Abstract
The sacred and the utile are found closely associated in the “Xango de Pernambuco”. The process ofinicialization largely coincides with the search of cure, while the sacrifices are both good to pray and to eat. Thus there isn’t a radical separation between the sacred and the profane, what a literal interpretation of the Durkheim’s sociology of religion could intend. However, in the religious experience of Xangô, there is a moment when the sacred means more than all the functional analysis, becoming, this way, the more-than-sacred, what appears in the party and in the static trance. So it’s from this transcendent experience, involving the emotional communion of the cult group that emerges a closer identity of each faithful people.
Keywords
Afro-brazilian religions; cure; sacrifice; Xangô