The book The Taste of Blood Spirit possession in Brazilian Candomble was written by an Australian anthropologist named James William Wafer doing his doctoral dissertation at Indiana University the late 1980s. It has been rewritten from his dissertation to be more accessible to the general reader. Creating a work of non fiction, of 189 pages, with the intention of discussing the Afro-Brazilian religion of candomble. This book was published in 1991 by The University of Pennsylvania Press as part of the Contemporary Ethnography Series edited by Dan Rose and Paul Stoller. Wafer did his research in the province of Bahia, but he has changed the names of both the people he has written about and the exact location of the city where he lived and worked at the time. Wafer’s intention in writing this book was to elaborate on the spirits of the exus, caboclos, and just slightly on the spirits called the orixas. This is because there had been extensive research done on the orixas, but not on the other types of spirits common in candomble. Also the exus, and cabolcos tend to appear in the candomble practitioners everyday lives, where orixas tend to only interact with their “matter” (p. 44) during ceremonial occasions. He includes many personal experiences he had during his field work during which he was initiated as an oga, or a male initiate who does not go into trance, and who acts as ritual assistant and dignitary of a terreiro (similar to a church or specific house) of candomble (p.201). As well as explaining what his contacts within the religion explained to him about certain aspects of the candomble religion. This report will focus not only on the content Wafer included in his book, but also on how reader friendly the material is, meaning is it easy to understand, and follow the logic Wafer is applying to his material.

As the title of the book mentions Wafer is discussing the Afro-Brazilian candomble and the practice of spirit possession within it. In order to do this he participated in many of the rituals practiced in candomble, as well as maintained close relationships with several different people who practiced candomble. He then wrote these experiences and conversations down in a stream of thought type dialog. His goal was to show the “interactions between spirits and humans” (p.4) and how fluid this interaction was in the practitioners everyday lives. As Wafer does not put his experiences into chronological order he instead separates the book into sections focusing on each type of spirit, starting with the exus, moving next to the cabolcos, then finally onto the orixas. Though he does this there is mention of each type of spirit through out the book. He also includes conversations with many different connections within several different terreiros, this is to show some of the similarities and differences of the practices throughout the religion as well as to show the relationships between the various terreiros. 

The exus are defined as the spirit who performs the role of “slave” of an orixa, and who is popularly thought of as a devil, but during the narration of the book they seem more like a hard partying teenager. What is most frequently said in the book about them is that they like to drink though they “are said not to favor beer... They like hard liquor, in particular cachua, or wine.” (p. 27) Wafer also discusses how the exus are inclined to flirt, but would not have sexual relationships with “material beings” (p. 28). The exus seem to appear at regular intervals in the “matters” day when and where they choose, with no apparent disruption to either their “matter’s” day or that of any of the observers in the area.

The cabolcos in the next chapter are defined as entities belonging to a class that includes primarily spirits of Indians and cowboys, but also spirits of royal personages, Brazilian folk heroes, sailors, mermaids, etc.(p.195) It seems that a cabolco could be just about anyone in fact one of the contacts that Wafer mentions many times, Tais, says “cabolcos are infinite” (p. 55) this was in comparison to orixas who are finite in number (p.55) Though they also seem to enjoy drink and a party they are somewhat more reserved than the exus. The cabolcos also seem to appear at will in the daily lives of their “matter”.

Finally the orixas are defined as a spirit belonging to the pantheon of West African Gods. (p. 201) These spirits seem to only come to their “matter” when called upon to do so, and only in a ceremonial capacity, they then only stay for as long as it takes to be acknowledged by all present then they tend to leave, very rarely will they speak to the people gathered, and when they do it is usually only to one of the father of saints. 

This book was at times very interesting, at others very confusing and, still at others a difficult to get through. Wafer seemed to be trying to give an anthropological view of his topic, but had a very personal relationship with it, making it hard to be impartial and academic towards it, and the people involved in his research. His goal of elaborating on each type of spirit was impossible to judge without doing much more research and reading on the topic, and while I found I had a slight understanding of each I was very confused as to which ceremonies applied to each type of spirit and what the ceremonies were meant to accomplish. 

The “trance” discussed in this book, I found difficult to distinguish from what I have always known as possession, and I would have perhaps found it easier to understand had Wafer defined what was meant by “trance” and how it might differ from possession. Also the ceremonies or methods used to bring on “trance”, while being described very vividly, are interesting, but there is no explanation as to why a certain method might work or the significance the practitioners might see in a ritual and it’s component parts.

Another point that becomes extremely clear as you read through the book is that many of Wafer’s contacts are homosexual, and the majority are males. Is this significant to the religion? It is never made clear as to whether young homosexual males are the preferred “matter” for spirit possession, and if that is the case is there any theories as to why that is?  On the other hand if not how did Wafer come to be involved in these specific terreiros? Was it circumstance that first introduced him him to those particular terreiros, or did he choose those ones for a particular reason? 

Throughout the book Wafer mentions many different people with whom he came into contact and spent large amounts of time with, but the only people he describes in much detail are himself and Archipiado, and this only late in the book in the chapter on orixas. This also becomes confusing because as he mentions more people without letting the reader get to know previous contacts I found I got muddled up as to who was supposed to belong to each terreiro and who each exu and cabolco was associated with. I feel without this knowledge about the “matter” it is harder to know how each person reacted to their possession. Did they like being one of those who is possessed, or was it an inconvenience to them? Did they mind not being in control of their actions, and not remembering what their bodies were doing at any given moment of the day? Also Wafer spends a fair amount of time throughout the book discussing the control the father of saints had over their son and daughter of saints and the problems this caused. How did each of his contacts feel about the control placed over them by their seniors? Had they ever defected to other terreiros and if so how did that effect their lives after the defection?

The aspect of the fluidity of interactions between spirits and humans was never completely addressed, while Wafer would touch briefly on the subject he never had any sustained discussion on the how the different experiences effected the relationships between the spirits and their “matter” or the other “material” around them. This causes a kind of indifference to both the “matter” and the spirits that possess them, because you never feel any kind of connection with either the “matter” or the spirit that would make you appreciate the effect that the possession would have on their lives.

I would recommend this book to someone who was interested in religion and spirit possession, but with the acknowledgement that if they really wanted to understand the topic they would need to do a fair amount of research and reading along with it to really understand the nuances of candomble. While this book gave a very good account of the individual ceremonies, in order to understand what the significance of each was they would need to have some extra knowledge of the religion. 

The Taste of Blood Spirit Possession in Brazilian Candomble is an interesting book with many interesting stories and examples of Wafer’s personal experiences with the religion of candomble. He gives some fascinating experiences to think about, but never gives enough detail into the effects the religion and possession has on the practitioners or those around them. While he touches on these topics briefly there is not enough detail to really understand why these “trances” are important to the religion. I found the possessions and the ceremonies involved in becoming a son, daughter, or father of saint slightly disturbing, and difficult to understand why a person would want to take part in a religion where being smeared with sacrificial blood, then having to drink it would be an appealing religion to enter. That being said I  was not brought up where this would be a normal practice and am most definitely looking at it from a western perspective. That being said this book has made me curious to know more about the religion and to try to understand why a person, especially a australian outsider, who also most likely was not brought up in a religion similar to candomble, would want to participate so closely in these ceremonies and religious practices.

Bibliography

Burdick, John. "The Taste of Blood: Spirit Possession in Brazilian Candomblé by Jim Wafer." American Ethnologist. 20. no. 03 (1993): 633-634. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/stable/pdfplus/646654.pdf?acceptTC=true (accessed June 17, 2012).

Harris, Jessica B. "The Taste of Blood: Spirit Possession in Brazilian Candomble by Jim Wafer Review by: Jessica B. Harris." Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 08. no. 02 (1994): 240-242. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/stable/pdfplus/648707.pdf (accessed June 17, 2012).

Lewis, Ioan M. "The Taste of Blood: Spirit Possession in Brazilian Candomble. by Jim Wafer." Man. 27. no. 03 (1992): 689. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/stable/pdfplus/2803983.pdf (accessed June 17, 2012).