An Afro-Brazilian Mephistopheles? Considerations on an “Eshu” sculpture
of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police Museum
Arthur
Valle
VALLE, Arthur. An Afro-Brazilian
Mephistopheles? Considerations on an “Eshu” sculpture of the Rio de Janeiro
Civil Police Museum. 19&20, Rio de Janeiro, v. XI,
n. 1, jan./jun. 2016. https://doi.org/10.52913/19e20.XI1.04b [Português]
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* *
1. The starting point of the present paper is a work
of art that no longer exists. It is a striking sculpture of “Eshu” [ Figure 1a and Figure 1b
] that belonged to the Rio de
Janeiro Civil Police Museum (henceforth, Police Museum). Eshu is the Messenger
Orisha of the Yoruba people, without whom “there is neither movement,
transformation or reproduction, nor commercial exchanges or biologic fecundation.”[1]
However, the iconography of the Police Museum’s “Eshu” is very different from
that found in Yoruba tradition; rather, it is much closer to depictions of the Christian
Devil, especially in his modern incarnation as Mephistopheles.[2]
How could an African Orisha acquire such an Europeanized appearance? The answer
for this question must be sought in the process of syncretism that began with
the first European contacts with Yoruba people in Africa: since then, the
contradictory and irascible Eshu has been identified with the Devil.[3]
By analyzing the sculpture’s appearance, as well as how it was acquired and
displayed in the Police Museum, we will discuss how African cultures reinvented
themselves in Brazil, but also how these same cultures were criminalized by the
racism that structured Brazilian society throughout its Colonial and
Postcolonial history.
2. The Police Museum’s “Eshu” was discussed by
anthropologist Yvonne Maggie in some of her studies,[4]
which are illustrated by photographs taken by Luiz Alphonsus in the late1970s.
These photographs are probably the last remaining vestiges of the sculpture,
since it was destroyed in a fire in 1989, when the Police Museum’s collection
was installed on Frei Caneca Street, in downtown Rio de Janeiro.[5] Consequently,
this paper situates itself within the theoretical and methodological framework
of Crypto-Art History, as outlined by Portuguese art historian Victor Serrão.
Crypto-Art History is an Art History trend “attentive to the role that works of
art lost in the maelstrom of centuries played in specific circumstances […] It
is not a conceptual framework at the margins of Art History, but one of its
complementary and irreplaceable components.”[6]
More specifically, this paper is based on an iconological approach, which, as
Serrão stresses, interconnects with and complements Crypto-Art History.[7]
3. Besides being an excellent object to verify the
potential of Crypto-Art History, the Police Museum’s “Exu” deserves attention
for at least two other important reasons. First, a study of the “Eshu” sheds
light on the visual culture employed by Afro-Brazilian religions during the
early decades of the Brazilian Republic - this is a huge field of investigation
that still needs more attention from Brazilian art historians.[8]
Second, the analysis of the “Eshu” requires an interdisciplinary approach still
lacking in the Brazilian art historiography of the nineteenth and early
twentieth century:[9] indeed, the sculpture brings up problems
that can only be addressed if we apply methods of various disciplines besides
art history, such as legal, religious and literary studies; anthropology; and
ethnography.
4. An analysis of the “Eshu” must consider the
museological context where it was installed when it was destroyed, i. e., the
collection of the Police Museum. Most of this collection[10]
consists of cult objects seized in the early twentieth century by the
Police, who had the task of persecuting what was then called baixo
espiritismo (literally, low spiritism)[11]
- a term that was often seen as synonym of Afro-Brazilian religious practices.
This violent repression seems to be at odds with the first Brazilian Republican
Constitution, enacted on February 24, 1891, which - unlike Brazilian Colonial
and Imperial laws[12] - established a strict divide between State and
Religion, in theory ensuring, thus, complete freedom of worship.[13]
It should be remembered, however, that the first Republican Criminal Code,
enacted on October 11, 1890 endorsed the repression of non-Catholic religious
practices. In this sense, the Criminal Code articles defining “crimes against
public health” such as the illegal practice of medicine (Art. 156),[14]
spiritism, magic, spell (Art. 157),[15] and faith healing (Art.
158) are particularly noteworthy.[16] The legal
anthropologist Ana Lúcia Schritzmeyer, who investigated trials of faith healing
and charlatanism in Brazil, demonstrated that between 1900 and 1990 such crimes
were usually associated with Afro-Brazilian religions.[17]
5. Several objects connected to such practices and
seized by the Police originated the Police Museum collection. In 1912, the
museum was created, along with the Escola de Polícia (Police Academy),
to assist in the practical classes to instruct future police officers. In
1940, the Police Museum’s Afro-Brazilian religious objects were cataloged in
the inventory of the so-called “Black Magic Museum,” related to the Narcotic,
Drugs and Mystification Section of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police.[18] According to Cyro Advincula da Silva, current director
of the Police Museum, it was the recognition of the historical, ethnographic
and religious importance of the “Black Magic Museum” that “formed the basis for
the claim for its preservation made by the Police Commissioner Silvio Terra to
the recently founded National Service of Historic and Artistic Heritage.”[19]
In fact, the “Black Magic Museum’s Collection” is the first inscription in the
book of Archaeological, Ethnographic and Landscape Heritage of the National
Service, dated May 5, 1938.[20]
6. In 1945, the Afro-Brazilian religious objects of
the Police Museum were incorporated into the Museum of the Federal Department
of Public Security.[21] In 1972, along with other items seized
by the Police during the so-called Estado Novo (literally, New State),
the Police Museum’s collection was installed in the aforementioned building on
Frei Caneca Street. It was in this building that, in the late 1970s, the “Eshu”
was photographed by Luiz Alphonsus during an investigation sponsored by FUNARTE
and led by Yvonne Maggie, Márcia Contins and Patrícia Monte-Mór. One of
Alphonsus’ photos shows the exhibition design of the Police Museum’s collection
[ Figure 2 ], which the sociologist Alexandre Fernandes Corrêa
qualified as “spooky,” quoting its description made by Maggie, Contins and
Monte-Mór:
7.
To enter the Police Museum is an extremely anguished experience. The feeling is
similar to that of being inside a horror movie or having a surreal
hallucination. The room, dimly lit, and the dusty items contribute to this
feeling. The most diverse objects are mingled: Eshu and knives, drugs and
fetuses, rite artifacts and weapons, Nazi flags and press photos of notorious
crimes.[22]
8. In one of his studies, Corrêa presents a map of the
exhibition [ Figure 3 ]:[23] along with heterogeneous items - objects
for forgery and drug trade, firearms, a mannequin, and so on - the
Afro-Brazilian religious objects were arranged as in a terreiro
(Afro-Brazilian temple),[24] with the Eshus’ images separated from
the images of other Orishas, the atabaques (hand drums) separated from
the images and the offerings to the Orishas, according to their functions,
enclosed in different shelves.[25]
9. In the first photo by Alphonsus showing the “Eshu”
in the Police Museum [ Figure 1a
], the character has his head bent
toward his chest and his body is enveloped by a black cloak, bearing a rope
around his neck. It is shown in a dramatic low-angle shot and illuminated by a
light source located on its left, projecting dreadful shadows, worthy of a
1920s German Expressionist movie. It is difficult to estimate the size of the
sculpture only from this remaining photo; however, its description in the 1940
inventory tells us that it was a “statuette,” implying that it was not very
large.
10. Within a glass box placed on a pedestal, the
“Eshu” was exhibited as if it was incarcerated[26]
- quite properly, one could argue, for an object that was seized by the Police.
This kind of display is commonly imposed over other objects seen as evil: its
intention is to avoid the potential harm that these objects could cause to
people who come in contact with them. The most famous example is perhaps the
rag doll Annabelle [ Figure 4
], today preserved in the Warren's
Occult Museum in Connecticut, USA,[27] which starred in some recent movies.[28]
Annabelle is enclosed in a house-shaped wooden box, around which can be
read signs such as “WARNING, POSITEVELY DO NOT OPEN,” admonishing against the
threat represented by the doll.
11. A similar message was conveyed by the exhibition
of the “Eshu” on Frei Caneca Street. On the background of the photo, it is
possible to identify Nazi flags and banners; in the far right, there is a sharp
trident - a typical attribute of “Eshu” in Brazil, but also of the Devil in
Christian iconography. In a deliberate manner, these elements around the “Eshu”
seem to emphasize its supposed evilness. As Maggie recalls, while she was
researching in the Police Museum, “some informants affirmed that [objects such
as the “Eshu”] were dangerous, loaded with evil and that it was risky to
unravel their origins.”[29] Such warnings derived
from the belief that “the objects can carry the spell, i. e., the objects
themselves are capable of doing the evil intended by the sorcerer. It is
advised not to touch them, because they could cause great harm.”[30]
However, despite being incarcerated in its glass box, the power of the Police
Museum’s “Eshu” could not be contained: in the late 1970s, “people went to the
museum to worship the images, dropping coins and flowers at their feet. For the
museum’s visitors, those images [...] were even more powerful because they
belonged to mighty sorcerers.”[31]
12. The second photo of the “Eshu” taken by Luis
Alphonsus shows a close-up of its head [ Figure 1b ]. Although the polychrome paint of the Police
Museum’s “Eshu” exhibited signs of damage, it is possible to affirm that it was
Caucasian and had blue eyes, apparently made of glass beads. “Eshu” had an
aquiline nose, a forked beard and a sinister smirk; a black hood covered his
head, behind which is possible to see the red protuberance - probably a
feather. In this second photo, the rope around the neck of the sculpture is
more evident.
13. In our opinion, it would be very difficult to
establish any connection between the appearance of the Police Museum’s “Eshu”
and that of an African Orisha. This leads us back to the iconographic problems
posed by the sculpture; therefore, it is important now to present the
iconography of the Yoruba Eshu, in order to verify how divergent it is from the
Police Museum’s “Eshu.” In addition, this presentation is relevant here because
the iconography of the Yoruba Eshu is rarely discussed in Brazil outside the circle
of experts.
14. The access to Yoruba mythology is, however,
difficult and mostly indirect, because it was based on oral tradition. Only in
the nineteenth century it began to be compiled in written form, mainly by
Europeans and North Americans in diverse locations throughout the diaspora,
such as Brazil and Cuba.[32] One of the largest collection of Eshu
myths was published by the sociologist Reginaldo Prandi in 2001 and has only
thirty items. In this collection, some objects are directly associated with the
Orisha. The main one is his ogó, a mighty club,[33]
usually made of wood and with two calabashes, mimicking the penis anatomy.
According to the myths, other attributes associated with Eshu are: the ecodidé,
a red parrot feather,[34] a symbol of respect that prompts Olorun[35]
to promote Eshu to the position of messenger and dean of the Orishas; a pointed
hat, white on one side and red on the other, with which Eshu triggers a fight
between two friends;[36] a pot, which becomes Eshu’s head (ori);[37]
a white bonnet of Babalaô (Afro-Brazilian priest), which Eshu uses while
healing Olofi;[38] a knife, with which Eshu hurts the hands
of the inhabitants of an entire city, in order to help his friend Orunmila.[39]
Additional objects such as yams, a goat, and coconuts are also associated with
the Orisha.
15. Regarding Eshu sculptures produced by the Yoruba
in Africa, a starting point is the classic study by Joan Wescott on Eshu-Elegba
images.[40] Some attributes of these sculptures -
such as clubs, calabashes, and knives - are the same as the ones found in Eshu
myths; but cowries, coins, mirrors, combs, spoons, whistles, and pipes also
appear [ Figure 5 ]. The most distinctive and prominent attribute of the
Yoruba Eshu sculptures is, however, a long-tailed hair-dress [ Figure 6 and Figure 7
], which projects itself from the
top of the Orisha’s head and often acquires a phallic form [ Figure 8]. Wescott interprets these attributes as symbols of
Eshu’s phallic qualities, of his “instinctual energy, masculine strength, and
potentiality”[41] - an interpretation that was criticized
as reductive in more recent studies.[42] However, what is important to highlight
here is that none of the attributes documented by Wescott is evident in the
Police Museum’s “Eshu.” The same occurs with the attributes referred to in the
myths: only the red protuberance over the sculpture’s head could be associated
with the ecodidé.
16. But this red protuberance could also be explained
without reference to Yoruba iconography. In this sense, it is important to
remember how the Police Museum’s “Eshu” is related to Christian iconography,
especially that of the Devil. This relationship was clearly stated in the sign
accompanying the “Eshu” when it was exhibited in Frei Caneca Street: “This
representation of Eshu is typical of the influence of Christianity in the
Afro-Brazilian cults. However, the match is somewhat oblique. While the Satan
of Christianity is depicted as an undesirable entity cast out from paradise,
Eshu in the Afro-Brazilian cults is depicted as a kind of ambassador of men to
the court of the Orishas.”[43]
17. The Police Museum’s Eshu sculpture is, therefore,
a result of a syncretic process that began to take shape in the nineteenth
century through the writings of European travelers who came in contact with the
Eshu cult in Africa. In 1857, for example, the American Baptist missionary
Thomas J. Bowen stated: “In addition to all their other idols, usually called
devils by the Englishmen on the coast, the Yorubas worship Satan himself, under
the name of Eshu, which appears to mean ‘the ejected’ from shu,
to cast out.”[44] In his 1885 book, the abbot Pierre
Bouche presented a similar idea: “the blacks acknowledge Satan’s power of
possession; they usually call him Elegbara,[45]
meaning the one who takes control of us.” [46]
In the first European book to systematically deal with Yoruba religion, the
French priest R. P. Baudin also presented a very negative interpretation of
Eshu.[47]
The engraving that accompanies the passage on the Orisha is particularly
emphatic [ Figure 9 ]: it shows a man sacrificing a bird to Eshu,
represented by a statuette with horns inside a little house, and the caption
reads: “ELEGBA THE EVIL SPIRIT OR THE DEVIL.”
18. In early twentieth century Brazil, Raimundo Nina
Rodrigues[48] and João do Rio[49]
also identified Eshu with the Christian Devil. This identification culminates
in the syncretic religions that appeared throughout the diaspora. It is worth
summarizing Prandi’s thesis on this syncretism and its consequences for the
demonization of Eshu:
19.
Syncretism is not, as it is commonly thought, a mere table of correspondence
between Orishas and Catholic Saints [...] Syncretism is the seizing of the
Orisha religion within a model that presupposes, above all, the existence of
two antagonistic poles, governing all human actions: good and evil; virtue on
the one hand, sin on the other. This is a Judeo-Christian concept that did not
exist in Africa. [...]
20.
The good side, so to speak, was filled by the Orishas, with the exception
of Eshu; Oxalá,[50] the creator of mankind, assumed the role of Jesus Christ, the son of
God, keeping his position in the top of the Orishas’ hierarchy, a position
already occupied in Africa [...] Certainly, it was the process of
Christianization of Oxalá and other Orishas that pushed Eshu to the domain of
Catholic Hell, as a counterpoint required by syncretism.
21.
When the Orisha religion was adjusted to the Christian model, the satanic part
of the scheme God-Devil / Redemption-Damnation / Heaven-Hell was clearly
missing: and who was better than Eshu to play the Devil’s role? [51]
22. Eshu’s identification with the “Lord of Hell”
reached its apex in the early twentieth century,[52]
within modalities of cult such as “macumba, quimbanda and umbanda [that]
represent an unified and coherent system articulated around what [sociologist
David J. Hess] calls a ‘syncretic dynamic’.”[53]
From our understanding, it was in the context of these syncretic cults,
especially in large cities such as Rio de Janeiro, that iconographic attributes
such as the trident, horns, tail, and hooves began to be explicitly associated
with Eshu [ Figure 10a and 10b ]. Up to the present day, these attributes still
characterize most Eshu’s images worshiped in Brazil. This can be easily
verified visiting any Afro-Brazilian religious shop, where the exhibition of
Eshu sculptures at the entrance has a ritualistic meaning [ Figure 11a and 11b ].[54]
23. However, the Police Museum’s “Eshu” diverges from
these well-known representations of the Devil. Certainly, it recalls current
images of the so-called “Black Cape Eshu” [ Figure 12a and 12b ],[55a] but above all another type of Devil’s depiction, one
more modern and refined: the Devil as Mephistopheles. In one of his books on
the “Prince of Darkness,” the historian Jeffrey Burton Russell reproduces a
photography of a nineteenth century sculpture of Mephistopheles, made of bronze
and ivory [ Figure 13 ] (probably, it is a version of a well-known sculpture
of Mephistopheles created by the French artist Jacques-Louis Gautier in
the mid-nineteenth century [ Figure 14 ]). The similarities with the Police Museum’s “Eshu” such as
the “scholar’s cap, forked beard and sinister smirk,”[55b]
are remarkable. In addition, the Mephistopheles shown in Russel’s book has a
long feather on his head - reinforcing, thus, the hypothesis that the similar
protuberance on the “Eshu”’s head was also a feather.
24. Not by chance, the “Eshu” is referred in the
inventory of the “Black Magic Museum” as “a statuette representing
Mephistopheles (Eshu), the highest entity of the Malei lineage.”[56]
Mephistopheles is a character of the legend of Faust, a scholar that sells his
soul to the Devil in exchange for wisdom and pleasure. According
to Russell, the name Mephistopheles is a “modern invention of uncertain
origins”[57] and first appears in a book on Faust
published by a German anonymous writer in 1587.[58] However, the prototype of Mephistopheles that
predominated in the European literature of the following centuries can be found
even earlier, as the character Panurge who firstly appears in the books
protagonized by Gargantua and Pantagruel, published by François Rabelais
between c. 1532 and 1564. Undoubtedly, the most common depiction of
Mephistopheles found in European modern culture is very similar to that of
Panurge - “tall, handsome, elegant, and of noble lineage, though traces of his
demonic origins appear in his pallor, his blemishes, and his great age.”[59]
25. Several European works of art of the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries bear witness to the huge spread of this
Mephistophelean version of the Devil, which was very popular also in Brazil. It
is known, for example, that copies of Gautier’s Mephistopheles could be found
in Brazil.[60] In 1883, the painter Francisco
Aurélio de Figueiredo e Mello exhibited a “Mephistopheles with sardonic smirk and
serpent eyes”[61] in the art gallery Glace Elégante,
in downtown Rio de Janeiro. Moreover, the Devil frequently appeared in
illustrated magazines published in Rio. One of them, which circulated in
mid-1870s, was even entitled Mephistopheles and featured the character
in many of its covers [ Figure 15 ].[62] In another important magazine of the
1870s, O Besouro (literally, The Beetle), the Portuguese artist Raphael
Bordallo Pinheiro
“countless times evoked [...] Faust, the knowledgeable scholar, and
Mephistopheles, in his caricatures. The caricaturist assigned the role of Faust
to the Emperor Pedro II and the role of Mephistopheles to the Minister of
Treasury Gaspar da Silveira Martins” [ Figure 16
].[63]
26. While connected to literature or criticizing
Imperial politics, Mephistopheles was a well-known character among the
Brazilian elite of the late nineteenth century. Therefore, it is perfectly
comprehensible his appropriation by Afro-Brazilian religions that, “with their
eshus associated with the devil, [...] held a fascination for even the most
‘evolved’ segments of the bourgeoisie. In Rio de Janeiro in the late nineteenth
century, Satanism was fairly widespread, as João do Rio’s report shows.”[64]
Indeed, the Police museum’s “Eshu” could be part of the Black Mass that João do
Rio described in 1904, with a decadent refinement comparable to that of
Joris-Karl Huysmans’ writings.[65]
27. In conclusion, it is possible to assert that the
metamorphosis of Eshu in Mephistopheles discussed in this paper is an
ambivalent phenomenon. On the one hand, it is an important example of the
adaptation of African religions in Brazil, because it was precisely in the
syncretic cults that Eshu preserved one of his main characteristics: his
incessant ability to transform himself. Up
to the present day, as social anthropologist Stefania Capone synthetizes, it is
“at the heart of the[se] cults [...] that the god of West Africa, the god of
the Yoruba and of the Fon (under his Legba aspect),[66]
finds a space to exist and transform himself - one of his characteristic
traits.”[67] Assuming the appearance of
Mephistopheles - a refined version of the Devil, famous among Brazilian elites
of the early twentieth century -, Eshu has once again demonstrated his cunning,
guile and ability to manipulate the fate.
28. On the other hand, this metamorphosis needs to be
understood as a symptom of the imposition of European values at the expense of
African values. In this light, the syncretism that gave birth to the Police
Museum’s “Eshu” is in itself ambivalent, marked by the racism that structured
Brazilian society throughout its history and literally criminalized
Afro-Brazilian cultures. Many of the facts related to the “Eshu” recall,
indeed, domination and racism: from its depiction as the Christian Devil,
through its seizing by the police, to the degrading way in which it was
exhibited to the public, before its destruction.
29. The “Eshu” was destroyed, but not forgotten:
through the remaining documents and photographs, as well as the studies
conducted during the last decades, his agency is partially latent. Considering
this, the present paper strived to contribute to a reconsideration of the
position occupied by artworks such as the “Eshu” into the canon of Brazilian
art history. We believe that the analysis of this sculpture is relevant and
even urgent today, because Brazilian social problems that gave shape to the
“Eshu” and many other Afro-Brazilian artworks remain still unsolved.
English
version by Arthur Valle and Kelly Tavares
______________________________
[1] PRANDI, R. Mitologia
dos Orixás. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2001, p. 21. For more
information on Eshu, see: LOPES, N.. Enciclopédia brasileira da diáspora
africana [recurso eletrônico]. 4ª. ed. São Paulo: Selo Negro, 2011, pos.
10198-10228; SILVA, V. G. da. Exu: o guardião da casa do futuro. Rio de
Janeiro: Pallas, 2015.
[2] RUSSELL, J. B.. Mephistopheles: The Devil in the Modern World.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell, 1986; RUSSELL, J. B.. The Prince of Darkness: Radical
Evil and the Power of Good in History. Ithaca, London: Cornell University
Press, 1988, especially chapters 11-16.
[3] Pierre Verger sums up this process of identification as follows: “Eshu
is an Orisha or Ebora with multiple and contradictory aspects, making it
difficult to define him in any coherent way. He is irascible and likes to
provoke dissensions and disputes, to cause accidents and public or private
calamities. He is so cunning, rude, vain and indecent that the first Christian
missionaries, frightened by his characteristics, compared Eshu with the Devil,
making him the symbol of evil, perversity, abjection, and hatred, in opposition
to God’s kindness, purity, elevation, and love.” VERGER, P. F.. Orixás deuses iorubás
na África e no Novo Mundo. 6ª. ed. Salvador: Corrupio, 2002, p. 76.
[4] MAGGIE, Y. Medo do
feitiço: relações entre magia e poder no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Arquivo
Nacional, 1992, n. p. (Documentário fotográfico); MAGGIE, Y.. O arsenal da
macumba. Revista de História da Biblioteca Nacional, ano 1, n. 6, dez.
2005, p. 39; MAGGIE, Y.; RAFAEL, U. N.. Sorcery
objects under institutional tutelage: magic and power in ethnographic
collections. Vibrant, v. 10, n. 1, 2013, p.
305-306.
[5] CORRÊA,
A. F.. O Museu Mefistofélico e a distabuzação da magia: análise do
tombamento do primeiro patrimônio etnográfico do Brasil. São Luís/MA:
EDUFMA, 2009, p. 191.
[6] SERRÃO,
V.. Sobre o conceito de Cripto-História da Arte. In: SERRÃO, V.. A
Cripto-História da Arte. Análise de Obras de Arte Inexistentes. Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, 2001, p. 11, 13.
[7] Ibidem, p. 13
[8] A noteworthy exception
is Roberto Conduru and his extensive production in the field, which includes
books such as: CONDURU, R.. Arte Afro-Brasileira. Belo Horizonte: C/Arte, 2007; CONDURU,
R.. Pérolas negras - primeiros fios. Experiências artísticas e culturais nos
fluxos entre África e Brasil. Rio de Janeiro:
Eduerj, 2013,
[9] CARDOSO, R.. Histories
of nineteenth-century Brazilian art: a critical review of bibliography,
2000-2012. Perspective, 2 | 2013, p. 320-321. Available at: https://perspective.revues.org/3891
Accessed July 1, 2016.
[10] The collection of Afro-Brazilian religious objects of the Police Museum
is preserved in the technical reserve of the Civil Police building on 42
Relação Street, in downtown Rio de Janeiro. I would like to acknowledge Dr.
Cyro Advincula da Silva for this information.
[11] MAGGIE, RAFAEL, op. cit., 278.
[12] In particular, see the
so-called Ordenações Filipinas and the Imperial Political Constitution
of Brazil (enacted on March 25, 1824).
[13] As defined in the Art. 71 of the 1891 Constitution: “All individuals and
religious groups may publically and freely practice their cults, associating
themselves for this purpose and acquiring assets, subject to the
provisions of common law .” Constituição da República dos Estados Unidos do
Brasil (de 24 de fevereiro de 1891). Available at: http://goo.gl/Dj8kTE Accessed March 1, 2016.
[14] “CHAPTER III ON CRIMES
AGAINST PUBLIC HEALTH. Art. 156. To exercise medicine in any of its branches,
or dentistry or pharmacy; to practice homeopathy, dosimetry, hypnotism, or
animal magnetism, without being qualified to do so under the laws and regulations:
Penalties - one to six months prison and a fine of 100 to 500$000.” DECRETO Nº 847, DE 11
DE OUTUBRO DE 1890 Promulga o Codigo Penal. Available
at: http://goo.gl/pOaDu8 Accessed March 1,
2016.
[15] “CHAPTER III ON CRIMES
AGAINST PUBLIC HEALTH. [...] Art. 157 To practice spiritism, magic and its
spells, to use talismans and fortune-teller cards to stir feelings of hatred or
love, to inculcate cure of curable or incurable diseases, in short, to fascinate
and subjugate public belief. Penalties - one to six months prison and a fine of
100 to 500$000.”. Idem.
[16] “CHAPTER III ON CRIMES AGAINST PUBLIC HEALTH. [...] Art. 158. To
minister, or simply prescribe, as a means of cure for internal or external use
in any prepared form, a substance from any of the kingdoms of nature, thus
acting as a faith healer. Penalties - one to six months prison and a fine of
100 to 500$000..” Idem.
[17] SCHRITZMEYER, A. L. P.
. Sortilégio de Saberes: curandeiros e juízes nos tribunais brasileiros
(1900-1990). São Paulo: IBCCRIM, 2004.
[18] MAGGIE, Medo do
feitiço..., p. 277-279; CORRÊA, op. cit., p. 171-174.
[19]
Relicário
multicor. A coleção de cultos afro-brasileiros do Museu da Polícia Civil do
Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro: Centro Cultural Municipal José Bonifácio;
Museu da Polícia Civil do RJ; Instituto de Artes da UERJ, 2008, p. 3. Today, the National Service of Historic and Artistic Heritage is called
National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage.
[20] The “Black Magic Museum’s Collection” is registered under n. 0035-T-38;
See Livro dos Bens Culturais Inscritos nos Livros do Tombo. Rio de Janeiro, 2013,
p. 120.
[21] MAGGIE,
op. cit., p. 261.
[22] CORRÊA,
op. cit., p. 150.
[23] Ibidem, p. 182.
[24] In Afro-Brazian
religions, terreiro (from the Latin, terrarium) is the place
where the cult is performed and offerings are made to the Orishas.
[25] MAGGIE, op. cit., p. 262.
[26] BUONO, A.. Encarcerado: Crime e
Visualidade no Museu da Polícia Civil do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. In: Caderno
de Resumos do XXXIII Colóquio do Comitê Brasileiro de História da Arte, Rio de
Janeiro, 2013 - Territórios da Arte. Uberlândia:
UFU, 2014, p. 236-237.
[27] This museum is
directed by investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren and its official website is
available at: http://www.warrens.net/Occult-Museum-Tours.html
Accessed on March 1, 2016. In this website, a version of Annabelle’s
history can be read. See.: http://www.warrens.net/Annabelle.html
Accessed on March 1, 2016.
[28] The Conjuring (2013), directed by
por James Wan; Annabelle (2014), directed by John R. Leonetti.
[29] MAGGIE, op. cit., p. 261
[30] Ibidem,
p. 264.
[31] MAGGIE,
O arsenal da macumba, p. 39.
[32] PRANDI, op. cit., p.
26-30.
[33] Ibidem, p. 41, 66.
[34] Ibidem, p. 42. The ecodidé is also associated with other
Orishas, specially Oxalá. See: SANTOS, D. M. dos. Por que Oxalá usa ekodidé. Salvador:
Fundação Cultural do Estado da Bahia; Cavaleiro da Lua, 1966.
[35] Olorun, “literally,
Lord of the Sky; it is the name by which the Supreme God is known, especially
in Brazil” (Ibidem, p. 568).
[36] Ibidem, p. 50
[37] Ibidem,
p. 48.
[38] Ibidem, p. 53. Olofi “is the denomination of the Supreme God (Olodumare,
Olorun) in Cuba.” (Idem, p. 568).
[39] Ibidem, p. 69.
Orunmila “is the Orisha who knows the fate of men, holds the wisdom of the
oracle [Ifá], and teaches how to solve all sorts of problem and
affliction” (Ibidem, p.23).
[40] WESCOTT, J. The
Sculpture and Myths of Eshu-Elegba, the Yoruba Trickster. Definition and
Interpretation in Yoruba Iconography. Africa: Journal of the International
African Institute, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Oct., 1962), pp. 336-354
[41] Ibidem, p. 349.
[42] See, for example:
PARSONS, S. W.. Interpreting Projections, Projecting Interpretations: A
Reconsideration of the “Phallus” in Esu Iconography. African Arts, Vol.
32, No. 2 (Summer, 1999), p. 36-45, p. 90-91
[43] MAGGIE, RAFAEL, op.
cit., p. 305. According to Maggie, this sign was written by “one of the museum
directors, a member of an Umbanda community who specialized in decorating
altars for terreiros in the 1960s. The museum director often quotes from books
by renowned anthropologists who have studied these belief” (Ibidem, p. 303),
such as Arthur Ramos, Edson Carneiro and Roger Bastide.
[44] BOWEN, T. J. Central
Africa. Adventures and missionary labors in several countries in the interior
of Africa, from 1849 to 1856. Charleston: Southern Baptist Publication
Society, 1857, p. 317.
[45] “ELEGBARA. In Brazill, is one of the names of Eshu; it is analogous to
the Cuban name Eleguá.” LOPES, op. cit, pos. 9599
[46] BOUCHE, Pierre. Sept
ans en Afrique Occidentale. La Côte des Esclaves et le Dahomey. Paris:
Librairie Plon, 1885, p. 120.
[47] BAUDIN, R. P. Fétichisme
e féticheurs. Lyon: Séminaire des Missions africaines, 1884, p.
49-53.
[48] RODRIGUES, Raimundo
Nina. O Animismo Fetichista dos Negros Bahianos. Salvador, Reis &
Comp., 1900. Reedição: São Paulo, Civilização Brasileira, 1935, p. 40.
[49] RIO, João do. As
religiões no Rio. 4. edição. Rio de Janeiro: José
Olympio Editora, 2015, p. 19, 48.
[50] Oxalá, also known as
Obatala, is the lord of the sky and creator of mankind.
[51] PRANDI,
Reginaldo. Exu, de mensageiro a diabo: sincretismo católico e demonização do
orixá Exu. Revista Usp, São Paulo, n. 50, 2001, p. 51.
[52] Ibidem,
p. 52
[53] CAPONE, S.. Searching
for Africa in Brazil: Power and Tradition in Candomblé. Kindle Edition.
Durham and London: Duke University, 2010, p. 8, pos. 297. For a discussion on
macumba, quimbanda and umbanda, see: “The Spirits of Darkness: Exu and
Pombagira in Umbanda.” Ibidem,
p. 89-118.
[54] MOURÃO, T. M. de S.. Encruzilhadas
da cultura: imagens de Exus e Pombajiras na Umbanda. Rio de Janeiro, 2010.
Dissertação (Mestrado) - Instituto de Artes/UERJ, p. 80, 85.
[55a]
Post scriptum, 2022: Apparently, the general aspect of the Police Museum
statue was appropriated in more recent depictions of Exu Mangueira
(literally, Eshu Mango Tree) [see Image].
[55b] RUSSELL, The Prince of Darkness…, pos. 3686.
[56] MAGGIE, op. cit., p.
277; CORRÊA, op. cit., p. 172. Probably, the term “Malei” refers here to one of
the so-called “lines” of quimbanda.
[57] RUSSELL, op. cit.,
pos. 2925.
[58] Historia von D. Johann Fausten
(ed. Johann Spies). Frankfurt am Main in 1587
[59] RUSSELL, op. cit.,
pos. 2913.
[60] See: PRESTES, W.. Linha de Fogo. O Malho, Rio de
Janeiro, year XXVIII, n. 1411, 28 set. 1929, p. 38-39.
[61] FERREIRA, F.. Belas
Artes: Estudos e Apreciações. 2 ed. Porto
Alegre, RS: Zouk, 2012, p. 144.
[62] Mephistopheles was published between 1874 and 1875 and it was
illustrated by Cândido Aragonez de Faria, who later on would have a
sucessful career in France..
[63] SILVA,
R. J.. Quando a caricatura se explica: um exemplo português no Brasil
oitocentista. In: VALLE, A.; DAZZI, C.; PORTELLA, I.. (org.). Oitocentos -
Tomo III: intercâmbios culturais entre Brasil e Portugal. 2 ed. CEFET: Rio
de Janeiro, 2014 , p. 462-463 (see link).
[64] CAPONE,
p. 74, pos. 1329..
[65] RIO,
op. cit., 180-191.
[66] “LEGBÁ. Entity
worshiped in cults of the Jeje people, in some aspects is equivalent to the
Eshu of the Nago people.” LOPES, op. cit, pos. 14731
[67] CAPONE, op. cit., 47.