Marmotagem (Brazil)
| Marmotagem 🇧🇷 | ||
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| Location: Brazil | ||
| Definition: Improper or deceitful practicing of Afro-Brazilian religious rituals | ||
| Keywords: Brazil – South America – Latin America – Ritual – Healthcare – Religion – Fraud – Spirituality – Occult | ||
| Author: Giovanna Capponi | ||
| Affiliation: Département de la Recherche et de l'Enseignement, Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, France | ||
By Giovanna Capponi, Département de la Recherche et de l'Enseignement, Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, France
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The term derives from the Portuguese marmota (lit. ʻmarmotʼ) and is commonly used as a slang to describe someone or something that is dishonest, strange or suspicious. In the context of Afro-Brazilian religions like Candomblé and Umbanda, marmotagem is a derogatory term that describes improper or fraudulent practicing of magical or religious rituals, often aimed at extorting money from followers or clients. The marmoteiro (f. marmoteira) is a priest(ess) who is considered to either perform the rituals incorrectly because of incompetence or lack of knowledge, or pretend to have credentials to act as a religious authority in order to gain prestige or profit. Accusations of marmotagem among Afro-Brazilian practitioners highlight notions of authenticity, grounds for recognition and realms of competition in religious communities. |
Afro-Brazilian religions consist of various religious beliefs, with Candomblé and Umbanda being the most widespread. They draw upon elements of traditional African ritual practices resulting from the deportation of enslaved African people from West and Central Africa to Brazil. In Brazil, and also in Europe and USA since the 1990s, regional variations of these religions include ritual practices under numerous names: Candomblé ketu, Candomblé Angola, Xangô in Recife, Tambor de Minas, Batuque and many others. Afro-Brazilian deities (orixás) are closely associated with natural elements of the landscape (ocean, forests, rivers, crossroads, etc.), linked to human temperaments, and associated with different stages of life and matter. Rituals involve a complex manipulation and assemblage of multiple objects, artefacts and ingredients in order to “feed” the orixás with animal sacrifice properly and/or to make food offerings to ensure the return of sacred energy and favours.
Afro-Brazilian religious communities are held together by an initiation ritual and a rigid hierarchical structure, based on the combination of age, competence and status. Each role in the hierarchy presumes different abilities, obligations and taboos, and it helps to secure legitimation of one’s performance of rituals as being “traditional”. In general, accusations of marmotagem are based on a perceived deviation from tradition (Araújo 2018, 45-47). In specific contexts, such accusations are often a way to claim that one’s own ritual tradition is the most authentic and the most efficacious (Capone 2010, 12). Accusations of marmotagem often imply the fact that the marmoteiro/a did not undergo the initiation ritual, and/or that they pretend to have an initiated knowledge in order to gain prestige or profit. Similarly, someone who initiates others without being ordained as priest or priestess (which should ordinarily happen at least seven years since the initiation), or acts as if they already have a higher position in the hierarchy can be accused of being a marmoteiro/a by both external and internal members of religious communities.
The priest(ess) who initiates a novice should have expertise, through divination or specific rituals, to be able to define if the person is either rodante (someone who can go into trance) or não-rodante (someone who cannot, and should take a different role in the hierarchy). When a novice, determined to be não-rodante suddenly goes into trance, the priest(ess) can be accused of wrongdoing (fazer errado), of incompetence and lacking credentials for the role. Trance possession is the key ritual event in which the orixás manifest themselves on earth, so the claims of authenticity or charlatanry tend to centre upon it. Faking trance and/or not complying with the bodily performance, right timing, or other parameters of trance possession are commonly regarded as signs of charlatanry. Most practitioners admit to have a “trained eye” in order to recognise when the trance is faked or real. Such expertise includes an ability to estimate the trance bodily performance, and its various features such as movement of eyes, lids, bodily shaking, emitting sounds and talking.
Other aspects of the idea of doing it wrongly (fazer errado) relate to the performance of the ritual itself and mixing elements that are considered incompatible. For example, a priestess can be accused of being marmotagem on the basis of leading ceremonies using a recording of sacred chants rather than live drums (Opipari 2009, 102). Similarly, there can be accusations of offering palm oil (which is bright red) to Oxalá, the orixá of whiteness and purity, while red and black colours are not allowed, or not complying with the rigid rules and prescriptions of body purity for the required period of time after initiation rituals (like abstaining from wearing coloured clothes, drinking, and having sex). In all such cases the rituals are performed without the ‘right’ knowledge in order to administer and manipulate the sacred energy.
As noticed by Brazeal (2014), marmotagem practices are often motivated by economic interests, as religious priest or priestesses respond to the demand from clients asking for rituals to solve problems related to health, family, romance or business. In order to attend the most diverse requests, self-proclaimed religious authorities would mix up different elements belonging to different traditions in order to impress their clients. Marmoteiros may also subvert the tradition of oral transmission of knowledge, and learn rituals from books, or even websites, instead of submitting themselves to the hierarchy and learn from the elders as prescribed. However, the ultimate test for authenticity in such contexts is the ritual efficacy. While it is impossible to determine the ritual efficacy in advance, the money charged for the ritual is one indicator determining whether the ritual practice might be fraudulent (when too expensive) or simply non efficient enough (when too cheap) (Brazeal 2014, 136).
In cases of deviation from orthodox practices, the efficacy of rituals gives priests and priestesses the power to renegotiate the notions of authenticity and to promote innovation and change within the religious practice. At the same time, indicators of ritual efficacy are often related to clients satisfaction, which is subjective, or to the correctness of inducing trance that depends on the respect that priest and priestesses have in their religious milieu.
Entries in the online encyclopaedia linking to marmotagem
References:
Araújo, P. Carneiro 2018. Segredos do Poder: hierarquía e autoridade no Candomblé (Secrets of Power: hierarchy and authority in Candomblé). São Paulo: Arché
Brazeal B. 2014. “The Fetish and the Stone: A Moral Economy of Charlatans and Thieves” in Spirited Things: The Work of “Possession” in Afro-Atlantic Religions, edited by P. C. Johnson, 131-154. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press
Capone S. 2010. Searching for Africa in Brazil. Power and Tradition in Candomblé. Durham and London: Duke University Press
Goldman M. 1985. “A construção ritual da pessoa: a possessão no Candomblé” (The ritual construction of personhood: possession in Candomblé) , in Religião e Sociedade, 12 (1): 22-54
Opipari C. 2009. O Candomblé: Imagens em Movimento (Candomblé: moving images), São Paulo: Editora da Universidade de São Paulo