EXU, O ORIXÁ FÁLICO DA MITOLOGIA NAGÔ-YORUBÁ: DEMONIZAÇÃO E SUA RESSIGNIFICAÇÃO NA UMBANDA.

Abstract

The present dissertation analyzes the phallic orisha Eshu through the prism of his demonization still on African soil as well as the continuation of this process after the entry of black slaves in Colonial Brazil, passing through the Imperial Brazil, Brazil Republic until nowadays. This research attempted to highlight the primordial myth of orisha Eshu with the arrival of Africans, pointing out the conflicts generated by the supremacy of the catholic religion, tied to the crown, even as the traditional African beliefs that were eliminated by the colonizer and by the church. The results show a concern in relation to the control of the orisha Eshu. He has been wrongly misinterpreted to be associated with the Christian devil by the Christian missionaries. This study attempted to demonstrate that the orisha Eshu lost his main features towards the Christian morality by reason of his phallic aspects and his libertarian impulse. Nowadays, Eshu-soul, ie the resignification of the orisha Eshu in umbanda and in other Afro-Brazilian religions, represents a threat to the old institutions since Eshu and his partner, Pomba-gira, try to invert and subvert the established order.