Ritualistic food to african gods in tenda dos milagres (1969), by Jorge Amado

Abstract

This paper was carried out to point out the role played by food offered in candomblé rituals in Tenda dos Milagres (1969), by Jorge Amado, in which the novelist from Bahia broaches the prejudices expressed by White people against religions of African matrix. Being a Mulatto and capoeira dancer, the protagonist Pedro Archanjo, who goes through the universe of religious celebrations in Bahia and the medicine men’s ritual yards, is a minor college official of the School of Medicine. Being a self-taught amateur sociologist, he writes books on miscegenation, religious syncretism, gastronomy and folk culture. In a period full of criticism against candomblé, the narrator presents the depth of such rituals in which the food offered as a gift is an important element in the exchange relationship between human beings and deities. The paper with a bibliographical character was based on reflections brought by Mauss (religious gifts), Vogel (food offers and sacrifices) and Bastide (cultural hybridism).