THE "BEING-IN-THE-WORLD” AND “DEVOTIONAL UTENSILS”

A MATERIAL ANALYSIS OF THE “CROSSING” OF AMULETS BY “PRETOS VELHOS” IN UMBANDA FROM HEIDEGGERIAN PHENOMENOLOGY

Abstract

The current article analyzes the Umbanda practice known as “crossing”, which is a type of consecration made by a “spiritual guide” on an amulet or any type of material object, giving it a status of “sacred”. The following analysis was made from the perspective of material culture, using Heidegger’s phenomenology as a theoretical tool, which, based on a theoretical contemplation of worldly entities, is concerned with addressing the relationship between these entities and individuals (Dasein) in the world. Finally, it was possible to observe from this analysis that this relationship between the individual and the religious phenomena studied occurs through the body, that is, through materiality. They are knowledge and traditions that are perpetuated, not through scripture, but through oral culture and the materiality of the adept’s body.