With Two Gejas on Each Temple”

scarification and the process of visual translation in the jeje diaspora of 18th Century in Minas Gerais

Abstract

Considering the visual culture of the African diaspora, this article analyzes the effects of the presence of Gbe language groups in the formation of the lexicon used in detailing the ritual scarification of the African population present in the diamond district of the captaincy of Minas Gerais in the eighteenth century. It focuses on the historical process of spreading the term geja, exploring both its meanings linked to specific patterns of scarification and its widespread use for African body markings in general. Its emergence is examined as an index of a broader chain of meanings connected to the Gbe ethnogenesis in a context of great urban concentration of people from Costa da Mina.