirit Possession in Brazil 137 markable that 82.7 to percent most rituals.