ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the most important national rituals in Brazil. It aims to indicate how Umbanda is an expression of a subsidiary system that is gradualist, hierarchical, and compensatory: a system possessing an enormous and clear multiplicity of spheres, motivations, and ideologies. In the supernatural world, as codified in popular Catholicism and in Umbanda, nobody rises or descends through the interference of godfathers, friends, relatives, or a family name. The ethic of the Umbanda associates and incorporates itself with the spirit of patronage and messianism. Thus it emphasizes social and moral relations, allowing for the salvation of individuals from all social categories. The ethic of Umbanda thus compensates for a daily life full of social and political frustrations by the blind faith in the powers of the mystical entities. In several Umbanda centers oriental entities are associated with the most popular version of Indianism and are important facets of the biography and mystical composition of many "mediums."
