Afro-universalista? Composições de forças e intensidades em um terreiro de Umbanda em Belo Horizonte (Brasil)

Abstract

The present work is the result of a seven-year ethnographic research with an esoteric Umbanda terreiro in the city of Belo Horizonte. Being Umbandist, in this context, goes through the ability to compose with different strengths and beings and create bridges between exoteric knowledge, with “x”, and, esoteric with “s”, in other words, between science, religion, hermeticism, oracles… It is neither universalist in general nor universalizing or totalizing, but afro-universalist, without forgetting the relational differences and its Umbanda belonging. Thus, the bonds are of ancestral kinship, activating biographical strength lines with each meeting and showing how much the terreiro, mediumship and body are mediating territories of these relationships. This is a category that emerges and is mobilized to think about differences such as diverse intensities and nomads.