The Spell of Images: Resonances Between Image and Ritual

The Invention of a Separation

Image and ritual bear a strong affinity to one another. The history of the relationship between these two terms reaches as far back as rock art. In the Serra da Capivara National Park, in Piauí, there is a set of drawings interpreted by archaeologists (Pessis and Guidon 2000) as representations of ritual scenes dating from approximately 12,000 and 10,000 years ago. But cases such as this one, situated so far back in time, have also been used to illustrate a narrative that placed the relationship between image and ritual in a distant past, in stark contrast to modernity.

In the nineteenth century, as anthropology was taking shape as a discipline, the evolutionist hypothesis of the existence of a “time of magic” became established - that is, a remote, enchanted past of European civilization, one that, in the case of non-European and “non-civilized” peoples, was not so remote at all. The primitivist projection of this time, replete with animism and fetishism, gained ground in art history, which likewise attributed a ritualistic character to early visual arts. The very conditions that gave rise to modern theories of “primitive” ritual were nonetheless amounted to their own death sentence . It was assumed that the advance of science and technology would illuminate humanity’s past and, in the present, would annihilate the “delusions,” “beliefs,” and “superstitions” derived from magico-religious ritual thought. Under this logic, the development of new image technologies would accompany the disappearance of rituals.

Despite the ethnocentrism of this hypothesis, it echoed across different fronts and periods, extending as far as the final decades of the twentieth century, as illustrated by Roland Barthes’s (1984:138) celebrated essay on photography: “Contemporary with the retreat of rites, Photography may correspond to the intrusion, in our modern society, of an asymbolic Death, outside religion, outside ritual.” According to the author, photography would take the place of funerary monuments and their rites, becoming a kind of a double of the dead - like the portrait of his late mother, whose rediscovery he narrates in the same work.

Contrary to the evolutionist and colonial prediction, ritual practices have persisted and diversified on many fronts. In the most traditional sphere, that of religious rituals, numerous activities have continued to draw on analogical and metaphorical procedures common to magic, for purposes that exceed ecclesiastical control. In the field of modern and contemporary art, avant-garde artists and movements promote unexpected engagements with traditional rites and their symbolisms. In parallel, the widespread reproduction of technical images in industrialized societies has spurred the creation of new theories of culture, many of which draw parallels with the effects of ritual enchantment.

The apparent opposition between the two terms loses its force even when we reread part of modern image theory. In a famous article on the ontology of the photographic image, André Bazin (2013:264) argued that the originality of photography lay in “its essential objectivity,” confirmed, in French, by the very term used for the lens, objectif, which also evokes the language of objectivity and thus signals its connection to modern conceptions of science, knowledge, and reason. Yet, according to the same author, another fundamental characteristic of photography was its capacity to transfer “the reality of the thing to its reproduction” (op. cit.).

Susan Sontag held that this second ontological dimension of photography brought it close to magical rites - the same rites that modernity would supposedly erase, keeping them reserved only for the “non-modern” and “non-civilized”. “Our irrepressible sense that the photographic process is somehow magical has a genuine basis. (…) a photograph is not merely similar to its subject (…). It is a part and an extension of that subject, and a powerful means of acquiring it, of gaining control over it” (Sontag 2004:87). In other words, photographic images and cinema introduced into the very heart of modernity forms of affective engagement that modern discourse itself used to attribute to non-modern rites.

To overcome the epistemological trap that set the pair image/ritual in opposition, just as it did with the pair modern/primitive, it is necessary to make room for non-modern, non-European, non-white ways of conceiving and configuring the relationship between these first two terms. Among the sources that could be singled out, we return to a work that belongs to a tradition of studies in indigenous ethnology: Os Mortos e os Outros [The Dead and the Others], by Manuela Carneiro da Cunha (1978), discussed in this journal since its earliest issues.¹ Revisiting this research, which draws on photographs and drawings, offers a useful counterpoint to the relationship that Barthes did (not) see between image, death, and ritual.

Like other studies in ethnology, the Krahô case analyzed by Carneiro da Cunha offers a good way of destabilizing clichés about the notion of “image.” Distinct cultures and cosmologies situate what is understood by this term differently and, consequently, the practices associated with it are likewise heterogeneous. To address the notions surrounding death and personhood among the Krahô, a Timbira group then living in northern Goiás, in what is now Tocantins, Carneiro da Cunha (1978:10) explains the polysemy of the native term karõ, which is used somewhat as “we use the terms ‘spirits’ or ‘souls,’ with the implicit sense of ‘spirits or souls of the dead.’”

The meaning of karõ, however, appears to be much broader: among its denotata, the term encompasses photography, reflection, every ‘image of the body.’ But not only that: the karõ can take on, even while linked to a host body, an appearance different from that of the body it inhabits: […] we might perhaps more appropriately translate karõ as ‘double,’ recalling that ‘if every image is a double, not every double is necessarily an image’ (L. Lévy-Bruhl 1963 [1927]: 189). In reality, in its essence, the double is, as J. P. Vernant (1965) writes, something profoundly different from an image: it is that which refers back to the object without, however, being confused with it. (Carneiro da Cunha 1978:10-11)

Karõ, therefore, refers to the image or double of the beings of the “other side,” of death, who possess a tangible existence, rather than being merely abstract metaphors for something absent. In her analysis of the rites performed for the dead, including rites aimed at reversing death, the author includes a story narrated by her interlocutors. In it, the sister of a deceased man calls upon a healer, asking him to bring back the dead man’s karõ (image/double) in order to restore her brother to life. After receiving the payment required,

The healer lit the khôt (a pipe much used in magic). The khôt looked like starlight (because the healer used a great deal of tobacco ). Then he fell down dead next to the dead man he wanted to bring back. Both broke into a sweat, the healer and the dead man (this refers to the two of them running, coming back from the village of the mekarõ). The healer moved his foot and the dead man moved his foot. When the healer sat down, the dead man also sat down. When the healer opened his eyes, the dead man also opened his. (Carneiro da Cunha 1978:11)

By mobilizing the karõ of the dead man, the healer makes contact with his static “photograph,” that is, his image without a future, and causes his own body to serve as a copy and model for the body of the other. The Krahô case thus illustrates an important conceptual shift from the image as representation to the image as representative - that is, as something that acts or that makes others act. And since “the image of one who has recently died still belongs to the things of this world” (Hertz apud Carneiro da Cunha, 1978:56, note 15), it is necessary to mediate its action among the living, which is done through rites.

Returning to the starting point of this introduction, perhaps the question is not to ask when image and ritual meet, but to recognize that a large part of the history of both has been, and continues to be, written through this very encounter. Images, in their polymorphism and polysemy, can be integrated into rituals of various kinds, addressed to both the living and the dead. Reciprocally, rituals not only draw on images but also shape the conditions of their fabrication, circulation, concealment, destruction, and efficacy.

If the modern tradition sought to place image and ritual on opposite sides of history - one oriented toward technical objectivity, the other relegated to the domain of religion - the studies gathered in this dossier point in a different direction: that images and rituals never cease to redefine one another. Images and rituals take part in the constitution and transformation of persons and their worlds; for this reason, they must be considered together, for it is precisely there that the “spell” of images resides.

Images in Ritual

This dossier adopts a broad definition of the image. It encompasses not only images drawn/painted/displayed on a flat surface, but also three-dimensional images: statues, statuettes, masks, and other objects. Beyond these materialities, there are images that exist only in digital or virtual media. In all cases, we consider that these and other artifacts either are images or can be treated as such.

So defined, images occupy a central position in ritual. Beyond the range of examples presented in the articles in this dossier - which we will address in the “Presentation” of the next issue of Religião & Sociedade (R&S) - a few further examples, drawn from our own research on ritual, can be offered. This is the case of religious festivals and pilgrimages and the way they are organized around the image of a particular title of Our Lady, or of a male or female saint. It is also the case of the Feasts of the Holy Spirit, organized around its crown or, in some instances, its flag or banner.

But other rituals, in which the religious dimension is less important, or even entirely absent, are likewise structured around images. A Portuguese example may be given: the masked festivals of Trás-os-Montes, in the northeast of the country. Some of these are devoted to Saint Stephen; others are the so-called festas dos rapazes [young men’s festivals], organized and led by the young men - or those or those who have recently reached adulthood - of a given locality. In both cases, it is around masks and masked characters that these festivals are structured. It could even be said that these masks and masked characters are the main protagonists of the festivals.

In Brazil too, many secular rituals are organized around images. This is the case of the carnival parade, in which masks, costumes, and allegorical floats constitute central elements of ritual action. As DaMatta (1977:16) observed, in contrast to religious processions, in which the mediation between the people and the image of the saint is carried out by the authorities who carry the processional platform, at carnival “the people and the authorities watch a parade of the masked people themselves, embodying, in the ritual moment, their own symbolic power.” The costumed people become acting images.

In all these cases, images possess not merely symbolic efficacy - as Lévi-Strauss would have put it - but operate as actants, that is, as participants in associations that make a difference in the course of action. As Latour (2012:108) states, “anything that modifies a state of affairs by making a difference is an actor - or, if it has no figuration yet, an actant.” Occupying a central place in many rituals, images intervene in them according to two broad modalities.

The first of these modalities corresponds to what we might call focal images. These are images - or simply a single image - that occupy a central place in a ritual. This is the case, for instance, in religious rituals, of images that are the object of worship and that acquire a singular biography of their own. Manuel Querino (1909) recounted the history of a sculpture of the Senhor dos Passos [Christ of the Stations] made by Chagas, o Cabra, an eighteenth-century artist from Bahia. The baroque sculpture had been commissioned for shipment to Rio Grande do Sul, but, after three failed attempts to ship it by sea, local devotees came to interpret the event as a sign of divine will: the saint wished to remain in Salvador. Stories such as this one span the centuries; a similar narrative can be heard in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, where another baroque-style image of the Senhor dos Passos is said to have chosen the church in which it wished to be worshipped (Pereira 2024:163).

The second modality corresponds to what we might call auxiliary images, which occupy a more secondary place within a given ritual script. In many processions, for instance, alongside the focal image - corresponding to the religious entity being worshipped - many other images are also sometimes incorporated. This is the case with many processions in Portugal centered on a particular chapel or church. The procession includes not only the image of the spiritual entity to which that temple is consecrated, but also images of other entities present within it, generally venerated at altars arranged along the sides of that same chapel or church.

We can also include in this modality the objects/images generally used in the worship of the spiritual entity around which the ritual is organized. One of the most striking cases is, once again, in the Feasts of the Holy Spirit, that of the drums - or other musical instruments - played by the members of the folia [religious procession band]. In some cases, as in São Luís do Maranhão, these drums are blessed - a small animal may even be sacrificed to them - and their status in the ritual is hybrid: they are simultaneously musical instruments and religious objects.

Transitions can occur between these two modalities, focal and auxiliary images. Tangential images can take on a leading role within a given ritual space-time; likewise, ritual artifacts can be removed from their original position and function, being archived or musealized, which alters their conceptual frame and their possibilities for action.

Uses of the Image in (and for) Studies of Ritual

The diversity of uses of the image - whether in drawing, photography, or film - within research that engages with rituals shows that each tool and medium affects both the relationships established in the field and the outcomes of each investigation. Given that every image results from an encounter between technologies, bodies, and worldviews, each of them intervenes in its own way in the construction of knowledge about rites.

Long before the institutionalization of anthropology, different practices of visual representation already depicted ritual scenes. In the colonial context, the production of paintings, engravings, and drawings gave visual form to the ways in which European travelers and artists perceived the populations they encountered (Oliveira, 2020). During Brazil’s imperial period, Johann Moritz Rugendas and Jean-Baptiste Debret depicted secular and religious festivities, while Hercule Florence (2007) recorded scenes in drawings made during the river expedition “from the Tietê to the Amazon,” carried out in 1825. Although produced in contexts distinct from anthropological research, these records helped constitute a visual repertoire that would later be taken up by anthropologists, artists, and other researchers.

Figure 1
Danse de Bororós (Cáceres, MT), Drawing by Hercule Florence, from the expedition carried out in 1825.

In the case of Portuguese anthropology, the incorporation of drawing, photography, and film accompanied changes in the definition of the discipline’s objects, in the centrality of fieldwork, and in the greater emphasis placed on material culture and popular festivals (Leal 2008). During the early consolidation of anthropology in Brazil, drawing, in particular, took on both descriptive and fabulatory functions.

In the publication accompanying the first Exposição Anthropologica Brazileira, held at the Museu Nacional in 1882, there are many illustrations of Indigenous figures from various ethnic groups, shown with ornaments, body paint , and ritual objects. These illustrations are, however, interspersed within the same catalogue with idyllic scenes, some reminiscent of Indianist poetry, which reflected white fantasies about Indigenous peoples.²

Throughout the twentieth century, drawing became established as a recurrent resource in ethnological research on Indigenous peoples, contributing to ethnographic knowledge of artifacts, cosmologies, mythologies, and rituals. In many cases, the use of drawing was associated with the study of Indigenous graphic traditions, arts, and materialities connected to rituals of various kinds (Vidal 2000). This history also includes drawings of Indigenous authorship, some made at the request of anthropologists in the field, either to compose the documentation of their research or to be later included in their publications.

A classic example of this use appears in “Fragmentos de Religião e Tradição dos Índios Šipáia” [Fragments of Religion and Tradition of the Šipáia Indians], by Curt Nimuendaju - an article that presents a set of drawings made by the Sąwaramí Šipáia, in 1917, at Nimuendaju’s direct encouragement.³ Originally made in pencil, during his fieldwork on the Iriri River, these images evoke figures from Xipaia mythology. The version of Nimuendaju’s text published in Religião & Sociedade (1981) also incorporated photographs documenting the ritual performance of the “jaguar dance” and the “dance of the spirits,” in which the soul of the dead (Iá nãi) manifests itself or departs for good.

Figure 2
Mythical f igures d rawn by Sąwaramí Šipáia for Nimuendaju [1917] (Santa Júlia, Iriri River, Pará). At the edges, the heroes Kuñarima and Aruβiatá; at the center, the creator Marusáwa.

The combined use of photography and drawing also occurs in fieldwork, whether older or contemporary, in which there are zones where the making and reproduction of images through cameras are forbidden. In some cases, drawing becomes the only possible tool for the visual translation of an exceptional experience, whether during the rite itself or afterward, to reconstitute it in memory (Caravita 2020). In others, drawing results from an artistic choice, as occurs in Iconografia dos deuses africanos no candomblé da Bahia [Iconography of the African Gods in Bahian Candomblé], by Carybé (1980), which brings together 128 watercolors dedicated to the orixás, their attributes and gestures, documenting an entire ritual system.

The articulation between visual languages found a particularly significant expression in the Missão de Pesquisas Folclóricas [Folklore Research Mission], carried out in 1938 by a team coordinated by Luís Saia, at the initiative of Mário de Andrade, through the São Paulo municipal Department of Culture . Bringing together drawings, photographs, sound recordings, films, and collections of objects, the Mission produced a documentary record of festive and religious rites in the North and Northeast regions, documenting performances associated with the Rei de Congo, Cabocolinhos, Tambor de Mina, Tambor de Crioula, and Carimbó.⁴

Figure 3
Missão de Pesquisas Folclóricas. Interior of Maria Plácida’s residence, in Recife, showing the mural paintings depicting figures from the dramatic dances, such as the feathered caboclo.

Just as with drawing, photography has long had an affinity with the depiction of ritual scenes, characters, and artifacts; and each type of image takes on its own meanings and densities according to its contexts of production, circulation, and use. Some images are integrated into the materialities of rituals, while others document them. For analytical purposes, we can distinguish two main modalities of photographic use: endogenous and exogenous uses, the latter being further divided between images intended primarily for cultural consumption and images conceived for documentary and research purposes.

Among the endogenous uses of photography, we may consider the portraits found in candomblé terreiros. The use of images of this kind, such as the iconic portrait Pierre Verger made of Mãe Senhora, Ialorixá of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá, and which was later incorporated into the terreiro of Pai Balbino de Xangô, Ilê Axé Opô Aganju, replicates a practice common in the Yoruba tradition, a practice common in the Yoruba tradition that has also occurred in Bahian terreiros since the nineteenth century (Sprague 1978; Castillo 2013). The religious use of photographs of pais and mães de santo [candomblé priests and priestesses], moreover, plays a role distinct from that of portraits (and selfies) that focus on the individuality of the person portrayed. By contrast , the portraits on the walls of the casa de santo reinforce the role that the person portrayed plays within the family and the lineage of the terreiro, as part of a collective heritage .

On the other hand, there are images that do not necessarily meet a demand internal to their context of origin. These are images made to serve purposes external to the interests of those portrayed. Within this second set of records, it is possible to distinguish two main modalities of photographic use. In the first, the images of a ritual serve the enjoyment of the photographers and those who consume such images, including researchers, through postcards, photo books, exhibitions, or individual print sales. In the second, the photographic process is conducted collaboratively with interlocutors in the field, taking into account their precepts and requirements concerning the making, exhibition, and circulation of images.

The first of these modalities includes two important historical records of the Congada, a music and dance-based rite that interwaves elements of the Bantu Afro-diasporic matrix with popular Catholicism devoted to Nossa Senhora do Rosário and São Benedito [Our Lady of the Rosary and Saint Benedict the African]. “Congado dos Pretos em Morro Velho,” photographed by the German Augusto Riedel, between 1868-69 in Minas Gerais, records a group standing still, posing for a camera that required a long exposure . Similarly, “Congada,” by Arsênio da Silva, made around 1860 in Rio de Janeiro, presents a group of Black men and women in ritual garments and with ritual instruments, enacting a dance position for the camera. Both records were produced during slavery, without identifying the people portrayed. They were later incorporated into the imperial collection and, finally, into the Biblioteca Nacional. Although they have considerable aesthetic, historical, and ethnographic value, they are images marked by a void of information about the people portrayed and about the conditions under which the portraits themselves were created.

Figure 4
Detail of “Congada” [religious festival of African origin], Arsênio da Silva, c. 1860.

Figure 5
“Congado dos Pretos em Morro Velho,” Augusto Riedel, 1868-69.

The relationship between researcher-photographer and the cultural universe they portray can, in turn , be guided by pacts forged in the field, defining the conditions of production, circulation, and exhibition of the images. A well-known example of this is Pierre Verger. Among the more than 60,000 negatives that make up the photographer’s material collection, there are images of sensitive content, such as photographs of ceremonies of sacralization/animal sacrifice, associated with the ritual initiation of filhos and filhas de santo [initiates]. Having access to the ritual and authorization to photograph it does not necessarily entail its unrestricted public dissemination . Aware of the history of persecution suffered by Afro-Brazilian cults, Verger avoided releasing these images for more than 30 years, recognizing that their circulation called for caution (Pereira 2022). Such care reflects an ethical stance that researcher-photographers must adopt in their relationships with communities and interlocutors.

This ethical question also extends to cinematic production. Among the different forms of audiovisual representation of rituals, the documentary occupies a place particularly close to ethnographic research, insofar as both are structured around fieldwork , observation, and the establishment of relationships with the cultural universe being portrayed. This proximity was addressed in a pioneering way in Brazil by an issue of Comunicações do ISER (1984), organized by Patrícia Monte-Mór following the Mostra de Documentários sobre Religiões Populares [Exhibition of Documentaries on Popular Religions], organized by the Instituto de Estudos da Religião (ISER).

Two decades later, revisiting that experience, Monte-Mór (2004) stated that she had centered her work “on documentary film, emphasizing the affinities between the anthropologist’s craft and research method and description in cinematic documentary.” In the same vein, Yvonne Maggie (1984:26) observed that “the position of researchers engaged in participant observation is what most closely brings the Social Scientist close to the Documentary Filmmaker.” In both cases, the production of images depends on the ethical arrangements established during research, so that the limits placed on the production and disclosure of records become part of both the research process and that of filmmaking.

In the article “Religião e filmes documentários no Brasil” [Religion and Documentary Films in Brazil], Monte-Mór (2004) broadens this panorama by reconstructing the historical presence of rituals in Brazilian documentary production. Her account takes Rituais e Festas Bororo (Luiz Thomaz Reis, 1916) as a foundational milestone of this tradition and follows works such as A Santa de Coqueiros (Ramon Garcia, 1930), Visão de Juazeiro (Eduardo Escorel, 1970), and Santa Cruz (João Moreira Salles, 2000), showing that rituals have remained one of the principal axes of the history of Brazilian documentary film.

These examples constitute only a portion of a much broader tradition, which also includes the the works produced by ISER-Vídeo in the 1980s and 1990s, addressing the relationships between religion, popular culture, and social transformation, and by Vídeo nas Aldeias, active since 1986. There is, moreover, a wide array of twenty-first-century productions, developed through diverse, collective, and minority poetics and forms of authorships, which confirm the ongoing renewal of the relationship between anthropological perspective, film, and ritual up to the present day. One of the most interesting contemporary examples is the project Híbridos: os espíritos do Brasil [Hybrids: The Spirits of Brazil] (2017), by Priscilla Telmon and Vincent Moon, which expands the boundaries of documentary filmmaking about ritual practices in the country. Alongside the production of a feature film, the project includes an online portal with photographs, interviews, and an archive of 50 short films that make up a cinematic mosaic encompassing rituals of different kinds, from different traditions, and regions.⁵

Images in the Ethnographic Monograph

Present in ritual, explored through drawing, photography, and film, images - not only images of rituals - also migrate into anthropological literature, whose best-known genre is the monograph.

From the standpoint of the uses of the image in the monograph, we can distinguish three broad modalities. To exemplify them, we will draw on monographs devoted to Afro-Brazilian religions (one of the research domains of one of the editors of the present volume; cf. Leal 2017).

The first modality corresponds to monographs that make no explicit use of the image. A good example is the celebrated monograph by Yvonne Maggie Velho, Guerra de Orixá: Um Estudo de Ritual e Conflito [War of the Orixás: A Study of Ritual and Conflict] (Velho 1975), which played an important role in renewing the study of Afro-Brazilian religions . At 170 pages, the monograph contains no images at all. The primacy of text in this work does not, however, indicate a distance between the author and the visual register. In analyzing her own writing, Maggie (2019:25) considers Guerra de Orixá to be a “very cinematic” book, endowed with a “very visual” narrative. The anthropologist’s impression is confirmed by the fact that the book served as the basis for the film Prova de Fogo (1980), a feature directed by Marco Altberg, whose preliminary screenplay was co-authored by Maggie.

The second modality applies to those monographs that make moderate use of the image. This is the case of the first edition of Roger Bastide’s Imagens do Nordeste Místico em Branco e Preto [Images of the Mystical Northeast in Black and White] (Bastide 1945), his first book on Afro-Brazilian religions. Despite the title beginning with the word Imagens [Images], only 11 photographs are published, in a four-page glossy paper insert placed between pages 80 and 81.

Finally, a third modality is that of photographic monographs. A good example of this type of monograph is Pierre Fatumbi Verger’s book Orixás: Deuses Yorubás na África e no Novo Mundo [Orixás: Yoruba Gods in Africa and the New World] (Verger 2018 [1981]). Totaling 306 pages in its 2018 edition, the book is divided into 18 chapters. Each of these opens with an introductory text, but Pierre Verger’s photographs take the leading role: 259 across the book as a whole . While in some chapters there is a certain balance between pages of text and pages of photographs, in others it is photography that predominates. In the chapter “Iniciação” [Initiation], for example, there are seven pages of text and 19 pages of photographs. And in the chapter devoted to “Oxum,” there are only two pages of text for nine pages of photographs. Further examples of this primacy of photography over text could be given.

To anthropological monographs we may add catalogues of ethnographic exhibitions and, more recently, web pages and online platforms. In all these cases, we find extensive use of images. They are generally accompanied by text, but the text ends up relegated to the background. It may go unread or, alternatively, may be read as a kind of - lengthy - caption to the published images. The same occurs, incidentally, of the photographic monographs referred to above.

Drawing on categories used in art history, as we move from monographs with no explicit use of the image to photographic monographs, exhibition catalogues, and websites, there is a shift from a regime characterized by aniconism to one characterized by iconophilia.

The typology we have been using can also be applied to journal articles. Among journal articles , however, aniconism appears to be dominant, especially in articles published in academic journals, where - until online publication became the main predominant mode of academic journal publishing - a rather unreceptive attitude toward the publication of images tended to prevail. At the same time, the growing number of journals that publish visual essays - as R&S does - helps expand the ways in which texts and images are articulated in the production of knowledge.

References

• BARTHES, Roland. (1984), A câmara clara: nota sobre a fotografia Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira.
• BASTIDE, Roger. (1945), Imagens do Nordeste Místico em Branco e Preto Rio de Janeiro: Empresa Gráfica “O Cruzeiro”.
• BAZIN, André. (2013), “A ontologia da imagem fotográfica”. In: A. Trachtenberg (org.). Ensaios sobre fotografia: de Niépce a Krauss Lisboa: Orfeu Negro. p. 261-266.
• CARAVITA, Rodrigo Iamarino. (2020), “Em busca de uma visão, em busca de uma grafia”. R@U, vol. 12, nº 2: 60-88.
• CARYBÉ. (1980), Iconografia dos deuses africanos no candomblé da Bahia Salvador: Fundação Cultural do Estado da Bahia; Universidade Federal da Bahia; Instituto Nacional do Livro.
• CASTILLO, Lisa Earl. (2013), “A fotografia e seus usos no candomblé da Bahia”. Pontos de Interrogação - Revista de Crítica Cultural, vol. 3, nº 2: 43-71.
• CUNHA, Manuela Carneiro da. (1978), Os Mortos e os Outros: uma análise do sistema funerário e da noção de pessoa entre os índios Krahó São Paulo: Hucitec.
• DAMATTA, Roberto. (1977), “Carnavais, paradas e procissões: reflexões sobre o mundo dos ritos”. Religião & Sociedade, nº 1: 3-30.
• FLORENCE, Hércules. (2007), Viagem fluvial do Tietê ao Amazonas de 1825 a 1829 Tradução do Visconde de Taunay. Brasília: Senado Federal, Conselho Editorial.
• LATOUR, Bruno. (2012), Reagregando o social: uma introdução à teoria do ator-rede Salvador: EDUFBA; Bauru: EDUSC.
• LEAL, João. (2008), “Retratos do povo: etnografia portuguesa e imagem”. In: J. M. Pais; C. Carvalho; N. M. de Gusmão (org.). O visual e o quotidiano Lisboa: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais. p. 117-144.
• LEAL, João. (2017), O culto do divino, migrações e transformações Lisboa: Edições 70.
• MAGGIE, Yvonne. (2019), Yvonne Maggie de Leers Costa Ribeiro (depoimento, 2009) Entrevistadores: Celso Castro, Karina Kuschnir, Ricardo Nicolay de Souza e Maya Hegege. Rio de Janeiro: CPDOC/Fundação Getulio Vargas.
• MAGGIE, Yvonne. (1984), Etnografia, observação participante e documentário de cinema. Comunicações do ISER, ano 3, nº 10, 27-28.
• MONTE-MÓR, Patrícia. (2004), “Religião e filmes documentários no Brasil”. Religião & Sociedade , vol. 24, nº 2: 61-72.
• MORAES FILHO, Mello. (1882), Revista da Exposição Anthropologica Brazileira Rio de Janeiro: Typographia de Pinheiro & C. Disponível em: https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Amoraes-1882-revista/RevExposAnthrBrazileira_1882.pdf Acesso em: 18/08/2026.
  » https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Amoraes-1882-revista/RevExposAnthrBrazileira_1882.pdf
• NIMUENDAJU, Curt. (1981), “Fragmentos de religião e tradição dos índios Šipáia”. Religião & Sociedade , nº 7: 3-47.
• OLIVEIRA, João Pacheco de. (2020), Os primeiros brasileiros Rio de Janeiro: Arquivo Nacional; Museu Nacional.
• PEREIRA, Edilson. (2022), “Fotografia e sagrados afro-brasileiros: modulações da diferença em Pierre Verger e seus contemporâneos”. Revista de Antropologia, vol. 65, nº 1: e192797.
• PEREIRA, Edilson. (2024), A paixão pela memória: imagem, ritual e teatro em Ouro Preto Rio de Janeiro: Papéis Selvagens.
• PESSIS, Anne-Marie; GUIDON, Niéde. (2000), “Pinturas Rupestres: registros rupestres e caracterização das etnias pré-históricas”. In: L. Vidal (org.). Grafismo indígena: estudos de antropologia estética São Paulo: Studio Nobel; FAPESP; EdUSP. p. 19-33.
• QUERINO, Manuel Raimundo. (1909), Artistas bahianos (indicações biographicas) Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional.
• SONTAG, Susan. (2004), Sobre fotografia São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
• SPRAGUE, Stephen F. (1978), “Yoruba photography: how the Yoruba see themselves”. African Arts, vol. 12, nº 1: 52-59.
• VERGER, Pierre Fatumbi. (2018 [1981]), Orixás: deuses yorubás na África e no Novo Mundo Salvador: Fundação Pierre Verger.
• VIDAL, Lux (org.). (2000), Grafismo indígena: estudos de antropologia estética . São Paulo: Studio Nobel; FAPESP; EdUSP .
• VELHO, Yvonne Maggie. (1975), Guerra de Orixá: um estudo de ritual e conflito Rio de Janeiro: Zahar Editores.
• ALTBERG, Marco (Diretor). (1980), Prova de fogo [Filme]. Rio de Janeiro: Embrafilme.
• ESCOREL, Eduardo (Diretor). (1970), Visão de Juazeiro [Documentário]. Rio de Janeiro: Eduardo Escorel Produções Cinematográficas.
• GARCIA, Ramon (Diretor). (1930), A “Santa” de Coqueiros [Documentário]. Brasil: Botelho Filme.
• REIS, Luiz Thomaz (Diretor). (1917), Rituais e festas Bororo [Documentário]. Rio de Janeiro: Seção de Cinematografia e Fotografia da Comissão Rondon.
• SALLES, João Moreira (Diretor). (2000), Santa Cruz [Documentário]. Rio de Janeiro: VideoFilmes/GNT.
• TELMON, Priscilla; MOON, Vincent (Diretores). (2017), Híbridos: os espíritos do Brasil [Documentário]. São Paulo: Descoloniza Filmes.
• ISER COMUNICAÇÕES DO ISER. (1984), Rio de Janeiro: ISER, Ano 3, nº 10.
• ISER RELIGIÃO E SOCIEDADE. (1977), Rio de Janeiro: ISER , nº 1. Disponível em: https://religiaoesociedade.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Religiao-e-Sociedade-N01-1977.pdf Acesso em: 18/08/2026.
  » https://religiaoesociedade.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Religiao-e-Sociedade-N01-1977.pdf
• ISER RELIGIÃO E SOCIEDADE. (1980), Rio de Janeiro: ISER, nº 5. Disponível em: https://religiaoesociedade.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Religiao-e-Sociedade-N05-1980.pdf Acesso em: 18/08/2026.
  » https://religiaoesociedade.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Religiao-e-Sociedade-N05-1980.pdf
• ISER RELIGIÃO E SOCIEDADE. (1981), Rio de Janeiro: ISER , nº 7. Disponível em: https://religiaoesociedade.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Religiao-e-Sociedade-N07-1981.pdf Acesso em: 18/08/2026.
  » https://religiaoesociedade.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Religiao-e-Sociedade-N07-1981.pdf
• ACERVO DO CENTRO CULTURAL SÃO PAULO. “Missão de Pesquisas Folclóricas de Mário de Andrade”. Acervo do Centro Cultural São Paulo Disponível em: https://acervoccsp.art.br/missao-de-pesquisas-folcloricas-de-mario-de-andrade/ Acesso em: 13/08/2026.
  » https://acervoccsp.art.br/missao-de-pesquisas-folcloricas-de-mario-de-andrade/
• HÍBRIDOS. (2017), Híbridos: os espíritos do Brasil Híbridos Disponível em: https://hibridos.cc/po/ Acesso em: 01/08/2026.
  » https://hibridos.cc/po/

¹

In the first issue of Religião & Sociedade, in 1977, the author published a summary of her doctoral dissertation, defended at Unicamp. Three years later, in the fifth issue, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro published a review of the book, on which we have also drawn. See: https://religiaoesociedade.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Religiao-e-Sociedade-N01-1977.pdf and https://religiaoesociedade.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Religiao-e-Sociedade-N05-1980.pdf.

²

The publication of the Exposição Anthropologica Brazileira (1882) can be consulted at https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Amoraes-1882-revista/RevExposAnthrBrazileira_1882.pdf

³

Published in Religião & Sociedade, n. 7, 1981, in a version prepared by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Charlotte Emmerich based on the Portuguese translation by F. W. Lommes, found in the papers of Professor Heloísa Alberto Torres and collated with the original in German. See: https://religiaoesociedade.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Religiao-e-Sociedade-N07-1981.pdf

⁴

The records of the Missão de Pesquisas Folclóricas can be consulted in the Archive of the Centro Cultural São Paulo (CCSP): https://acervoccsp.art.br/missao-de-pesquisas-folcloricas-de-mario-de-andrade/

⁵

See the Híbridos (2017). The feature film resulting from this project is described on the same portal as “a musical journey through diverse rituals, while gradually weaving a new ritual — a cinematic ritual.”

Translator's Note

• The quotations from Roland Barthes (1984:138) and Susan Sontag (2004:87) have been translated directly from the Brazilian Portuguese editions cited in the original article. These quotations in their original English versions can be found in the respective works: Camera Lucida (trans. Richard Howard) and On Photography.

*

[e-mail]

**

[e-mail]

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  25 Sept 2026
• Date of issue
  2026