Gender performances in umbanda: the pombagira as an Afro–Brazilian interpretation of “woman”?

Abstract

The pombagira, a female entity in the umbanda pantheon, contest gender stereotypes and offers to the african–brazilian community opportunities to develop the way they understand the “feminine” and the “woman”. Based on an ethnographic study developed at six terreiros in São Paulo State and interviews with female mediums and their own pombagiras, it is argued that, when we hear the field without hanging on to male and female prejudices, what we find is a reconfiguration of the qualities associated with “being a woman”. Data were analyzed through attention to the signifiers repeated in the interviews and in the field interaction and interpreted based on contemporary developments in gender studies.