Pentecostalidad

Max Weber observes that "the religion of the underprivileged classes is characterized by a tendency to allot equality to women," pointing out that salvation religion appeals to those classes and to women because it glorifies virtues close to their interests.1 Yet, women seem to constitute the majority in all Christian churches, not just in most religions of the poor.2 The greater proportion of women in Latin American Pentecostal churches does not, therefore, come as a surprise.

Pentecostalism does have a special appeal for the underprivileged. Writing of Brazil, Peter Fry and Gary Howe consider it a "cult of affliction" because it attracts mostly the poor, the sick, the unemployed, alcoholics, blacks, and women, who, in general, tend to face more material and emotional hardships.3 Pentecostalism's promise of solutions for everyday problems may be another strong appeal to the lower classes and to women.4 But, since the female churchgoing majority is not an exclusively Pentecostal phenomenon, our question is not why there are more women than men in Pentecostal churches but what Pentecostalism offers these women. We begin by briefly reviewing the broad assertions in the literature concerning the benefits that women receive from Pentecostal conversion. These assertions tend to focus on new roles for both women and men and the ways in which these changes benefit women. Then, drawing on our field research in Brazil, we describe the changes experienced by female Pentecostals in their basic conceptions of themselves as individuals and as believers. We argue that although female Pentecostal believers cannot be considered "feminists"– especially in the sense of mainstream North American feminism – the conversion experience does lead to a revaluing of the self in relation to God and others that increases women's autonomy and undermines traditional machismo.

"Domesticated" Men, Public Women, and Family Values

There are basically two interpretations of the role of Pentecostalism in the life of the oppressed. The first is that these churches offer marginalized people symbolic power that compensates for their lack of material power.5 According to this view, religion, like magic, in fact reinforces the inferior social position of those groups. Pentecostalism thus constitutes an alienation. Another interpretation is that, although not always capable of modifying the social position of these groups, Pentecostal religion is of some benefit to them, constituting a short-range defense mechanism for the oppressed. This view points out the benefits that women and the poor receive and emphasizes Pentecostalism's ability to reduce oppression.

This second interpretation has been the dominant one in the most recent studies of Pentecostal women in Latin American societies, such as those of Elizabeth Brusco, Cornelia Flora, Maria das Dores Machado, Hanneke Slootweg, David Smilde and Monica Tarducci.6 In general, these studies claim that the values of Pentecostalism supersede the machismo prevalent in those societies. Furthermore, they call attention to the fact that, although Pentecostalism reinforces many patriarchal values, it helps women defend their interests.7 Specifically, these researchers examine the different ways in which Pentecostalism can help female believers in their everyday lives. Most of them agree that Pentecostal churches, in addition to offering a support network for women, help increase women's self-confidence and bring their men back to home life.

Moreover, Pentecostalism appears to redefine the relationship between gender and public versus private spaces. All the studies are unanimous in identifying new values for men's behavior and considering the "domestication" of men to be the most important gain for Pentecostal women in Latin American societies. According to this line of interpretation, Pentecostalism helps women by creating a new model for men to follow. The renewing qualities of this Pentecostal model for men are greater and more perceptible in Latin societies where machismo is stronger. Salvatore Cucchiari underlines the differences between the notion of Latin masculinity and the image of God in Pentecostalism. For him Pentecostalism portrays God as having qualities that, according to a machista view of the world, would be considered feminine. He suggests that the new conception of God may affect the traditional relationship between the genders.8 The domestication of men occurs through the restriction of "male behavior detrimental to women, such as alcoholism or the irresponsible fathering of children," and through Pentecostal emphasis on family life and the household.9 Thus, Pentecostal preoccupation with the family seems advantageous for women.10

This domestication of men occurs concomitantly with women's increased participation in the public sphere. In Brazil we observed that the consequences of the transformation vary with social class. Machado suggests that the transformation will be greater for lower-class women.11 These women may become deeply involved in evangelizing, preaching in the streets, in prisons, and in other public places. One of our interviewees, a member of the Pentecostal Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God), L. R., thirty-five, married, and mother of a nine-year-old daughter, says that on weekends when her husband works she travels to cities near Rio de Janeiro to bring them "the word of God." Moreover, for lower-class women facing financial difficulties, Pentecostalism not only reinforces the family structure by encouraging men to spend less on drinking but also serves a strategic function in the struggle for survival of these poor women and their families.12

In addition to changes in men's and women's roles, Pentecostalism offers women comfort for their general family concerns. The literature shows that relationship problems play an important part in accounts of conversions. In fact, women seem to reinterpret and redefine any difficulties they face as family problems.13 In our interviews with Brazilian Pentecostal women,14 the main subjects mentioned by respondents were their families, particularly husbands who were unfaithful and/or alcohol abusers. One of our interviewees, now a member of the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, reports that before her conversion she had put a macumba (Brazilian black magic) spell on her husband to force him to leave. She explains: "I put a seven-month spell on my husband that I had to renew within seven months.... This cost me a lot of money.... That's where my whole salary went." In addressing the family Pentecostalism is, in fact, closely concerned with the major everyday problems (usually related to the family) of women.

Although this emphasis on the family is a common characteristic of all religions, some writers consider the almost exclusive Pentecostal preoccupation with family and private life a symptom of political alienation and a hindrance to social transformation.15 In contrast, David Martin views this stronger emphasis on domestic life as a cultural innovation that fosters social change because it breaks with Hispanic (or Luso-Hispanic) militarism and machismo. Martin asserts that the notions that changes in people's private lives cannot affect social structure and that culture is primarily dependent on social structure are themselves reflections of machismo.16

Pentecostalism's "New Woman" and "New Man"

Rather than focus on the advantages of Pentecostalism for women, we will examine the way in which women redefine their gender roles on the basis of a concept of the individual that gives rise to the idea of a "new woman" or a "new man." The break with older concepts of the individual and individual liberty does not necessarily mean a transformation of the explicit values regarding the family, sexual codes, or the social functions of men and women. Although Pentecostal discourse does not question so-called patriarchal values, it does involve innovations in family relationships that threaten the machismo of Latin societies.

Pentecostalism is a process of individualization for both men and women. Believers see themselves as individuals free from the oppression of evil and consequently responsible for their own welfare as well as that of loved ones. In attributing greater autonomy and responsibility to the individual, Pentecostalism reaffirms the concept of the modern individual who creates his or her own destiny through choices and reflection. Despite being miraculous, Pentecostal deliverance from evil helps to create a rational individual.17 Thus, in its emphasis on individual choice for freedom, Pentecostalism to a certain degree implies a rationalization of the conscience.18 Pentecostal individualism stresses individual freedom in relation to natural passions and instincts but not to social or moral codes. Because it considers strict obedience to moral codes not as a source of oppression but rather as proof of the liberation of the individual, Pentecostalism
limits individualism by articulating it with holistic principles. The redeemed believer's interests must coincide with the plan of God, and therefore the idea of opposing feminine and masculine interests (typical of much of mainstream North American feminism) makes no sense in Pentecostal terms. Our aim in this chapter is therefore not to try to determine whether Pentecostalism caters to or satisfies particular male or female interests. Rather, we examine the discourse of Brazilian Pentecostal women to identify their conceptions of the individual and of freedom and attempt to understand the appeal of this discourse to women.

God Is More Important Than the Family

A predominant value held by the women we interviewed was their sense of duty regarding the care of family members, especially their husbands, children, and grandchildren. Although their joining the church did not challenge or change their traditional role, most of these women claimed that God was the most important issue in their lives; the family took second place. An example of this type of discourse can be found in our interview with M. J., fifty-four, a government worker who lives in a favela (shantytown) in Niteroi, a medium-sized city near Rio de Janeiro. M. J. suffered considerably when, as often happens to middle-aged women, her husband left her for another woman:

I struggled to keep the family together; I didn't want the separation. Even today I love him, except that now God is number one. He [the husband] is just another person.... I thank my God with all my heart because through this event, I recovered the heart I'd given my husband. Today I've changed in relation to him. It's not that I don't love him but that I love him the way I should have thirty years ago.... I see him as just another person.

Despite its emphasis on the family, the church helped M. J. to view herself as an autonomous individual. After she joined the Pentecostal church, she came to accept the idea of divorce. "I didn't agree with the separation, but today I agree because of the fact that I began to read the Holy Bible, and there I saw a passage that says that if a woman doesn't love a man she can surely separate.... Nobody belongs to anyone, it's written in the Bible."

Through church some women redefine their duties in relation to their children. D. S., sixty-three, a maid who lives with her adult children and grandchildren, said that one of her daughters had criticized her for joining the church. "My daughter thought that after I joined the church I'd changed and that I didn't like anyone anymore. She even said: `What kind of a church lets a mother not care about her daughter or about anything anymore?"' D. S. explained that her behavior at home and attitude in relation to her daughters had in fact changed. Although she was still concerned about them and the grandchildren, praying for them all the time, she did not do all her housework as she had before because she did not have the same amount of time. Besides working, she attended church every day. "Before I used to do [the housework]. I would cook, I'd clean up the house, but then I tried to get away from all that. I also hold a job, and I don't have time." The church helped this woman to free herself from the obligation of taking care of her adult children. Because they put into their families all the meaning for their own lives, many women continue to have little time or money for themselves. D. S.'s autonomy with regard to her children indicates that she had acquired a new conception of the individual. "We all have problems with our children, because a pastor's son isn't necessarily born a pastor too, and a believer's son isn't born a believer" Individuals do not inherit religion; they choose it.

By placing a duty on women that goes beyond their families and households, the church gives them goals outside the home. Their main duty is now the work of God, and this may account for the generally negative initial reaction of husbands and children. There are many reports of husbands' hostile reactions to their wives' conversion. For example, N. P., a black maid from a favela in Rio de Janeiro, reported that her husband performed macumba rituals to keep her from attending church. Like many others interviewed, she was proud of having confronted her spouse's resistance to her religious choice and even having eventually converted him. Conversion undoubtedly gives women a certain emotional independence from their families. We thus witnessed what others call an "institutional contradiction" between the religious community and the family-namely, the church contesting the dominant family model.19   Cont...

Pentecostal pastors try to discourage women from carrying their independence too far with regard to their spouses and homes. One respondent told us that she became so involved in missionary work that she took her youngest children and moved close to the area of the mission, leaving her house and older children behind. When her pastor found out, he ordered her to return home, saying, "In order for the woman to do the work of the Lord, she must be united with her family." Many women mentioned that their pastors reminded them not to forget their duties as wives and mothers. M. S., a thirty-six-year-old seamstress, commented on her pastor's concern with "women who, because they became believers, don't want their husbands anymore " According to M. S., her pastor said, "You are wives, and you must fulfill your duties as wives."

Another interviewee commented that "in the family cult (corrente da familia) we hear that the women should treat their husbands with tenderness and faith ... and must be able to forgive and have patience; forgiveness is fundamental" Female believers cannot forget to respect and care for their husbands and children. L. R. also stressed that women must believe in their husbands: "After Jesus came into my heart, I became more responsible and came to love my husband more. I take care of him with more affection and love. I think I learned to become a good housewife, you know? I started listening to him more. When he asks me to do something, I do it." In order to avoid more tension in the family, Pentecostal women learn that it is their duty to follow their husbands even if they are not a believer. M. J., the poor Pentecostal quoted earlier, said, "I don't drink, but if my husband asks me to accompany him to a bar, I go because he likes his beer.... I drink my fruit juice." Likewise, M. N., from the middle class, explained "You have to have a balance. For example, if your husband goes to a dinner at work, as a Christian woman you also go to the dinner.... You don't have to drink or dance, but you go to honor your husband." G. A., a middle-class woman from the Igreja Nova Vida (New Life church), adopted a similar attitude in attending Catholic mass with her husband; she believed that she should go with him even though she did not share his religious beliefs. Going along with the husband was often a matter of tolerance rather than submission. Sometimes women saw it as a strategy aimed at bringing their spouses to visit their own churches, where perhaps their hearts would be touched. The dearest hope of a Pentecostal woman is to convert her husband and her entire family.

Men as Victims Rather Than Oppressors

Slootweg believes that if the husband does not convert, marital conflict intensifies,20 but most women we interviewed said that their husbands' opposition decreased over time even when they did not convert. Although this type of assertion may be interpreted as part of a concocted discourse whose aim is ultimately to justify conversion, it is possible to suppose that there is, in fact, a decline in family conflict at some point after the woman's conversion to Pentecostalism. Machado suggests that most husbands cease to oppose their wives' religiosity when they discover that, most of the time, they appear more obedient.21 As Pentecostal women learn to ease the tension of marital arguments, conflict may, in fact, decrease.22

For example, the conversion of N. R., twenty-five, provoked an extremely violent reaction from her husband, who even threatened her with a knife to make her leave the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus. Her reaction was to stop attending church temporarily, instead listening to the pastor's sermons on the radio. After some time, she was able to attend church again while her husband was away at work. Our respondents confirmed that Pentecostals tend to react calmly to aggression, partly to avoid hostility and partly to attract family members to church. The church teaches women that the best strategy for attracting people to church is to be tolerant toward them, respect their wishes, and avoid being too insistent about inviting them to join. D. S., whose problems with her daughter we have mentioned earlier, reported, "After entering the true church, I stopped talking, because in the church we learn to accept people the way they are, and to convert someone we need to know how to talk about God without being insistent.... If a person doesn't want to go, if she/he has a hard heart, nobody can do anything." Once again, Pentecostal emphasis on individual will reflects a new conception of the individual. Thus conversion changes not only believers' attitudes toward themselves but also their attitudes toward others. Pentecostal tolerance in response to aggression is also based on a new conception of the individual relationship with good and evil.

After conversion, women "discover" . that if their husbands get drunk or mistreat them they are not acting of their own free will; rather, the devil has taken possession of them. People are seen as easy prey for the devil, who makes them act aggressively, selfishly, and destructively. Pentecostals adopt a tolerant attitude toward a person whose behavior is wrong and negative because, as D. O., a college student, age twenty-six, from the Assembly of God church put it, "He doesn't do wrong because he wants to, he's being used.... These people are being used, and they're unhappy." Consequently, all oppressors are seen as being oppressed by the devil and as victims for whom one should pray. The women see their aggressive husbands as victims, too, and therefore tend to adopt a more tolerant attitude toward them and try to handle marital conflicts more calmly. By symbolically inverting the relation of power and oppression, the women often do not consider the interests of their spouses as opposing theirs; consequently, they interpret marital conflicts not as conflicts of interest but rather as the result of one of the parties' being possessed by evil and therefore not guilty of their misdeeds. Because they are alienated from their own free will, confronting them is meaningless; they need to be liberated from the devil.

Most of the Pentecostal conversion accounts (of both men and women) that we have analyzed describe a redefinition of what is evil and how it relates to individuals. Converts come to believe that all the bad things in the world (sin, conflict, illness) have only one source, the devil, and they see only one solution, God. Thus they cannot blame others for their problems or expect them to solve those problems. Only God can give and help. This conception of evil reinforces individual autonomy, tolerance toward others, and self-criticism.

Both the sick and the sinner, the depressed and the aggressor are possessed by the devil. Therefore, whatever the problem, first of all they must be delivered. In their conversion testimony, most Pentecostals refer first to their personal libertaç ~o (deliverance). The women interviewed, for instance, spoke of their own deliverance from things that ranged from Afro-Brazilian Spiritualist practices and beliefs to depression, irritability, and illness. They adopted a self-critical attitude, acknowledging they had had evil with them, but because they had not known it they did not feel guilt. The word "repentance" rarely appears in their conversion accounts. After deliverance, individuals become conscious of the power of God's word. Knowing the Truth, they now have the responsibility for their own happiness in this world and their salvation in the next. Converts also pray for and try to save those near them; female believers often refer to God's biblical promise to save the faithful's households as well. Many women embrace Pentecostalism with this hope. An earlier study about men who had quit drinking because of Pentecostalism pointed out that, in most cases, the conversion of those men's wives or mothers had preceded their own.23

The responsibility that women believers take upon themselves regarding the spiritual well-being of their families seems to be greater than that of men believers because women mediate between God and their families. The woman not only brings her relatives into the church but also helps them in the process of deliverance. Bishop Edir Macedo, the head of the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, offers examples of men who were freed from evil through the deliverance of their mothers.24

Machado observes the important role that women play in the process of deliverance of other members of their families, particularly their husbands and children, in this church. In her interpretation, the fact that almost all cases of demon possession involve women does not mean that the latter are more vulnerable to evil than men; rather, it indicates that the forces of evil that act on their spouses and children also manifest themselves in women in the deliverance sessions. In other words, women serve as channels of liberation for other family members.25 In addition to praying for and proselytizing them, through deliverance sessions women can also bring their family members to God. Because they feel spiritually stronger and recognize the fragility of nonbelievers, Pentecostal women do not hold their spouses and loved ones responsible for their families' difficulties.

Pentecostal women's sense of responsibility extends to material concerns as well. They do not view men as the sole breadwinners; they too feel responsible for the material achievement of their families. Denominations that embrace a "gospel of prosperity" encourage women not only to help their husbands financially but also to try independently to achieve more. When the husband is a nonbeliever, the woman, as a believer, is held even more responsible than her spouse for the couple's prosperity. In contrast to the Marianist Catholic tradition, whereby the indicator of female spiritual superiorPentecostalism and Women in Brazil 49 ity is women's ability to suffer and to endure pain, in Pentecostalism, especially where influenced by the "theology of prosperity," this female superiority must make women more active and more capable of material achievement than nonbelieving men. Even in those churches in which prosperity is less emphasized, as in the case of the Assembly of God, women assume a greater sense of responsibility for material concerns. For example, C. P., from a favela in Rio de Janeiro, decided to build a house for her family in spite of her spouse's initial opposition to the project. Pentecostalism helps women to be more assertive and confident in their ability to act accordingly.

Pentecostal groups also attribute greater moral and ethical responsibility to women when they allow them to occupy official positions of leadership. Although in most Brazilian Pentecostal churches women cannot be pastors (one exception is the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, which has ordained women pastors since 1993), many of them allow women to preside at services. In the traditional Assembly of God church as well as in other smaller churches, such as the Igreja Evangelica Senhor de Tempo Fim (Evangelical Church of the Eternal Lord), these women, known as "missionaries"; preach, heal, and perform nearly all of the functions of pastors. Missionary women also serve as intermediaries between the pastor and church members. In addition, women play very strong extraofficial leadership roles as pastors' wives and prophets. Some of our interviewees, for instance, mentioned their conversations with the pastor's wife, particularly about sexuality and family life.

More Duties, Not More Rights

After conversion, men and women do not seek more rights; instead they accept more restrictions and add duties to their lives. In Brazil, Protestant churches have been characterized by strict practices and repression of the body and all the festivities of Brazilian culture.26 Traditional Pentecostalism has continually reaffirmed these puritan values. The literature on Pentecostalism and gender has interpreted the puritan restriction of masculine behavior as a victory for women and an extension of their rights. The official discourse does not encourage converts to fight for either their individual rights or the rights of their category or gender. The extension of feminine rights is, therefore, an unintentional consequence of an increase in male duties. Feminist researchers such as Gouveia27 have interpreted this female self-limitation as a sign of Pentecostal women's alienation.   Cont...

The Pentecostal emphasis on individuals' duties rather than on their rights, however, distinguishes its conception of individual freedom from that of most North and South American feminism. Since no one is oppressed by anyone but the devil, to be free is to be able to disobey the devil's will. Asceticism proves that one is free.

The restrictions that Pentecostal women impose on themselves reflect a new concept of liberty. N. R., a member of the Assembly of God, explained how her idea of freedom had changed. She said that she had been very reluctant to become a believer and join the Assembly of God because of its restrictions on leisure and dress: "I though I was going to be in prison, but I was wrong. It's freedom.... I can go to the beach now, but I don't. I'm not going to miss church to go to the beach." According to this conception, what freedom means is not the absence of restrictions but resisting temptation and remaining faithful to the values and responsibilities one has assumed. The freedom that Pentecostals seek is not from social or religious laws but from the human selfishness and desires identified as devilish. One is free when one is able to give up bad habits. Pentecostal liberation is a personal transformation, explained M. B. After the baptism in the Holy Spirit "the person changes, even though there are things that you had never managed to give up before."

In general, women who become Pentecostal already had an austere lifestyle prior to conversion. Many, especially the married, drank little or no alcohol, and their sexual activity was restricted to their spouses or partners. Conversion does not represent as great a break with a past lifestyle for women as for men. In fact it seems to reaffirm the dominant feminine lifestyle rather than to transform it. A great number of Pentecostal churches, however, preach the abandonment of "vanities" such as earrings, makeup, haircuts, and pants and shorts for these women who had so little else to restrict in their lives. Most of the Pentecostal women we interviewed talked about this issue of dress and feminine beauty.

Some women approved of this strict code regarding dress and makeup and explained that their choice of a church had been positively influenced by that code. For example, M. S., a low-income seamstress, reported that her church's code was very strict: "I thought I wouldn't get used to it. You couldn't wear short or long pants or cut your hair or anything like that. I thought the doctrine was right.... I believe that if you're a Christian you have to be different." She also explained that her church was against going to the beach: "The question is not the beach but the clothes you wear there." The austere dress code was also appealing to R. P. and Z. J., both poor women from the Assembly of God. They were impressed by the believers' modest apparel and attracted to the church precisely because of this style. Some Pentecostals argue that the discreet, nonprovocative clothes protect poor women from sexual harassment, as seems also to happen among AfroAmerican Pentecostals.28

The strictness of doctrine in fact serves as a dividing line between different Pentecostal denominations and is one of the factors responsible for individual decisions to join or leave a given church. The ascetic code of conduct that preaches against alcohol, cigarettes, and participating in Carnival is widespread throughout the Pentecostal churches. Nevertheless, there are many churches with less stringent dress codes that attract women who reject the traditional Pentecostal sobriety. Middle-class and Neo-Pentecostal churches such as the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus are generally more flexible. Some women explained that they had avoided joining denominations with very strict dress codes (for instance, forbidding the wearing of pants and sleeveless clothes). Most of these women were middle-class like M. N., who told us that in her church women did not need to change their way of dressing. She also explained that this had helped her husband to accept her conversion, because he had been worried about seeing her with her hair tied in a bun and wearing a long dress as traditional Brazilian believers did. M. N. also said that she went to the beach quite often and had no problem with wearing a bikini there.

Our data confirm the conclusion of Ahaunna Scott's study on Appalachian Pentecostals that career and the consequent social mobility allow women to contest the rigid dress code.29 In most middle-class churches, restrictions regarding dress are minimal or nonexistent. For example, D. U., a twenty-six-year-old member of the Assembly of God church, was the child of a specialized manual worker with little education but had managed to become a student at a state university. There she felt peer pressure regarding her way of dressing. She told us that in her church other young people like herself debated the prohibition of bikinis and long pants, arguing that it was not in the Bible. Nevertheless, she concluded that these rules were right because "the world is looking to believers" and they had to be an example to others.

Despite these variations, Pentecostal women all stress their personal transformation. They see the solution to all their problems in their own transformation and not in the transformation of those around them-who will have to help themselves by undergoing their own personal transformation. The new individual that each must be is not the passive suffering individual of the traditional feminine role but an individual responsible for her own happiness and material achievement.

Conclusion

Pentecostalism involves individualist assumptions and values, but its individualism differs from much of liberal feminism. Through conversion, men and women alike learn to see themselves as autonomous beings responsible for their own achievement. Pentecostalism therefore alters people's conceptions of individualism and individual freedom, and this implies a transformation of the family and of gender relations. Although these new models represent an improvement in the position of women, especially in societies where machismo predominates, they fail to address the rights considered fundamental by many North and South American feminists. Pentecostalism does not embrace the kind of individualism that is at the core of the feminist project. Pentecostalism is individualistic inasmuch as it emphasizes a personal choice of faith and the possibility of changing the course of one's life. This change depends solely on one's relationship to God. The individual's choice is the key to all personal or social transformation. This belief breaks with the traditional and patriarchal worldview while increasing individual responsibility and establishing equality between genders.

At the same time, Pentecostalism's assumption that the free individual is always committed to God's law limits the individualism it fosters in granting autonomy to believers. Pentecostalism seems to adopt an intermediate position between traditional machismo and feminism, which is seen as threatening the continuity of the family that is the raison d'etre of many oppressed women. It is for this reason that Pentecostalism seems to be so appealing to women, who, upon conversion, acquire greater autonomy in relation to their husbands and families while avoiding direct confrontation. In entering the church, women are in fact seeking greater independence, but their intention is only their salvation and the salvation of their husbands and their households. According to the Pentecostal view, individuals cannot hold their own happiness as the main goal of their lives; God must be placed above all. Because of their commitment to God, Pentecostals do not adopt a modern individualism, just as they do not submissively conform to a traditional view of society.

Thus Pentecostal women no longer see men as masters they must obey. Nor, however, do they view them as oppressors they must rebel against. Rather, men are seen as victims of evil as they once were themselves, and therefore women feel responsible for their husbands and try to help them. The belief in demonic possession in everyday life relieves men of responsibility for their acts and in a certain way also legitimates women's autonomy. Deliverance from the devil – or, rather, the exorcism practiced in Pentecostal churches – contributes to the process of individualization for both men and women. Pentecostalism is able to resolve marital conflict because it redefines the relationship between the individual and evil.

Rejecting a fatalistic view of life, the Pentecostal woman no longer sees herself in the traditional role of victim and servant of her husband and family, nor does she become a rebel who fights against masculine oppression and tries to free herself from it. The Pentecostal woman, on the contrary, views herself as stronger than the masculine oppressor, who is a sinner. Because of her strength, she feels responsible for the salvation of her husband and family, as well as for their material prosperity. With their distinctive concepts of freedom and of evil, Pentecostal women do not demand sexual liberty or the right to drink alcohol, and they deny those rights to men. For the Pentecostal, the liberated individual is one who can resist temptation, not a transgressor of moral and divine laws.

Autoras: CECILIA LORETO MARIZ AND MARIA DAS DORES CAMPOS MACHADO

NOTES

1. Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion (Boston: Beacon Press, 1972), p. 104.
2. For instance, in Brazil women are in the majority in the Spiritualist religions, both Kardecist and Afro-Brazilian, as well as in the Catholic church, where women outnumber men in the charismatic-renewal movements, in the base communities, and at Sunday masses.
3. Peter Fry and Gary Howe, "Duas respostas a aflicao: Umbanda e Pentecostalismo," Debate e Critica 6 (1975), pp. 75-94.
4. In Western history, magic is also often associated with the most oppressed social classes. See, for example, Weber, The Sociology of Religion.
5. F. C. Rolim, Pentecostais no Brasil (Petrópolis: Vozes, 1985); Christian Lalive d'Epinay, O refugio das massas (São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 1970).
6. Elizabeth Brusco, "The Reformation of Machismo: Asceticism and Masculinity Among Colombian Evangelicals," in Virginia Garrard-Burnett and David Stoll, eds., Rethinking Protestantism in Latin America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994), pp. 143-158; Cornelia Butler Flora, Pentecostalism in Colombia: Baptism by Fire and Spirit (Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1976); Maria das Dores Machado, "Charismatics and Pentecostals: A Comparison of Religiousness and Intra-family Relations within the Brazilian Middle Class," paper written for the 22nd International Conference on Religion and Society, Budapest, Hungary, July 1993, and "Adesão religiosa e seus efeitos na esfera privada: Um estudo comparativo dos Carismáticos e Pentecostais de Rio de Janeiro," Ph.D. diss., Instituto Universitario Pesquisa, Rio de Janeiro, 1994; Hanneke Slootweg, "Mujeres pentecostales chilenas," in Bárbara Boudewijnse, Frans Kamsteeg, and Andre Droogers, eds., Algo mas que opio: Una lectura del Pentecostalismo Latinoamericano y Caribeño (San José, Costa Rica: Editorial Departamento Ecumenico de Investigaciones, 1991); David A. Smilde, "Gender Relations and Social Change in Latin American Evangelicalism," in Daniel Miller, ed., Coming of Age: Pentecostalism in Contemporary Latin America (Lanham, Md. University Press of America, 1994); Monica Tarducci, "Pentecostalismo y relaciones de género: Una revisión," in A. Frigerio, ed., Nuevos movimientos religiosos, vol. 1 (Buenos Aires: Centro Editorial de América Latina, 1993).
7. Eliane Gouveia's study is an exception. Gouveia was the first to examine the situation of women in Pentecostal churches in Brazil. Comparing women from the Congregação Crista do Brasil and Brasil para o Cristo, she concludes that both churches are patriarchal and androcentric but the former, because it is a sect rather than a church and less open to the wider society, is the more oppressive of women. In drawing this conclusion she assumes that these women were better off before conversion (outside the church) than they are now. Eliane Gouveia, "O silêncio que debe ser ouvido: Mulheres pentecostais em São Paulo," Master's thesis, Universidade Pontificia Católica de São Paulo, 1987.
8. Salvatore Cucchiari, "Between Shame and Sanctification," American Ethnologist 14, 4 (1990), pp. 607-707.
9. Tarducci, "Pentecostalismo y relaciones de género."
10. John Burdick, Looking for God in Brazil: The Progressive Catholic Church in Brazil (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993); Machado, Adesão religiosa."
11. Machado, "Adesão religiosa."
12. Cecilia Mariz, Coping with Poverty: Pentecostal Churches and Christian Base Communities in Brazil (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994).
13. The emphasis on family is not exclusive to Pentecostalism. On the contrary, family is a central theme for all religions, especially in contemporary society, in which religion increasingly deals with private life.
14. The empirical data we refer to in this chapter were mostly collected for two ongoing research projects carried out in Rio de Janeiro state: Cecilia Mariz and Maria das Dores Campos Machado, "Identidade, sincretismo e transito religioso: Uma comparação entre carismáticos e Pentecostais," supported by Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa and the Brazilian Research Council, 1994, and Machado, "Adesão religiosa."
15. For example, Lalive d'Epinay, O refugio das masses; Rolim, Pentecostais no Brasil.
16. David Martin, Tongues of Fire: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America (Oxford and Cambridge, Mass. Basil Blackwell, 1990), p. 181.
17. Cecilia Mariz, "O mal e o demônio no discurso Pentecostal," paper presented at the Seminar on Evil, Institute Sociologico Estudos Religiosos, Rio de Janeiro, 1994.
18. Pentecostalism may therefore be an example of what Weber calls "rationalizing charisma" and what Berger claims to be a modernizing consequence of a movement with antimodernizing intentions. Peter Berger, A Fair Glory (New York: Free Press, 1992).
19. R. Stephen Warner, "Work in Progress Toward a New Paradigm for the Sociological Study of Religion in the United States," American Journal of Sociology 98, 5 (1993), pp. 1044-1093.
20. Slootweg, "Mujeres pentecostales chilenas."
21. Machado, "Adesao religiosa."
22. Burdick, Looking for God in Brazil.
23. See also Cecilia Mariz, "Alcoholismo, genera e Pentecostalismo," Religiao e Sociedade 16,
3 (1994), pp. 80-93.
24. Edir Macedo, Orixas, caboclos e guias (Rio de Janeiro: Universal Producoes, 1990). 25. Machado, "Adesao religiosa."
26. See, for example, R. Alves, Protestantismo e repressao (Sao Paulo: Atica, 1982); P.Velasques Filho, "Sim a Deus e nao a vida: Conversao e disciplina no Protestantismo brasileiro," in A. G. Mendonra and P. Velasques Filho, eds., Introducao ao Protestantismo no Brasil (Sao Paulo: Edicoes Loyola, 1990).
27. Gouveia, "O silêncio que debe ser ouvido."
28. C. Gilkes, "Together and in Harness: Women's Tradition in the Sanctified Church," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 10 (1985), pp. 678-699.
29. Ahuanna Scott, "They Don't Have to Live by Old Traditions: Saintly Men, Sinner Women, and an Appalachian Pentecostal Revival," American Ethnologist 21, 2 (1994), pp. 227-244.