The gift for Oxum and the construction of multiplicity in the candomblé

Abstract

The present paper focusses on a gift offered by a candomblé community from the city of Salvador to the orixá Oxum. It describes the trajectory of the gift – from its preparation in the cult house to its consummation in the sea – and follows both the practices that give shape to the gift and the relations and entities which it promotes and helps articulate. Special attention is given to practices of concealment and exhibition at play in the gift’s preparation and to the modes of seeing that are related to them.

Keywords
candomblé; gift; practices of concealment and exhibition; visual practices