“Pomba Gira keeps an eye on us”: The presence of the Orixá in Rio de Janeiro Brothels

Abstract

Oswaldo de Andrade's poem O Santeiro do Mangue (1991 [1950]) and Ruth Landes' ethnography City of Women (2006 [1947]) both highlight how African-Brazilian religions have maintained connections to sexual practices considered to be "perverse" by Christian moralities. The present article describes the presence of the orixás in today's brothels in Rio de Janeiro. We emphasize the use of Candomblé and Umbanda as counter-hegemonic forms of spirituality which protect women involved in the sale of sex and are used as symbolic languages criticizing a moral order that highlights female passivity. Through the language of the saints, that which cannot be said becomes public in Carioca brothels, highlighting agencies in a space nominally dominated by men.