Umbanda

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Umbanda is a syncretistic or mystical-spiritual religion from Brazil , Argentina and Uruguay , at the center of which is the incarnation of spiritual beings from marginalized social groups as well as the conversation with them.

The language is considered to be the link between the material and the immaterial worlds. In the associated rituals , trained media go into a trance to let the spirits take possession of their bodies (→ possession ) . Other typical rituals are divinatory sacrificial ceremonies , such as donating flowers to the sea goddess Iemanjá , who here corresponds to the Virgin Mary and is represented as a mermaid .

Iemanjá figure in the Rio Vermelho district, in Salvador da Bahia .

Umbanda is one of the most dynamic and influential religions in South America. None of the other Afro-American religions have as many followers among Euro-Americans as the African elements are not overemphasized here.

backgrounds

Umbanda differentiates itself from spiritualism according to Allan Kardec (Cardezism) as well as from Candomblé and integrates Christian-Catholic, indigenous , Kabbalistic as well as Hindu or Buddhist (formed by European esotericism ) in its belief system, which originally came from African Bantu slaves Values.

So-called (female) Caboclas and (male) Caboclos, spiritual beings of indigenous people of Brazil, and Pretas Velhas and Pretos Velhos, spiritual beings of African slaves from Brazil's colonial times , form the central figures of the umbandist pantheon . There are also spirits of children (Erês) and cattle herders ( boiadeiros ) and the group of Pombagiras and Exus, spirits associated with the devil. The umbandist ghosts are notions or symbolic “images” of stereotypes in Brazilian society about “the Indians”, “the Bahians ” or the “black slaves of the colonial era”.

These personifications of spiritual beings in the umbanda take place through a symbolic revaluation, as the Brazilian cultural anthropologist Patrícia Birman emphasizes, in which the socially stigmatized population groups occupy a particularly valued position in the religious hierarchy.

“As entidades mais valorizadas na umbanda são pensadas pelos próprios umbandistas como seres inferiores e subalternos ao homem branco. So podemos supor, então, que a subalternidade tem um valor positivo para a religão. E é exatamente isso que acontece. Podemos dizer que o poder religioso da umbanda decorre disso, de uma inversão simbólica em que os estruturalmente inferiores na sociedade são detentores de um poder mágico particular, advindo da própria condição que possuem. ”

“The most valued [spiritual] beings in the umbanda are seen by believers as inferior and subordinate to the white man. So we can only assume that submission has positive value for religion. And that's exactly what happens. We can claim that the religious power of the umbanda is fed by the symbolic inversion through which the structurally subordinates of society are the holders of a certain magical power that arises from their own class. "

- Patrícia Birman (1985: 46)

The espíritos (spirits), entidades espirituais (spirit beings) or guias (leaders), which consist equally of female and male beings, have an earthly origin and return from the concern of caridade , the charity (or Caritas), to their physical Death back to earth as a spirit. They are divided into lines of descent (linhas), which in turn are divided into groups (legiões / falanges) and are guided and protected by an Orixá (an African deity) who corresponds to a Catholic saint (but this cannot be proven) . The ghost groups are divided into judgmental categories. The so-called "Spirits of Light" ( espíritos de luz ) are on the right and include the Caboclos and the Pretos Velhos . They are assigned to the home and family area. The “spirits of darkness” (espíritos das trevas) on the left, on the other hand, are formed by the Pombagiras and Exus and assigned to the street (Povo de Rua).

development

The umbanda emerged in the urban centers in the south-east of the country in the 1920s and has spread throughout the country and beyond in the following decades or supplemented with the local Afro-indigenous religious traditions. In contrast to the Cardezism from which it emerged, the Umbanda does not define itself through dogmas or writings that have a universal character for its believers.

The umbanda was founded by the autonomous tendas or terreiros (cult houses), in the center of which there is a charismatic personality (mãe- or pai-de-santo) who leads the cult. In a very conscious way, its structure is not centralistic, but downright federal or democratically diverse. Even the Cardezist-oriented group within the Umbanda Ordem Iniciática do Cruzeiro Divino in the tradition of Matte e Silva emphasizes that the Umbanda has no religious head (such as the Pope), but that the spiritual beings are direct mediators to the sacred.

The later umbrella organizations (federações), which are in exchange with the individual tendas , also have a direct influence .

More recently, the Umbanda religion in Brazil has come under pressure from fanatical evangelical Christians, especially from the Pentecostal sects. Rio's mayor, Marcelo Crivella , a Christian fundamentalist, condemns the carnival, which is anchored in Afro-Brazilian cults, as an “unchristian excess”, cuts the organizers' funds and stays away from the event. In addition, evangelicals are gaining increasing influence over the favela gangs. Since the election of Jair Bolsonaro , who is close to the evangelicals, as president, discrimination against the umbandas has intensified.

Etymology, goals, meaning

One of the etymological meanings of the word Umbanda can be found in the Angolan languages ​​Kimbundu and Umbundu and denotes the traditional medicine of this region; in this context also “white magic”, “saints”, “healers” or “priests”. In the Brazilian form, this healing aspect focuses on psychotherapeutic care. Recovery processes and problem solving of an emotional and social nature such as partner search and unemployment are again and again central tasks of this magical form of religion. Hugo Saraiva therefore calls the umbanda a spiritual emergency room .

In his ethnopoeia , Hubert Fichte describes Afro-American syncretism as the culture of the oppressed , which is neglected or overlooked in the consciousness of the academically educated. He understands it as a new humanity that overcomes the bourgeoisie through its theatricality

"Psychodramatic, aesthetic counter-movement within the slums of a continent, as a counter-movement that is related to Pop Art, Surrealism, street theater, psychoanalysis and surpasses them all existentially and formally."

- Hubert Fichte

In its aesthetic symbolic language, the umbanda integrates the most heterogeneous beliefs, such as B. from People's Catholicism, Jewish Kabbalah , universal esotericism etc.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On religious trance cf. Scharf da Silva 2004: 136-145.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Bernhard Pollmann: Traditional religions in South America. In: Harenberg Lexicon of Religions. Harenberg, Dortmund 2002, ISBN 3-611-01060-X . P. 911.
  3. ↑ Scharf da Silva 2004: 32f.
  4. ↑ Scharf da Silva 2004: 62-70.
  5. ↑ Cf. on the term “terreiros” Scharf da Silva 2004: 86.
  6. ↑ Scharf da Silva 2004: 58
  7. ↑ Brazil: Is the carnival threatened?
  8. ↑ Favela gangsters become radical Christians: Brazilian deal with Jesus
  9. ↑ Scharf da Silva 2004: 57
  10. ^ Fichte, Hubert 1981: Xango. The Afro-American Religions Bahia, Haiti, Trinidad. Frankfurt / Main: Fischer.
  11. ↑ Scharf da Silva 2004: 56

literature

in order of appearance

  • Lindolfo Weingärtner : Umbanda. Syncretistic Cults in Brazil - a Challenge for the Christian Church. (= Erlanger paperbacks, volume 8 ). Publishing house of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission, Erlangen 1969.
  • Ulrich Fischer: On the liturgy of the Umbandakult. An investigation into the cults or official acts of the syncretistic new religion of the Umbanda in Brazil . Brill, Leiden 1970.
  • Ulrich Fischer: Umbanda - a new religion in Brazil . In: Evangelical Mission. 1973 yearbook . Publishing house of the German Evangelical Missionary Aid, Hamburg 1973.
  • Horst Figge: Spirit cult, obsession and magic in the umbanda religion of Brazil . Alber, Freiburg and Munich 1973, ISBN 3-495-47274-6 .
  • Wilfried Weber : The Umbandakult in Brazil as a non-Christian renewal movement . In: Journal for Mission Studies and Religious Studies (ZMR), vol. 60 (1976), pp. 91-109.
  • Renato Ortiz: A morte branca do feitiçeiro negro. Umbanda e sociedade brasileira . Brasiliense, São Paulo 1978.
  • Horst Figge: Contributions to the cultural history of Brazil. With special consideration of the Umbanda religion and the West African Ewe language . Reimer, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-496-00139-9 .
  • Patría Birman: O que é Umbanda. Editora Brasiliense e Abril Cultural (= Coleção primeiros passos, No. 34). São Paulo 1983.
  • Lísias Nogueira Negrão: Entre a cruz ea encruzilhada. Formação do campo umbandista in São Paulo . Editora da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo 1996.
  • Maik Sadzio: Between Magic and Sense - Umbanda: Ethnopsychoanalysis of a House of Religions in Porto Alegre-RS / Brazil . In: Brazil Dialogue , 1997, Topic 3/4: Healing and Health . Institut für Braziliankunde , Mettingen 1997, pp. 3–44.
  • Tina Gudrun Jensen: Umbanda and its clientele . In: New Trends and Developments in African Religions (1998), pp. 75–86.
  • Rainer bottle: Art. Umbanda . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (TRE), Vol. 34 (2002), pp. 263-265.
  • Sybille Pröschild: The Holy in the Umbanda. History, characteristics and attraction of an Afro-Brazilian religion (= contexts. New contributions to historical and systematic theology, vol. 39). Edition Ruprecht , Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-7675-7126-6 .
  • Maik Sadzio: Conversations with the Orixás: Ethnopsychoanalysis in an Umbanda Terreiro in Porto Alegre / Brazil . Transcultural Edition, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-8423-5509-5 .
  • Inga Scharf da Silva: Umbanda. A religion between Candomblé and Cardezism. About syncretism in everyday urban life in Brazil . Humboldt University, Berlin 2017 (second publication), https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/handle/18452/14339 / Lit Verlag, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-8258-6270-4 .

Web links

Commons : Umbanda  - collection of images, videos and audio files