Weavings of faith

This study consists in the perception of aspects of clothing that paraments, means and expresses the cultural life of the Irmandade da Boa Morte de Cachoeira-Ba. It is part of an anthropological study aiming at understanding the behaviors, codes and symbols processed, apprehended and (re)meant by the clothing of this confraternity, which for almost two centuries has promoted, annually, one of the most expressive cultural manifestations of the Recôncavo Baiano, the Boa Morte Festival. Old black women, the Boa Morte sisters have double religious belonging: they are all devotees of Our Lady, but also faithful to the orixás of candomblé, attributes that are part of their identity references and their ways of life, absorbed and incorporated into the clothing of the sisterhood. This book analyses the clothing of Boa Morte, considering its dynamics of construction of meaning. The sensitization of the gaze, the knowledge of listening and the concern with writing in this ethnography shows the importance that clothing occupies in the dynamics of the existence of this Brotherhood, in which historical clues and fragments are placed as an important part of a more fertile dialogue involving culture, clothing and ways of life.