Afro-Brazilian Altar-Poems: The Textual Poetics of "Pontos-Riscados."

This article examines the genres within Afro-Brazilian oral poetics, specifically the origins of the ponto-riscado. According to researchers, the ponto-riscado are cosmograms, ritualistic forms that developed among the African diaspora in Brazil. It questions how one can read interpret these symbols as a literary form and argues that like calligrams, these symbols offer a message in the form of a altar-poem. The article explores how the ponto-riscados are mediums of expression which serve as ritualistic magical activators.