LA FE EN EL CUERPO. La construcción biocorporal en el pentecostalismo gitano.

Abstract

The experience of a direct communication with the “Holy Spirit” explains the fundamental aspect of the gipsy Pentacostal beliefs. Body becomes the main agent of the charismatic experience and of the believer´s selftransformation. This makes that the social processes of
the embodiment, the personal renewal, the biographic reconstruction and the self presentation interlace, in a deep and “embodied” way, in the ceremonies of the cults and in the believers´ daily experiences. Our interest is to analyze the gipsy conversions from the strategies of renewal or biocorporal(bodily) managing that cover different aspects of social and daily life of the “hallelujah!”, and affect the social reorganization of the gipsy quarters and of their own congregations, the economic and ethic strategies of the believers/followers/practitioners, mainly devoted to informal sectors of street selling, and to the processes of reinterpretation of ethnic identity and historical sense of a group, letting aside terms as “evil”, “prosecuted” or
“discriminated” to be “chosen/elected/predestinated”, “hallowed” and “proud of being that”.