期刊名称：Revista Virtual de Estudos da Linguagem - ReVEL
电子版ISSN：1678-8931
出版年度：2005
卷号：3
期号：4
出版社：Gabriel de Ávila Othero
摘要：This article analyses a religious phenomenon that has increasingly become a widespread practice among Brazilians, whose daily necessities and events lead them to appeal for spiritual support in some umbanda temples. Umbanda is a religious ritual whose philosophic basis is derived from some African cults such as Yoruba, Bantu, Angola, and others, mixed with Catholicism and Spiritualism (Prandi, 1996; Silva, 1994, 1995, 2000). Prandi (1996), a Brazilian anthropologist, points out that umbanda is considered a religion that was born in Brazil and received significant influence of Catholicism and Spiritualism. This religious phenomenon, according to Prandi (1996), created space to syncretism, or the combination of different forms of belief and their practices, more precisely mediumistic practices. So Umbanda holds a specific ritual, with typical possession characteristics, that is, its members claim that they are controlled by spirits who have already died and have come back to offer fatherly advice to those who need spiritual help. During umbanda ceremonies, mediums are possessed by the spirits of Brazilian aboriginals or ex-African slaves and lose their own personality and start to represent the spirits’ personality traits.
