Abstract
Most of the eighty Holy Ghost festivals that take place every year in São Luís (Maranhão) are celebrated in tambor de mina cult houses and involve the construction of several types of articulation between the festivals and Afro-Brazilian ritual. This paper focuses on the participation of encantados (‘the enchanted’: voduns, orishas, nobles, princesses and caboclos) in distinct ritual segments of Holy Ghost festivals, associated with ideas of structure and anti-structure. I show that the participation of the enchanted in the festivals follows the same pattern: spiritual entities associated with ideas of structure (voduns, orishas, nobles and princesses) participate in rituals organized according to ideas of containment and hierarchy, while other spiritual entities associated with ideas of anti-structure (caboclos) participate in rituals organized around the ideas of excess and disorder. Thus a structural congruence exists between Holy Ghost festivals and the principles that organize the tambor de mina pantheon. I argue that this congruence is actively constructed by tambor de mina cult houses and is crucial to understanding the processes through which the Holy Ghost festivals are appropriated.
Keywords
Festivals; Afro-Brasilian religions; Holy Ghost; tambor de mina; Maranhão