Abstract
The article discusses the mediation of objects and places for learning the religious hierarchy as well as they act as memory source in the oral tradition of the batuque gaucho. I present an ethnographic account on ancestors of the Nation Oyo, demonstrating how geography of Porto Alegre city makes one remember and hail them in its most generic sense, as deities and slaves from Africa. In a specific sense, they are objects, sacred or not, referring to older saint’s relatives – dead or alive. The teachings transmitted by priests to their ritual sons and daughters are mediated by tours at specific places of the city and the use of these objects. Therefore, memory connects body and mind, and objects and places, too.
Keywords
afro-brazilian religions; objects; places; memory