0137-2432 The Sacrifice, the Feast and the Power of the Priesthood in the Xangô Cult of Recife Motta Roberto author Siuda-Ambroziak Renata author Universidade Federal de Pernambuco 047908t24 Uniwersytet Warszawski 039bjqg32 Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo 00sfmx060 Correspondence to: Roberto Motta Correspondence to: Renata Siuda-Ambroziak r.siuda@uw.edu.pl 14 12 2018 Tom 51, Numer 4 2018 279 295 Copyright © 2018 2018 <p>The Xangô religion of Recife is a the cult of the orixás, gods of West African (mainly Yoruba) derivation syncretized with the saints of Lusitanian popular Catholicism. The essential act of the cult consists of sacrifice and feasting: animal slaughter, during which the faithful sing, dance and experience trances. The cult characteristics imply a whole set of responses to environmental pressures of various kinds, with oppositions of a dialectical character between the community and domination; the initiate as a ritual son and the initiate as a client; the meat and the feast; and the sacrifice and the party. In other words, between the practical requirements of culture and its surplus that transpires as the feast and as the holy and the beautiful.</p> 1 Figueiredo N., Os caminhos de Exu, [in:] Sete Brasileiros e seu universo: artes, ofícios, origens, permanências, Brasilia 1974, pp. 71–96. 2 Harris M., Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture, New York 1974. 3 Herskovits M., Man and his Works, New York 1948. 4 Herskovits M., Some economic aspects of the Afrobahian Candomblé [in:] Miscelanea Paul Rivet Dicata, vol. II, Mexico, 1958, pp. 226–247. 5 Herskovits M., The New World Negro: Selected Papers in Afro-American Studies, Bloomington 1966. 6 Leacock S., Leacock R., Sprits of the Deep, Garden City 1972. 7 Lévi-Strauss, C., The elementary structures of kinship. Boston 1969. 8 Murphy R., The Dialectics of Social Life: Alarms and Excursions in Anthropological Theory, New York 1971. 9 Ribeiro, R., Cultos Afro-Brasileiros do Recife. Recife 1952. 10 Steward J., Theory of Cultural Change, Urbana 1955. 11 Turner V., Symbolic studies, [in:] “Annual Review of Anthropology”, 1975, no. 4, pp. 145–162.