This work is the result of a theoretical research on the ex-voto (Latin: in conformity with a promise) and its repercussions in the construction of subjectivities, considering the benchmarks of the anthropology of Mauss and Freudian psychoanalysis. From the context of the votive practice and its meanings to the devout and his community, we view the religious imagery as a source of senses to the subject who is suffering, showing the typical forms of popular culture of understanding the social ties and the material conditions of life. We conclude that, facing the pathos that substantiates the human being, the person who is suffering reacts seeking for cure and salvation for his ills through the intersection of superior powers linked to the sacred. Despite of the subjective non-involvement in the process of life, we realize that the social ties forged by the obligations of giving, receiving and returning constitute ethics, welcoming the subject in a social network that provides senses to the vicissitudes of existence.
ex-voto; culture; religion; psychoanalysis; interdisciplinarity
