The Study of Racialism

Boa viagem! Will you be on business or on vacation? Where will you be located (in what city)?

I'm going to Rio for Carnival! I'm so excited. I'm planning to stay about 4-5 days.

If you have any recommendations please let me know! I know you and Mary Lee lived there for a time.

Mary Lee doubts that I should recommend anything. First, although we lived there for many years (we both still speak fluent Portuguese), we left over 30 years ago. The restaurants, night clubs, even hotels that we knew are probably long gone. Second, Carnaval completely takes over the city; you probably will not have the chance to do anything else.

Nevertheless, when we lived there, a tour company offered an evening visit to a Candomble ceremony. If it is still in existence (likely), and if you get the chance (unlikely), I recommend it.

It is fascinating that the very same minor "gods" (orixas or spirits, actually) appear with the same traits in Voudum, Candomble, Macumba, Santeria, etc. throughout the hemisphere. Many of the religious words are in the Yoruba language, and yet Yoruba were a small minority among slaves. For some reason, the Yoruba religion became ubiquitous among New World slaves. I was enthralled to compare the ring-shout and spirit-channeling in Brazil with the corresponding Santeria back home. If you have any knowledge of Haitian practices I guarantee that you will find it interesting as well.

Oh. Mary Lee just said that I should advise you to hold tight to your purse in the street. The purse-snatchers are very young but very fast.

That's for sure! I am going to try like hell to blend in but as soon as I open my mouth everyone is going to know me for the tourist I am. Thank you for the warning.

I will have a native tourguide who is telling me that Carnaval is not to be missed, but I am almost wondering whether it wouldn't be better to come during a quieter time and experience "normal' life. Afterall I am not going to ogle the scantily clad women in costume.

I actually don't know a lot about voudun but I find the incorporation of Yoruba religion and Catholicism fascinating, so I would enjoy witnessing a Candomble ceremony. My Haitian side is either "proper" Catholic (their words, probably to distinguish their practices from traditionally Haitian ones), converted evangelicals or agnostic.

I'm working on my Portuguese nevertheless. It's such a beautiful language.

No, I agree with your tourguide. Carnaval is not to be missed, if you have the opportunity. It is more than pretty girls and handsome men dancing and playing music.

The desfile (parade) is a competition among the dozen or so different escolas de samba. These are social clubs, and every Carioca (resident of Rio) roots for one of them. The largest and most famous is Portela (whose colors are blue and red), but Mary Lee and I supported Mangueira (green and gold). If you ever saw the film "Black Orpheus" you may recall that the protagonists were in the Mangueira team. Each escola designs and builds entirely new costumes and floats every year, all within a theme and all featuring that escola's colors.

More interesting, each escola writes a new song every year, and some of these become international hits after the event. Each escola displays its talents in front of a judging stand, where it earns points for costumes, floats, dancing skill, song quality, and polyrhythm virtuosity of their bateria (their band's percussion section). Mary Lee and I have heard folk polyrhythms in different African countries, as well as in technical demonstrations. I assure you that no drumming anywhere on earth is as likely to get your juices stirred up as the baterias das escolas competing for the grand prize. Once you hear it, you will never forget it.


Oddly, although the orixas (spirits) have the same names, traits, and bios everywhere in the hemisphere, the Catholic saint that each one is associated with in the syncretism varies from country to country. For example, Ogum is always depicted as a mounted knight in armor slaying a dragon. But in Brazil he is linked to St. George, while in PR he is Santiago Matamoros (St. James the moorslayer).

Would you mind continuing this discussion in a new thread in the LA forum? This is good stuff!

I agree. We have wandered very far from the topic. Would you mind splitting it? Mary Lee and I are on the way to PR right now, so my internet access is limited.

Are you only going to Rio or do you plan to visit other parts of the state or country?

Rio is a beautiful city, and since you can blend in (always helpful), you'll be able move smoothly through crowds and such.

I'm jealous.

sagascend wrote:


There are staged ceremonies for tourists out there. The real ones are for initiates I suppose.

There are other African-based religions out there as well like Umbanda and Macumba. Not sure what the difference is between Candomble and Macumba, but I think Umbanda is a mixture of French spiritism, Yoruba, and Amerindian religious traditions.

Just to point out, Brazil has received significant immigration from both Europe and Asia. Anyone can blend in physically in Brazil.

Regarding the differences among Candomble, Macumba, and Umbanda, I was never able to figure that out. Candomble was the religion of choice (other than Catholicism, of course) among the families of the middle-class computer geeks that Mary Lee and I hung out with, so those were the ceremonies that we attended with our friends. When I asked about the other Yoruba-Catholic syncretic religions, all they would say was that, while theirs (Candomble) was a true religion, the others were mere superstitions. (Surprise!)

Regarding "staged" versus "real" religious ceremonies, I doubt that it makes any difference in this context (infotainment for Maya).

Tomorrow, for example, Mary Lee and I are taking my 94-year-old mom to see a performance of Puerto Rican folk dances from different historical periods and originating in different cultures. The troupe comprises professionals, of course, and the fact that they are not actually peasants celebrating after a harvest, or some such thing, is irrelevant. Similarly, the Candomble ceremonies on the tours (30+ years ago) looked the same to my unbeliever's eye as the "real" ones that Mary Lee and I attended with our friends.

If Maya does schedule such a visit, it might be a good idea to read up on the distinctive traits of the different orixas (spirits, gods) ahead of time. Much of the ceremony focusses on mediums who become possessed by different orixas in order to preach and give advice. Each medium's personality and body language change dramatically as they are possessed by their orixa (pronounced oar-ee-SHA). It is more intersting if you can immediately recognize the orixa doing the possessing. The main orixas in Rio are: Iemanjá (patroness of Rio), Xango (my own patron), Oxalá, Ogum, Omulu, Exu, and the Ibeji twins.



Mary Lee jumped all over this. According to her, what people first notice in Brazil are your clothing, shoes, and body language. According to her, USAmericans stand out so obviously that you can spot them from a distance, even in a crowd. She then went on to cite several examples where she and I personally identified U.S. tourists from far away. I have no such recollection, so I have just tactfully answered. "Ah yes; I remember it well."

Since you and MisterLawyer put it that way, I'd have to agree with your opinions about blending in. Come to think of it, where I was in the Northeast I stuck out like a sore thumb due to the way I carried myself and my physical size.