<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This article<xref ref-type="fn"><sup>*</sup></xref> concentrates on the material side of religious intimacy in Afro-Brazilian Umbanda through an ‘ontographic’ perspective as well as looking at materiality as evidence. It is based on an eleven-month fieldwork period among devotees, clients and individual practitioners of Umbanda in Southeast Brazilian metropolises, especially in São Paulo. In people’s experiences of spiritual work (<italic>trabalho</italic>) and spiritual development (<italic>desenvolvimento</italic>) carried out with Exús – guardians, guides and protectors who have, after their death, returned in order to work for people’s wellbeing – ritual objects (such as bodies, clothes, beverages, herbs, cigarettes, candles, songs) are seen as constitutive in knowledge production and life transformation. The central claim in this article is that diverse material and immaterial objects through which Exús interact and materialise, are neither primarily symbolic nor representative, but are re-configurative.</p></abstract>

This article* concentrates on the material side of religious intimacy in Afro-Brazilian Umbanda through an ‘ontographic’ perspective as well as looking at materiality as evidence. It is based on an eleven-month fieldwork period among devotees, clients and individual practitioners of Umbanda in Southeast Brazilian metropolises, especially in São Paulo. In people’s experiences of spiritual work (trabalho) and spiritual development (desenvolvimento) carried out with Exús – guardians, guides and protectors who have, after their death, returned in order to work for people’s wellbeing – ritual objects (such as bodies, clothes, beverages, herbs, cigarettes, candles, songs) are seen as constitutive in knowledge production and life transformation. The central claim in this article is that diverse material and immaterial objects through which Exús interact and materialise, are neither primarily symbolic nor representative, but are re-configurative.

Exú’s Work – The Agency of Ritual Objects in Southeast Brazilian Umbanda

Department of World Cultures, University of Helsinki, PL 00014 Helsingin yliopisto, Unioninkatu 38 A, Helsinki,

Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

This article* concentrates on the material side of religious intimacy in Afro-Brazilian Umbanda through an ‘ontographic’ perspective as well as looking at...

Exú’s Work – The Agency of Ritual Objects in Southeast Brazilian Umbanda

Published Online: Sep 18, 2016

Page range: 43 - 69

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jef-2016-0003

Keywords
Umbanda, Exú, ritual objects, materiality, Afro-Brazilian religion, São Paulo

© 2016 Eleonora A. Lundell, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Exú’s Work – The Agency of Ritual Objects in Southeast Brazilian Umbanda

Published Online: Sep 18, 2016

Page range: 43 - 69

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jef-2016-0003

KeywordsUmbanda, Exú, ritual objects, materiality, Afro-Brazilian religion, São Paulo

© 2016 Eleonora A. Lundell, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Umbanda, Exú, ritual objects, materiality, Afro-Brazilian religion, São Paulo