Obligations and the construction of ties in candomble

Abstract

Obligations in the Candomble refer to rites that are performed after initiation to strengthen ties between an adept and her orixa; these rites form a sequence that describes a trajectory of growth and maturation. In a broader sense, the concept of obligation points to a mode of building and maintaining ties that has important temporal, ethical and political dimensions which I explore throughout the paper. The many different obligations that are made and sometimes broken in the candomble reveal a pluralistic universe, close to William James' definition of the term, albeit a very particular kind of pluralism whose features I seek to describe.