The Formation of Candomblé: Vodun History and Ritual in Brazil

8 The Ritual: Characteristics of the Jeje-Mahi Liturgy in Bahia

244 8 The Ritual Characteristics of the Jeje-Mahi Liturgy in Bahia How to Define a Jeje Liturgy? The objective of this final chapter is to examine certain liturgical characteristics of the Jeje-Mahi terreiros of Salvador and Cachoeira in order to evaluate those elements that differentiate the “Jeje nation” from other religious traditions within Candomblé. This highly ethnographic and descriptive task is not easy. As in many other social institutions, in Candomblé knowledge is power, and the logic of the secret is the strategy that sustains the initiation processes and the hierarchical organization of the group. In this sense, the Jeje religious experts have the deserved reputation of being the most “closed” and enigmatic in the preservation of their “secrets.” As Seu Geninho said, “Jeje is like Freemasonry.”1 The effort put into hiding their practices from the eyes of the curious is proverbial, not only for the researcher, with whom they deal with a certain facility, but more especially with initiates who come from other terreiros and are suspected of being present in order to “spy.” This reserved and suspicious attitude, intrinsic to any religion requiring initiation, was exacerbated by long years of repression and secrecy to which the religion was subjected. However, it seems the Jeje pride themselves in, and make an issue of, maintaining this reputation and tradition. Faced with this situation and given my uninitiated status, the “methodology ” I adopted in my fieldwork was to observe “actively” and participate “passively.” In this way, I was following a piece of advice that was given to me many times during my research on Tambor de Mina* in São Luis: “With Mina, you go about with an open eye, an attentive ear, and your mouth shut.” This attitude, based on “being there,” creating minimal interference and avoiding any formal interview or too many questions, undoubtedly resulted in a slow learning process and required patience and persistence. However, over time, I gained access to certain private ritual practices and information held secret, or “deepknowledge.”Thedividinglinebetweenwhatcanbetoldandwhatshould bekeptsecretisambiguous,andrarelydiscussedwithpractitioners,leavingme with the difficult work of establishing these limits. Although it is possible that for some the narrative that follows goes beyond what might be permissible, it the ritual 245 is my hope that, for those with whom I spoke, what I have written here does not exceed the limits of what is tolerable. Besides this delicate exercise in ethnographic self-censorship (an example ofhowthescholarbecomescontaminatedbythebehaviorofthesubjectsstudied ), my position in relation to the religion was essentially one of an “outsider,” or perhaps that of one from the “border,” with the consequent limitations in relation to a whole body of fundamental esoteric knowledge necessary to understanding the religion’s deep meaning. To this is added the extreme complexity and the unending wealth of details that compose the ritual universe of Candomblé, which can only be learned through close proximity over many years. These difficulties and limitations are insurmountable, and the reader should take them into account in evaluating the content of this chapter. Having conveyed these reflexive reservations, to which should be added the more general epistemological problem of the subjective nature inherent to any representation of reality, the difficulties of analyzing the Jeje liturgy derive from a whole other series of more objective facts. Candomblé is not a religion subject to an institutional hierarchy that imposes dogmas to be followed by all, and, as it is said, “every house has its own ways.” Everything is done according to “tradition,” but this allows, even requires , a constant adaptation to current circumstances. In reality, the AfroBrazilian religion is characterized by great flexibility and eclecticism, and the Jeje terreiros are no exception to this dynamic of progressive change. Despite being a smaller group, the Jeje houses present a rich variety of ritual practices and deities that differentiate one congregation from another. Theproblemworsenswhenonediscoversthat,inadditionto this“internal” diversity, the Jeje terreiros practice rituals and worship deities of other nations and when, at the same time, one finds that terreiros not identified as Jeje perform Jeje rituals and worship Jeje deities. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to speak of a Jeje liturgy as a homogenous, static, and contained unity, practiced only by the terreiros that identify themselves as Jeje. This is a serious obstacle to any effort to define what is meant by a Jeje liturgy. Should that liturgy be those ritual practices found in the terreiros that identify themselves as Jeje, or those ritual practices associated with voduns found in the terreiros of various nations? In this...