Embodiment as art: an analysis of the exu festivities in Umbanda temples in the west zone of Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

In this paper I propose to analyze the exu parties in Umbanda temples in the west zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro focusing on the relationship between people and things in these ritual moments. Indeed, this relationship occurs according to a relation of exchange where gifts are offered to the exu by his clientele in exchange for work requests. At the exu parties people, entities and visitors circulate; gifts and requests; according to an exchange relationship, through a network of complex intentionalities that make these intentionalities objectified, through the objects exchanged and the performances that circulate at the parties in celebration of the exus. The focus will be on the phenomenon of incorporation, understanding it as art, as well as the objects that are used to construct the ritual performance of the entities at the parties, thus discussing the agency of objects and people in this specific social context.