Santas, Benditas e Aflitas: devoções populares às almas na cidade de Vitória-ES

Abstract

This Thesis analyzes the ritual exchanges that articulate the souls of the dead, the living and other tangible and intangible entities, such as offerings (votive objects), orixás, saints, pretos velhos and exus. Through the Maussian notion of gift, I interpret the cults of the souls as an exchange and obligation between the living and the dead in popular forms of devotion to the souls in the urban and contemporary context practiced in three ritual places in the city of Vitória-ES: public cemeteries, domestic altars and umbanda terreiros. Promise-grace-offering are the three ritual acts. The devotee, when requesting the help of the souls, a group of anonymous dead, promises to reward them with offerings as soon as the request is granted. When the grace is achieved, the devotee delivers the offerings, characterizing the payment of the promise and the sealing of the agreement with the souls. In addition to the relationships between humans and non-humans, tangible and intangible, I present the profiles of the souls and the devotees, as well as the conditions of the transactions that are constructed, preserved and/or undone. To achieve this goal, I developed a long-term ethnography, between 2015 and 2023, based on the theoretical-methodological notion of agency, which decentralizes human action in the world and recognizes the actions of diverse entities. Visits to cemeteries took place predominantly during the celebration of All Souls' Day and on Mondays, a day popularly associated with souls. In the domestic environment, visits took place at the homes of family and friends. Finally, I visited four of the oldest umbanda terreiros in the capital. During my forays into the field, I conducted around 80 interviews with a semi-open script, as well as photographic records. The ethnographic research highlights the agency of intangible beings and objects in the social life of the living, the flows and intersections of souls, the living, offerings and Umbanda entities and orixás, problematizing the centrality of human action in cults dedicated to the memory of the non-individualized dead. In this context, relationships are not continuous, but intermittent, with the tenuous boundaries between the tangible and intangible worlds being managed in a regime of co-participation and coexistence between souls and spiritual beings who help souls, devotees and offerings.