Enchanted Forces: Dance andRitual among the Pankararu" is a photo exhibit with selected images fromthe collection of Carlos Estevao de Oliveira of the State Museum of Pernambuco,which is part of the project Indigenous Peoples of Pernambuco: Memory,Documentation and Research carried out by Centre of Studies and Research on Ethnicity(NEPE) of the Federal University of Pernambuco.The researcher Carlos Estevao tookthese photographs in the year 1937, when he had been in the land of the Pankararuconducting ethnographic work with this people. The photos were selected to showthe relationship of the Pankararu with the dimension of the sacred and their relationswith the enchanted forces in the villages where they live in the municipalitiesof Tacaratu, Jatoba and Petrolandia in the Sao Francisco River basin.The Enchanted Forces are entitiesthat are part of Pankararu cosmology and religion. They are present throughoutthe indigenous land and act as intermediaries between those who are on Earth (who are part of the human world) and a larger entity that is not present on this Earth.This relationship takes place at different times in rich and dynamicperformance at "terreiros" (public places where the sacredestablishes a relationship with the people of this world) in the variousPankararu villages. In these terreiros the "Praias" which areentities dressed in special tunics made exclusively from the "caroa"fibre manifest themselves to the people present. The Praia is a mythological isan enchanted character that became an intermediary of the vital forces of movementand ritualistic dynamics of the Pankararu world. These enchanted entities arepresent in parties, ceremonies and rituals of the Pankararu during the year.The most important Pankararureligious manifestation is the "Corridas do Umbu (The Umbu Races.Umbu, a Brazil plum, is a fruit that is endemic to the Northeastsemi-arid region of Brazil. This is when the year begins, after the storms of January,and with the starting of plantations after the first rains, with the appearanceof imbu (umbu), as they say. It is during this time of the year that holdersof knowledge (the zeladores) will choose the day for the "flechamento"(arrowing) ofthe first umbu fruit to appear. The weekend after the day of flechamento, theraces begin in two main religious communities: at the Brejo dos Padres and atthe Serrinha community. For over 4 weekends the Pankararu come together inthese terreiros to dance the tores and sting themselves with the ortigas ofcansancao (plant: Cnidoscolus pubescens) and above all to seek the enchanted force forthe year. This party starts at dawn on Saturday, both in Serrinha village andin Brejo dos Padres with people remembering all the possibilities of life indances of humans and animals, in beautiful choreographic movements withcheerful beats and a special rhythm to celebrate the enchanted forces, thebeauty of animals and the relationship between humans and nonhumans in thispresent world. This party ends in the fourth weekend with the performance of"Mestre-Guia" (the Master-Guide), chief of all the enchanted forces.The Master-Guides ritual, in its appropriate terreiro in Serrinha village,is seen with much consternation by all who consider themselves to be part ofPankararu identity. He is received with joy at a ceremony where silence is alsoan integral part in the ritual to receive the enchanted