Forest spirits: signification and psychological extent of caboclos ritual practice in umbanda

• Grant number: 07/06759-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2008
• End date: February 28, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Social Psychology
• Principal Investigator: José Francisco Miguel Henriques Bairrão
• Grantee: Raquel Redondo Rotta
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In opposition to the current thesis about the umbanda spiritual entities, the caboclos are not a correspondence of a Brazilian social subject. Some authors state that this spirit group is related to the way the blacks represent the Indian due to an African religious logic. This hypothesis does not take in account the existence of the entity female representative. In spite of that theory or any other, the cablocos and their female form are present entities in Afro-Brazilian rituals and are respected by their worshipers for their strength and influence. The aim of the study is to analyze the caboclo entity meanings and its ritual and psychological uses inside Brazilian religiosity, considering both genders. The research will involve three mediums (one of them a man), who do not know each other, and receive each one at least one caboclo and one cabocla. Data will be collect through participative research and semi-structured interviews. The investigation will be based on Lacan psychoanalysis since it considers the unconsciousness as being semiotic and socially built, which permits regain the subject social and historic dimensions.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

ROTTA, Raquel Redondo. Forest Spirits: signification and the psychological extent of caboclos ritual practice in Umbanda. 2010. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC) Ribeirão Preto.