Quimbanda
Quimbanda, also spelled Kimbanda (Portuguese pronunciation: [kĩˈbɐ̃dɐ]), is an Afro-Brazilian religion practiced primarily in the urban city centers of Brazil.
Pomba giras are often regarded as the spirits of deceased women who worked as prostitutes or in other positions traditionally considered immoral in Catholic Brazilian society.
A range of Afro-Brazilian religions emerged in Brazil, often labelled together under the term Macumba, which often carried negative connotations.
Historically, the term Quimbanda has been used by practitioners of Umbanda, a religion established in Brazil during the 1920s, to characterise the religious practices that they opposed.
[7] The ethnomusicologist Marc Gidal observed that many Quimbandists insist their religion is distinct from Umbanda despite the "intimate connection" between the two traditions.
[10] It combined elements of Spiritism (Espiritismo) with ideas from Afro-Brazilian religions like Candomblé,[11] as well as influences from Roman Catholicism.
[14] The anthropologists Diana Brown and Mario Bick noted that, for the early Umbandistas, "Quimbanda represented a repository for all the opprobrious associations from which they wished to escape.
[16] Brown noted that Quimbanda represented "a crucial negative mirror image against which to define Umbanda,"[17] suggesting that it could also serve as an "ideological vehicle for expressing prejudices" towards African-derived and lower class religions.
Note that they are not the same as the Eshu/ Elegua of Lukumi Elegua/ Santeria; as Quimbanda has evolved as a religion, it has created a category of spirits collectively called Exus, whose name was borrowed from the deity Exu.
From inside of the cult, Quimbanderos instead affirm that Exus cover both Spirit and Matter, and that They simply consider pointless to stick only to one of them.
[25] They wear red and black clothing,[26] and only possess women and gay men,[27] who will then often smoke or drink alcohol,[28] using obscene language and behaving lasciviously.
[35] Particular elements of an Exu trabalho remain unchanged in the Pomba Gira trabalho and therefore mark Pomba Giras as the female counterparts of Exu: the colors, the location (male to female variation), the time of day, the day of the week, the scent (smoky), and the container for the food and the flour/palm oil mixture.
In a Pomba Gira trabalho, another set of elements indicates a gentler coding: from rum to champagne or anisette, from the absence of flowers to red roses, from pepper in the flour/palm oil mixture to honey, and from a fierce initiatory act to a song, which seems to suit the purpose of the ritual: to obtain a woman.
Ironically, the Catholic Church adopted the Colonial crown’s system of controlling the slave population, which in turn preserved African traditions.
Umbanda represented the ‘whitened’ aspects of Macumba, drawing heavily on spiritual and hierarchical values of French Spiritism and Catholicism.
[44] Spiritists maintain that Quimbandistas are drawing low spirits into the material realm, while Pentecostalists and other Christians have regarded Quimbanda as being in service of the Devil.
