Macumba

In a more limited sense, macumba is used only to characterize traditions like Quimbanda that revolve around the lesser exu spirits, especially as they are practiced in Rio de Janeiro.

[1] An alternative argument, put forward by Marcos Aurélio Luz and Georges Lapassade, argued that macumba derived from the term mocamba, which designated a house of runaway slaves.

The scholar Kelly Hayes noted that while Macumba was "a term used to denominate Afro-Brazilian religious cults, practices, and ritual objects" as a whole, it was used "most especially" for "those thought to involve feitiçaria, sorcery or black magic.

"[10] The scholar Steven Engler noted that Macumba "refers not to a specific religion but to a range of popular Afro-Brazilian rituals (often labeled 'black magic') that aim at healing and worldly benefits.

"[16] They noted that much literature sought to portray Candomblé as a legitimate religion of pure African derivation while simultaneously denigrating Macumba as "especially syncretistic, impure, or degraded".