ABSTRACT
Writing on the Afro-Brazilian possession cults of Bahia in 1940, Ruth Landes asserted that the majority of cult leaders and followers were "passive homosexuals of note, and were vagrants and casuals of the streets" (Landes, 1940, p. 393). Much later, Rene Ribeiro reported similar findings in relation to the cults of Recife; of a sample of 60 male cult members and leaders, he claimed that "thirty-four (57 %) showed various degrees of emotional imbalance and deviant behavior from overt and covert homosexualism to problems of sexual inadequacy" (Ribeiro, 1969, p. 113). Seth and Ruth Leacock found that in Helem there was "a widespread belief, both within and without the Batuque religion, that men who wear ritual costumes and dance in public ceremonies are either effeminate or, in most cases, active homosexuals. In part, this belief is based on fact-some of the men are indeed homosexuals" (Leacock & Leacock, 1972, p. 104). Public opinion was apparently similar with
respect to the cults in other cities in the North and Northeast of Brazil, but not in the highly industrialized southern cities of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo (Pressel, 1971), or Campinas.'
