On “specific holy days” during “unending dance”: the body motion of enslaved people in their religious experiences in Colonial Brazil (Pernambuco, 17th century)

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the meaning of one’s body within the religious experience of some enslaved people abducted from Central Africa, who lived in Pernambuco, during the 1630s, through the analytical reading of two texts written on that period by Zacharias Wagener, a European traveler who lived in that region. It aims to demonstrate that the motion (movement) of their bodies, described in such texts, was connected to their abilities to transcend, overcoming suffering, and building meaningful lives. This was possible through the reinterpretation of some elements found in their original Central African religious traditions, transplanted to Brazil, which contributed to the survival and alternative understanding, in this colonial territory, of the religious inheritance from their birthplace continent.