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Preto velho: resistance, redemption, and engendered representations of slavery in a Brazilian possession‐trance religion
Author(s) -
Hale Lindsay Lauren
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1997.24.2.392
Subject(s) - possession (linguistics) , trance , ideology , morality , resistance (ecology) , sociology , racism , power (physics) , gender studies , race (biology) , identity (music) , anthropology , aesthetics , politics , art , law , political science , philosophy , ecology , linguistics , physics , quantum mechanics , biology
The old‐slave spirits (pretos velhos) of the Brazilian Umbanda religion have historically been dismissed as stereotypes supporting racist ideologies. While this appears to be true in many cases, old‐slave spirits also offer searing indictments of racism and penetrating, critical explorations of the articulations of race, gender, morality, and power in Brazilian society. I argue that, through these spirits, Umbanda mediums embody conflicting representations of the moral dimensions of Brazilian history that relate to their contemporary concerns with self and national identity.