Sessões em Casa (Homemade Rituals): religious practices and variation in Almas e Angola

Abstract: In this article, I discuss the liturgical/religious variations related to Almas e Angola, an afro-brazilian religion widespread in Santa Catarina, southern Brazil. It is not my intention to explore the various factors that contribute to such variations between homonymous religious practices, nor to detail the ways in which the leaders particularize their practices in their respective terreiros (temples). In another direction, I argue that, in order to understand what is going on in the terreiros, it is necessary to leave them and follow adepts and their spirits in their “parallel” religious practices - thus, my ethnography focuses on the so-called sessões em casa (homemade rituals).

Keywords:
Afro-Brazilian religion; Almas e Angola; spirits; variation; trance