What says thou tonight? Gender and sexuality in the light of the female entities in the umbanda

• Grant number: 11/17108-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: December 01, 2011
• End date: March 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Anthropology of Afro-Brazilian Populations
• Principal Investigator: Vagner Gonçalves da Silva
• Grantee: Mariana Leal de Barros
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project intends to continue the dissertation work, which studied gender implications based on the analysis of umbanda pombagiras. In that research, it could be observed that the female entities "make themselves present" in the daily reality of their mediums, and not only in the ritual space, constituting valuable artifices for the elaboration of gender identities. Given the wealth of data obtained from the analysis of the pombagira character, now, the proposal is expanded and aims to understand other female entities in the umbanda as well, such as pretas-velhas, caboclas, baianas and ciganas. The goal is to understand them through interaction with their mediums, in order to investigated how the female umbanda entities offer support for their mediums to elaborate gender and sexuality meanings. It should be added that the study of female umbanda entities is both valuable and hardly investigated. Dedicated to these entities in general terms and merely distinguishing them based on their spiritual lines, rare studies go deeper into the analysis of female entities in particular. Through a preliminary field study, however, one can perceive that the female umbanda entities display their own characteristics regarding gender differences from their male correspondents. Likewise, female umbanda mediums also indicate a difference in the relations they establish with their female or male entities. Besides, not only the pombagiras, but also other female entities have been associated with what is understood as "being a woman" and have been considered partners to their mediums in a wide range of daily experiences. Another relevant aspect is to perceive that, beyond differences in the large variety of female entities in the umbanda pantheon, one can note repeated characteristics. No matter how distant they may seem at first sight, like when pombagiras are compared with pretas-velhas, some signifiers are present in both and possibly express an unaccustomed continuity of the female in the umbanda. In principle, four terreiros in São Paulo State constitute the interlocutors, where participant observations of rituals will be performed, as well as interviews with female mediums who receive female umbanda entities, as well as their own female entities. The field data will be subject to qualitative analysis, based on the reference frameworks of anthropology and Lacan's psychoanalysis. Thus, the goal is to contribute not only to studies on Afro-Brazilian religion, but also to the broad debate on gender theories developed in the interdisciplinary sphere.