EMBODIMENT, RITUAL PRACTICES, AND COSMOPOLITICS OF THE POTIGUARA OF PARAÍBA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22456/1982-6524.140272Abstract
This article examines the intersection of ritual practices, embodiment, and politics within the Potiguara people of Paraíba, Brazil. Through ethnographic research, we explore ceremonial and ritual practices, with a particular focus on Catholic religious festivals and the toré ritual, which are approached through the lens of cosmology and embodiment. Our reflections concentrate on the relationships between toré and jurema and their agency within the sphere of cosmopolitics, and their interactions with plants and the environment. The complex ritual ceremony is integral to the Potiguara's construction of existence and life, characterized by the multiplicity of divergent worlds expressed through human and other-than-human relationalities, the integration of ethnic mobilization processes and demonstration of indigeneity, the transformations facilitated by ritual knowledge and practices, and the territory where life unfolds and becomes a “world”.