This paper explores some dimensions of the production and use of the "low spiritualism" ("baixo espiritismo") category, parting from an analysis of the category’s temporality and of its users. We show how, in the context of the spiritualism outlawing by the 1890 Brazilian Penal Code, an opposition between false and truly spiritual practices was construed by both religious agents and journalistic views. This opposition is crystallized in repressive police action, an action corroborated by the interaction of spiritual religious groups. The paper analyzes the first half of the twentieth century and we hope its results can contribute with the elucidation of the mechanisms through which the social insertion and legitimization of certain religious practices took place.
african-brazilian cults; mediunic cults; religion and politics; spiritualism