Inscriptions of the Feminine: Romantic Literature and Caboclas Possession at Umbanda

Abstract

As far as the Afro-Brazilian religious context is concerned, some researchers consider the caboclo the result of a process in which the negro, trying to assure a collocation in the country after slavery being extinct, nationalize some African habits in order to turn themselves into what they imagine being an Indian might be, based on the Indian image expressed by the romantic literature. This article discusses the relevance of this argument by investigating the presence of the spiritual entity female representatives through a comparison between them and the idealized image of romantic Indians. It is stated that to understand the female caboclo’s role in the umbanda cult as well as in contemporary women’s lives it will be necessary to listen to these women by means of their spiritualistic mediums relating what they say to these women’s life stories and to the actual social experience of the communities in which the entity is worshiped.