Tempo, movimento e existências conjuntas: magia negra, quimbanda e umbanda no norte de Minas Gerais

Abstract

This dissertation is an ethnography of the religious practices of two terreiros, the “Centro Espírita Estrela do Oriente” and “Terreiro de Umbanda Oxossi Caçador”, located in the North of the State of Minas Gerais. The objective of this work is to approach Quimbanda, Umbanda and Black Magic, exploring the modes of composition and intertwining between people, entities, spaces and practices characteristic of these African-inspired religions. By privileging the trajectories, movements and transformations that unfold and give life to the two studied terreiros, it is hoped to contribute to the understanding of quimbanda, umbanda and black magic, as well as to overcome dominant readings of these religious modalities, centered on dichotomies as good x evil and right x left. Through the spatial composition of the two terreiros, attention is paid to how different practices connect in space. For each of them, there is a separate space (the black magic room, the quimbanda room and the umbanda room), thus composing the three dimensions of the terreiros. As spaces of multiplicity, the terreiros point to an open world to be built, which involves negotiations, movements, hesitations and experiments with things, places, entities, people and other beings. In the trajectories of priests and faithful, as well as in their relationships with entities, it is perceived that there is a way of engagement that involves a process of learning and sensitivity. In this engagement process, the gift and initiation procedures are essential. In addition, we sought to discuss kinship, aging, bodily consequences of the relationship with entities, the importance of music (sung points) and sounds in this relationship. Attention is paid to the period of Lent, in which black magic prevails. This line of quimbanda is permeated by an idea of weights and forces, and these forces are both a dynamic principle, as well as an element of composition of beings, places and things and are related to the capacity of agency and power of accomplishment. Paying attention to the dualisms present in umbanda and quimbanda, it is emphasized that in these practices it is possible to coexist with contradiction. We sought to show that the universe of kimbanda involves chromatisms, scales, dimensions and movements, much more than rigid divisions between particular domains (such as good and evil, right or left), as these dualisms are not equivalent to fixed polarities, but open systems connected to transformation processes.