Os exus em casa de catiço : etnografia, representações, magia

This dissertation is the result of an ethnographic journey undertaken in three spiritual centers of Umbanda , located in different districts of Natal/RN. The aim of the study was to understand how the representations of exus (spirit category) are established in the studied religious environment. In order to study this, mythical narratives of songs and of people were analyzed. In addition, the incorporated spirit entities, loaded with codes and values, were possible to be read and understood. The present work was developed according to a theoretical and methodological approach that interprets culture as a constant construction process, with representations and significations. The empirical research focuses on the ethnographic observations and the narratives; providing the experimentation of the models of discursive dialogues and polyphony. It was observed that the studied empirical field is marked by the cult of the Jurema which influences the mythical construction of exus . Therefore, this study enabled a reflection on the meeting of notions of two distinct worlds ( Umbanda and Jurema ). This reflection is crucial to the understanding of the position that exus occupy in the local umbandista system

A cultura de índio, seu menino, vem de longe aqui : formação histórica e territorialização dos Tremembé/CE

This dissertation is based on the ethnography of a strategic selection of three Tremembé ethnic situations, which are situated in the backlands of Acaraú and Itarema, municipalities located in Ceará State (Northeast Brazil). My main aims are the following. Firstly, I reconstitute the historical and social formation of three localities, called Lagoa dos Negros, Telhas, and Queimadas, related to a particular origin myth which refers to Almofala, an extinct colonial Aldeamento in the seashore, where the Tremembé indians and other native populations were converted and gathered under missionary administration. According to the origin myth, these three localities were set up after a strong drought which happened in 1888 (the so called three eights) when a group of Tremembé families moved to the countryside and established close to the Lagoa dos Negros and, later on, they were segmented into smaller groups which started to live in other areas and places not far from the former location. Notably, I develop an anthropological approach to understand the historical formation of these three localities. Secondly, I analyze some processes of territorialization, which were emerged from the 1980s and had important consequences to these indigenous families throughout the next two decades. This historical dimension is re-appropriated and ressignified in ethnic terms. A third point of my work is the analysis of the construction of territorialities and also the cultural and symbolic dimensions which are formulated by the Tremembé Indians who live in these localities. Therefore, I investigate some cultural traditions and rituals, such as the Torém dance, but I also examine their multiple semantics, which constitute a transversal direction throughout the history understood by the Tremembé of the different social situations I researched. To sum up, there is a process of cultural actualization, which is still going on and presents itself through the ludic sphere as well as their political and religions dimensions, which are usually associated to the ritual presentation of the Torém

Eram realmente pitagórico(a)s os homens e mulheres catalogado(a)s por Jâmblico em sua obra Vida de Pitágoras?

Pythagoras was one of the most important pre-Socratic thinkers, and the movement he founded, Pythagoreanism, influenced a whole thought later in religion and science. Iamblichus, an important Neoplatonic and Neopythagorean philosopher of the third century AD, produced one of the most important biographies of Pythagoras in his work Life of Pythagoras. In it he portrays the life of Pythagoras and provides information on Pythagoreanism, such as the Pythagorean religious community which resembled the cult of mysteries; the Pythagorean involvement in political affairs and in the government in southern Italy, the use of music by the Pythagoreans (means of purification of healing, use of theoretical study), the Pythagorean ethic (Pythagorean friendship and loyalty, temperance, self-control, inner balance); justice; and the attack on the Pythagoreans. Also in this biography, Iamblichus, almost seven hundred years after the termination of the Pythagorean School, established a catalog list with the names of two hundred and eighteen men and sixteen women, supposedly Pythagoreans of different nationalities. Based on this biography, a question was raised: to what extent and in what ways, can the Pythagoreans quoted by Iamblichus really be classified as Pythagoreans? We will take as guiding elements to search for answers to our central problem the following general objectives: to identify, whenever possible, which of the men and women listed in the Iamblichus catalog may be deemed Pythagorean and specific; (a) to describe the mystery religions; (b) to reflect on the similarities between the cult of mysteries and the Pythagorean School; (c) to develop criteria to define what is being a Pythagorean; (d) to define a Pythagorean; (e) to identify, if possible, through names, places of birth, life, thoughts, work, lifestyle, generation, etc.., each of the men and women listed by Iamblichus; (f) to highlight who, in the catalog, could really be considered Pythagorean, or adjusting to one or more criteria established in c, or also to the provisions of item d. To realize these goals, we conducted a literature review based on ancient sources that discuss the Pythagoreanism, especially Iamblichus (1986), Plato (2000), Aristotle (2009), as well as modern scholars of the Pythagorean movement, Cameron (1938), Burnet (1955), Burkert (1972), Barnes (1997), Gorman (n.d.), Guthrie (1988), Khan (1999), Mattéi (2000), Kirk, Raven and Shofield (2005), Fossa and Gorman (n.d.) (2010). The results of our survey show that, despite little or no availability of information on the names of alleged Pythagoreans listed by Iamblichus, if we apply the criteria and the definition set by us of what comes to be a Pythagorean to some names for which we have evidence, it is possible to assume that Iamblichus produced a list which included some Pythagoreans

Entre o sagrado e o profano: os efeitos de sentido revelados nos testemunhos de um blog evangélico

The testimonial is a way of statement that demonstrates or admit the existence of a reality with which the enunciator has contacted. This is, thus, pushed to say what he saw, heard or touched. In this paper, we verified the effects of senses produced in the blog of Bishop Macedo, founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), from a corpus which consists of nine testimonies of presumed believersselected among 64 statements distributed during the year, 2012. Instead of instantaneous testimonials, on a live presentation, these media narratives are underpinned by attributes such as hyperlinks, visuals, language translators, besides mechanisms of interaction and sharing in other spheres from mediatic slant. The problem of this analysis was born from the observation of regular points in the discursive architecture of these testimonials, when was identified the existing relation force between the sacred and the profane, everyday practices. During six months, analysis of the empirical material, we found some effects of the senses on the testimonials, as the dialectic structure and the need for denuding a precarious past, an engagement to shield the figure of Macedo and the UCKG towards society; a update of a crusade against other religions; and the presence of certain sensuality in self-deprecation of the deponents, and an unequal relation of forces (sacred and profane) in the construction of truth. In order of succeeding in this investigation, we used the theoretical and methodological assumptions of Analysis of French Discourse (AD), denouncing the qualitative nature of the research. As a methodological principle, we still use transdisciplinarity, which validated some of our dialogues, especially with philosophy. The conception of discourse modeled by a media support and transpassed by the subject(s) and story (ies) characterized the perspective of the research

Fatores que influenciam a cooperação em humanos

Human cooperation is fundamentally affected by reciprocal exchange, but it is also remarkably common on the context of large and symbolically marked in-groups, which promote cooperation through the feeling of belonging to a group. In this thesis, two empirical articles were produced in order to investigate how human cooperation is affected by factors such as reciprocity, in-group behavior, in-group markers and gender. We investigated this subject through the administration of online games consisting of token donations, on which the subjects faced virtual players controlled by the experiment. We found that cooperative behavior is strongly influenced by reciprocity, and it is also affected by the in-group behavior, observed on the context of the social variables place of birth, ethnicity, and religions, once all of them acted as in-group markers. The subjects´ in-group behavior was enhanced when they played with generous in-group opponents, but weakened when their in-group opponents were non-generous. It was also found that cooperation is not affected by gender, but men and women cooperated in different ways under the influence of reciprocity and in-group behavior. Women are much more reciprocal on their cooperative behavior and men are less willing to cooperate with outgroupers, even when they act generously. The overall results contribute to a better understanding of the adaptive value of cooperation, reciprocity and in-group behavior on the solution of important challenges through the human evolutionary history