Gênero no Axé: uma análise sobre o feminino e o masculino no terreiro de candomblé Ketu Ilê Axé Bá Fúnfún na cidade de Parnaíba – PI (2014 – 2024)

Abstract

This paper is about the study of gender in the Candomblé religion of the Ketu nation. The object of study is the religious space called Terreiro Ilê Axé Bá Fúnfún, located in the community of Lagoa do Portinho, in the coastal region of the municipality of Parnaíba, in the state of Piauí. The research is qualitative and uses the methodology of the history of the present time is orality to analyse the perception of gender roles in this context. Although the terreiro includes different genders, historically women have been mainly responsible for structuring and perpetuating the cult, since the slavery period, in line with the matrilineal cosmological perspective. Most of the interviews were conducted with the women of the institution, as well as the priest, with the objective of understanding how the gender binarism present in contemporary patriarchal culture cuts across spaces that have a strongly matrilineal essence. The research is based on authors such as Roger Chartier (2009) and Pierre Nora (1993), who help us understand memory; Oyèrónkẹ Oyěwùmí (2021), who offers an African perspective on gender; Odé Kileuy and Vera de Oxaguiã (2009), who discuss Candomblé liturgy; and Pierre Verger (1981), who deals with Afro-Brazilian anthropology of religion. The specific aims include understanding, through the interviews, the historical and social role of women in the terreiro; to observe how gender roles are organised in the positions and ranks of Candomblé; and understand the experiences of the feminine and their relationship with the sacred in the roles played at the Terreiro Ilê Axé Bá Fúnfún. This study seeks to contribute to an in-depth reflection on gender dynamics in a reli gious space that has important historical, cultural and social relevance.