Esoteric Economies

Ritual Exchange and Reciprocity in Brazil and Senegal

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of “esoteric economies” to analyze how sacrificial practices in Brazil and Senegal embody alternative economic logics that coexist alongside market capitalism. Through a comparative ethnographic study of Afro-Brazilian religious practices and Senegalese divinatory rituals, the authors demonstrate how these ritual systems encode and enact different logics of exchange that prioritize long-term reciprocity, mutuality, and communal welfare. In Brazil, the dual pantheon of orixás and exus represents competing economic frameworks: orixás embodying a household economy of generalized reciprocity that is coded as moral, while exus reflect the transactional logic of capitalist exchange that is coded as immoral. In Senegal, the practice of sadaa (ritual donations performed in the context of divinatory consultations) extends giving into wider social networks. Rather than viewing these practices through the conventional lens of transactional do-ut-des exchange, the authors propose that they operate through a filial logic of reciprocity rooted in an oikology of fruition. This analysis reveals how ritual economies serve not merely as reflections of broader economic systems but as interventions into them, offering practitioners flexible strategies to navigate economic precarity while maintaining valued forms of social connection.