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Captivity and cure: religious experiences of Atlantic slavery on Luzia Pintas calundus, 17th-18th centuries

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Author(s):
Alexandre Almeida Marcussi
Total Authors: 1
Document type: Doctoral Thesis
Press: São Paulo.
Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
Defense date:
Examining board members:
Marina de Mello e Souza; Luiz Felipe de Alencastro; Luiz Roberto Barros Mott; Laura de Mello e Souza; Maria Cristina Cortez Wissenbach
Advisor: Marina de Mello e Souza
Abstract

This study focuses African-American religious practices known as calundus, which existed in many parts of Brazil during the 17th and 18th centuries and were attended by Africans, American-born black people and the white population alike. The aims of the calundus were mainly divinatory and therapeutical, and their origins lie in Mbundu and Bakongo religious pratices from West Central Africa. This research is based on the analyses of the inquisitorial process of Luzia Pinta, a practitioner of calundus in the region of Sabará (Minas Gerais) during the 18th century, and it intends to clarify the social and symbolic meanings associated to this form of African-Brazilian therepeutical practice. Luzia Pintas case is analysed thoroughly, but it is also compared to further occurrences of calundus registered by ecclesiastical authorities in Bahia and Minas Gerais during the 17th and 18th centuries. Such a comparison aims to broaden the scope and applicability of the conclusions of this study beyond the particular case of Luzia Pinta. The morphological description of the calundus aims to show the diversity of its manifestations e the fluid boundaries between them and other religious practices in the Brazilian culture of the time. The analysis of its symbolical dimensions reveals ancestrality as the fundamental cosmological notion underlying this devotional practice, as the ritual attempted to reforge spiritual links between Africans and their ancestors, broken by the dynamics of the slave trade. The thesis also discusses the roles played by this religious practice in Brazilian colonial society, investigating how the calundus and their devotees related themselves to some of the most relevant aspects and institutions of Brazilian colonial society, such as the catholic religion and slavery. Between the 17th and 18th centuries in Brazil, calundus have become a ritual language through which West Central Africans in America manifested a complex worldview, elaborated their perspectives and thoughts regarding slavery, and were able to put together alternative political projects anchored on an utopian historical conscience. The African perspective on captivity, represented by the calundus, was an important symbolical threat to the ideology which used theological concepts and ideas to give slavery its moral legitimacy in Brazil. This study aims to analyse the conflicts between practitioners of calundus and institutions of religious repression as aspects of a broader political, intellectual and ideological debate over the existance and legitimacy of slavery in the Portuguese Atlantic territories, a debate which manifested itself in a religious language. (AU)

FAPESP's process: 11/23496-6 - Captivity and cure: religious experiences of Atlantic slavery in Luzia Pinta's calundus, 17th-18th century
Grantee:Alexandre Almeida Marcussi
Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate