Devotion rituals: gifts at Contestado messianism

Abstract

This work intends to analyze the devotees of Saint João Maria's religious practices, from an inland region of Paraná state's south and from the Santa Catarina's plateau. The devotion and the cult to the Saint can be found at the region where, almost a century ago, occurred the Contestado War, a millenialist and messianic movement. Using the multisited ethnography, we intend to understand these religious practices, through a theoretical proposal which appears by an emergent anthropology field of discussions related to the performance studies. Based on Stanley Tambiah, we propose an approach that privileges the rituals of these practices, supported by a dialogue between anthropology and theatrical perspectives coming from Victor Turner and Richard Schechner works.