ABSTRACT
Edir Macedo was born in Brazil into a poor family of seven children. A loud and violent explosion of a boiler at the local dairy on the day of his birth is claimed to have been an auspicious sign, foretelling his future destiny; that he would be dynamic, controversial and explosive. This accident was to leave a lasting mark in the small city, but Macedo was also born with another mark, a congenital defect on his hands-atrophied thumbs. However, and in compensation, he was gifted Weberian attributes of a great charismatic leader. Although the cultural context is different, Lévi-Strauss’s theory can be applied here-almost all mythological beings are born with some type of physical defect, but also, in compensation, with extraordinary human capabilities and even super-human ones.
