Ineffability and subjectivity in Brazilian Umbanda´s forms of possession

• In Event: What spirit possession “does”: the production of cosmology and change in Afro-Latin religions II

Abstract

Rites of possession in Umbanda, a 20th century spirit possession religion, are typically regarded as prime examples of the corporeal articulation of social memory with lived, existential quandaries. This approach has had the effect of pitting experiential analyses largely within the confines of what is generally referred to as the ‘Brazilian imaginary’, however shifting. The idea is that culture, or cosmology, precedes persons and spirits, and inevitably, their encounter. In this paper I wish to question the universality of this hypothesis within Umbanda by proposing that cosmology be regarded as frequently emerging at the limits of conceptual experience, in the margin between a sensuous and incorporated awareness of spiritual otherness – where exaggerated self-consciousness must be held at bay in order for this otherness to sustain itself – and a categorical impetus propelled by ritual practices of identification and naming in a medium’s early career. These instances of ontological ambiguity require more than an analysis of how a religious tradition comes to be crystallized in the lives of its followers through key moments of ecstasy or revelation. It requires a consideration of the specific forms of recursivity, self-reflexivity and capacity for self-creation that are embedded in Umbanda’s cosmologics – not just from the perspective of mediums, but of the universe of beings that wills itself into existence through modes of classificatory boundary-work.

Author

• Diana Espírito Santo, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile