“São os olhos de quem vê”: narrativas e masculinidades no reino da pombagira em Salvador – BA

Abstract

The following research was dedicated to investigating and understanding the experience of the sacred in men who embody the Pombagira entity in the city of Salvador – BA. Based on the interpretation of the narratives of these subjects, as well as, through observation and experience in rituals and daily events related to this entity. The research was initially designed to be developed in an Umbanda Center, but it was not limited to this space, extending to the domestic environment of the mediums' house and reaching new experiences based on the revealed world of the rich narratives. This problem arose from the questioning of the collective imagination and classical literature that deals with the presence of male mediums in Afro-religious rituals and announces the discourse that this category designates a model of deviant masculinity. While attributing to Pombagira the representation of the social contravening woman, often linked to the universe of the streets, feminine power and prostitution. Underwritten in a heteronormative context, this combination of factors causes these subjects to occupy a position of border and ambiguity, “escaping the planned path” (LourO, 2004) and materializing with their religious/sacred practices unconventional ways of producing other genres and other sexual identities.