Looking Inside: Biological Mechanisms and Embodiment in Candomblé Trance and Possession

Abstract

At 11 pm, the festa for the goddess Oxum at Pai João’s terreiro was just getting under way. Fireworks had been set off in the concrete yard outside, and people who had been milling around began to wander inside. The shutters of the terriero were flung wide and some onlookers hung their upper bodies through the windows, into the barracão, or central room. The room was bright white with a thatched ceiling, and for the festa it had been decorated with streamers of white and gold. More crepe paper decorations hung in the corners, dressing the room in the colors of Oxum. Frequenters from the neighborhood trickled in, alerted by the fireworks that the festa was about to begin. Some of the ogãs (male ritual assistants) began to pound out a slow, slightly disorganized rhythm on the tall drums arranged along the back wall of the barracão. Pai João’s filhos de santo, all dressed in white clothes, gathered in the center of the room. After greeting Pai João and the other senior members of the terriero with the typical prostrations and stylized hugs, the filhos de santo finally began to dance. They moved in a counterclockwise circle, or roda, elbows bent and feet shuffling rhythmically in a traditional Candomblé dance step. The ogãs at the drums now pounded out the songs of greeting to each orixá, and as the filhos danced and sang, members of the audience joined in, clapping their hands, swaying to the drums, and singing along.