Gestures and postures: dancing with the Spirits

Abstract: The study carried out with the Jongo de Pinheiral group, at the former Fazenda Pinheiros, in Vale do Paraíba (RJ), revealed that its members maintain an affective relationship with each other and have a history of social struggles marked by gestures linked to dance. Based on these data, I present, in this article, an analysis of the ritual practiced by jongueiros and umbanda practitioners dedicated to the “passage to the other plane” of the spirits that inhabit the farm. For this, I mobilize the studies of anthropologist Marlene Cunha in the field of gestures and posture in candomblé Angola. The analysis allows the understanding of the ritual's preliminary, liminal and post-liminal gestures.

Keywords:
jongo; Marlene Cunha; spirits, gestures