Bahian white: the dispersion of candomblé imagery in the public sphere of bahia
ABSTRACTFor most of its history, candomble was a marginal and persecuted spirit possession cult. From the 1920s onward, however, the cult evolved into the “trademark” of Bahia, a state in northeastern Brazil. The color white—a spotless and impeccable white—has come to dominate the public face of the cult: evoking positive connotations such as cleanliness and purity, the color helped to portray candomble as the splendid cultural heritage of the Bahian state as well as a respectable African religion. However, the “politics of white” has always been intersected by a “poetics of white,” as Bahian artists, writers, and other image producers sought to destabilize the condoned meanings of white. Hinting at that which is absent from the impeccable surfaces of candomble's public appearance, this “poetics of white” produced a layered public understanding of the cult. As people engage in speculations over the “true” candomble that lies hidden behind its public facade, claims to be “in the know” reconfigure the notio...
Therapeutic dimensions of sacred garments worn by the Barbados Spiritual Baptists
As part of a broader observational study, 25 members of a Barbados Spiritual Baptist congregation and its Patriarch, along with 13 nonmembers of the church, took part in formal semi-structured interviews, in addition to informal conversations with many others. The purpose was to elicit detailed qualitative impressions of their experiences related to the evolving use of sacred garments within the rituals of the church. Over the 55 years of its development, the church experienced three phases marked by the gathering of spiritual and material strength of the members and their Leader. Members reported experiences of enhanced subjective well-being arising from their wearing of specific religious vestments they received as intended for them by the Holy Spirit with the Leader as mediator. The findings are in keeping with a body of scholarly literature and may guide further quantitative research about the place of sacred garments in the beliefs and practices of this Caribbean faith group.
Breating in the Heart of the Matter: Why Padre Marcelo Needs No Wings
This article addresses the distinctive spiritual qualities of aerial movement. Taking as a point of departure the feature lm Maria, Mae do Filho de Deus (2003) played by famous Brazilian Padre Marcelo Rossi, it argues for an engagement with cinematic images in terms of aerial dynamic imagination. It will be shown that the “inspired breath” of Padre Marcelo organizes the universe and affects the constitution of subjects and space in the lm according to the Scriptures. The same aerial dynamic applies to his other contexts of performance such as Byzantine praying techniques and their relation to space. Subsequently, the article explores underlying analogies between electronic technology, acoustic environment, and pneumatic spirituality within common practices of embodied experience