Abstract
In this paper I discuss the process by which novices learn to see in the Afro-Brazilian religion known as candomblé. As I try to show learning to see is intimately tied to way by which persons are constructed or “made” in candomblé cult houses. An important part of this process involves the experience of not being able to see, of having one’s vision repeatedly restricted by others. Reinforced by a series of practices, situations and modes of sociability, this experience helps form persons wholearn to see an excess hidden under the visible (or lying beside it), persons who learn to see the invisible. The paper concludes by identifying the world which the candomblé’s visual practices both unveil and help constitute.
Keywords
candomblé; learning; perception; visual practices