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Cult rituals designed for healing are well described in the transcultural psychiatric literature and have been reported by Kiev,' Prince,2 the Leightons,3 and others. One such ceremony of dance and healing was observed by the author in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, during February, 1976. The format of the Macumba ritual impressed on him the similarities between accepted modes of practice in modern psychiatry and the workings of this mixed Catholic- African ceremony. Such a relationship supports the proposition that underlying all healing styles throughout the modern or ancient world, the structure in which the healing occurs is basically the same. Man inherently organizes his world according to fixed, intrinsic biologic and psychologic needs that are universal. This paper aims to illustrate this point by examining the Macumba rite.
ORIGINS OF THE MACUMBA RITUAL
Bishop4 states that millions of Brazilians engage in Macumba; the guides in Brazil say 30 per cent. While most of its adherents are poor, their total number transcends social boundaries. Macumba, although spread throughout Brazil, is most characteristically found in the State of Bahía. It may be performed by a single mae de santo mother of the saint) or pais de santo (father of the saint); the ritual described in this paper, however, is a larger affair, with many participants.
The Umbanda (another term for Macumba) is a variant of the purer Condomble type that derived earlier from African spiritist practices.5 The Condomble is thought to stem from the African Yoruba tribe, which lived in what is present-day Nigeria. These healing rituals and spiritist beliefs were brought to Brazil by slaves from that region; they developed into a recognizable sect amalgamating Catholicism and African tribal, spiritist practices. It was not until 1920 that a young man, Zelio de Moraes, is said to have received an "Indian spirit" and made this fact known, leading to the ultimate development of the Umbanda (derived from the Sanskrit word aum-bandha, the "limit of the unlimited" - a loose way of saying "the art of healing").5
Close similarities exist between the practices of the Yoruba and the Umbanda. Prince2 observed and studied the Yoruba in Africa. He noted that the factors important in the treatment ritual are suggestion, manipulation of the environment, attempts to strengthen the patient's...