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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY- — PUBLICATION NO. 1 2 



as we baptize, in the river. Those who do it any 

 otlier waj' are not following the commandments. 

 Besides, tliey smoke, they drink, and they go to 

 dances. None of us do any of those things. And 

 the women pray without a veil on their heads." Of 

 the members of the sect which most recently en- 

 tered the community, a member of another sect 

 remarked, "They do everything wrong. They 

 don't follow the Scriptures. They sing and shout 

 all night and won't let people sleep. The Scrip- 

 tures don't tell you to do that." 



SPIRITUALISM 



No spiritualist ritual is carried on anywhere in 

 the community. There is a Spiritualist center in 

 the town of Boa Vista, however, and its activities 

 sometimes influence the thought and other be- 

 havior of local inhabitants. Its leader is also a 

 noted curandeiro whose advice in time of illness 

 occasionally is sought by someone in the com- 

 munity. 



The first contact with the cult usually results 

 from efforts to deal with illness. A farm woman 

 said : 



I went to a Spiritualist session the other night because 

 my little girl was sick and when I talked to the curandeiro 

 in Boa Vista he told me to bring her to his meeting." 



Said another farm woman : 



We have gone to the Spiritualist cult in Boa Vista off 

 and on for some time. That man there has helped lots 

 of folks. Why, he has even taken people out of 

 Juquerl ! *'° My son was "weak in his judgment." A spirit 

 had entered into him. We had to shut him into a room 

 and tie him up. Everyone said he would never get any 

 better. He was so much trouble ! And when he was tied 

 up, he suffered so ! But the spiritualist cured him ! Cured 

 him completely ! My daughter is also "confused in her 

 mind." We took her to the spiritualist a few weeks ago 

 and he said she had an evil spirit roosting on her. 

 Now she's much better. I take her there every Thurs- 

 day night. He also gives "fluid water" to the sick ; a 

 bottle, with a piece of paper inside which has writing on it. 

 He's a fine man ! He always laughs and jokes with you. 

 He doesn't make a ciiarge for his services ; just asks a 

 person to give what he can. He used to be poor and now 

 he's well off. All day long, people come there to see 

 him. From as far away as Sao Paulo. A person must 

 have patience. Some people give him up and go to a 

 doctor ; they spend all their money for nothing and linally 

 they come back to him. I never used to go to a spiritualist. 

 I was afraid to do it. I didn't believe in such things. But 

 now I've had more experience. 



"M State insane asylum. 



Occasionally, a favorable attitude toward Spirit^ 

 ualist belief and joractice is expressed by othei 

 local residents. "The Spiritualist chain is of greal 

 power," remarked a middle-aged farmer. "It links 

 all this weak world together." More commonly 

 however, persons are skeptical. "This nonsense,' 

 said an elderly woman, "has put more people ir 

 Juqueri than anything else." "What a terribk 

 thing!" said a young man, 27 years old. "This 

 getting mixed up with beings from the othei 

 world ! The padre is right. Those beings are al 

 devils; they are not spirits at all!" "Spiritual- 

 ism," remarked another villager, "is a bunch oj 

 lies. I heard of a boy once who disappeared fron 

 home and his parents went to a Spiritualist anc 

 he said the boy was dead. The family was all up 

 set. They didn't know whether to believe the mar 

 or not. So he had them come to a Spiritualisi 

 meeting and there a spirit spoke to them who saic 

 that he was their son. They were sure then thai 

 he had died and they arranged a Mass for his soul 

 But a few days later, the boy came home ; nothin| 

 had happened to him. That stuff is all nonsense 

 it's only lies !" 



The most common tendency among local in 

 habitants, however, is to be tolerant toward thii 

 system of belief and practice. "I do not go t( 

 Spiritualist sessions," said a farm woman, "bu 

 neither do I scoff at (ahuso) this belief." 



SKEPTICISM 



A limited amount of skepticism exists in thi 

 community with reference to the ideas, attitudes 

 and behavior associated with Catholic ritual anc 

 belief, the almcts, assonibragoesy and other phe 

 nomena of the invisible world, and folk practices 

 regarding sickness and its cure. It would appear t( 

 be more extensive in the younger generation, es- 

 pecially among the young men ; to be less extensivf 

 among persons in the middle-age groups and leas( 

 extensive among the older inhabitants. It is moH 

 extensive among men than women, a fact probablj 

 due to the greater mobility of the men and con- 

 sequent wider range of contacts. 



This attitude is revealed in the absence of per- 

 sons from Mass, resa, novena, confession, and 

 the communion table. It is also revealed in 

 failure to participate in the processions at fefstai 

 and in the annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Sao 

 Bom Jesus de Pirapora. The latter, as has been 



