Fé e profecia no cruzamento da fogueira de xangô: fogo, magia e justiça em custaneira/tronco

Abstract

The scope of this study is to discuss Quilombola ethnicity and the (inter)relations developed in the context of the territory of the Custameira/Tronco Quilombola Community, located in the municipality of Paquetá - PI, seeking to understand the influence of Quilombola ancestry on the religious practices developed in the Community, as well as the effect of these aspects on the attractiveness of the Community's Terreiro Houses to people outside it, and also to discuss Brazilian national identity from the perspective of Umbanda religiosity, which we sought to present as an important part of the cultural heritage built up in Brazil since the 19th century, despite the fact that it is currently relegated to the status of inferiority, mainly because its foundations include practices related to Afro-indigenous ethnic groups that have undeniably contributed substantially to the process of building the identity of Brazilian society. The study was based on bibliographical and documentary research in books, master's dissertations, doctoral theses and articles published in journals with related themes. In addition, field research was carried out using an ethnographic approach, using a field diary, tape recorder and semi-structured and unstructured interviews, with the aim of profiling the traits of ethnicity present in the community and the ways in which it presents itself internally and externally to the territory. In order to consolidate this study, we used methodological premises to understand the dynamics of sociocultural and religious relations in Custaneira/Tronco. Initially, a bibliographical survey was carried out in books, magazines and repositories that touched on the themes of: ethnicity; traditional communities; quilombos andquilombola communities; quilombagem/quilombismo; identity; cosmologies and quilombola cosmovision; religion and Afro-Brazilian religiosity; faith; soul and justice, with the aim of building dialogues around the categories listed in order to associate them with the daily life of Custaneira/Tronco. Based on this premise, notes are being made about the ethnic-cultural aspects of the community, relating them to the ideas of ethnicity found in Barth (1997) and Cunha (2009) in order to situate the community we are working with within these concepts. In view of this, we used an ethnographic approach through participant observation, taking notes in a field diary, carrying out unstructured interviews protected by the use of a tape recorder and also using the method of photoethnography to demonstrate some of the cultural and geographical aspects of the community, especially at the time of the research, in addition to the said and unsaid. It was concluded that, while the strength of Custaneira/Tronco's cultural identity attracts thousands of people to the community, it is the way in which Pai Naldo conducts himself that draws them to the terreiro and, more often than not, they choose to stay there, either as consultants or as children of Santo. Here, ancestral knowledge is valued, as is the anti-conflict way of resolving the demands and disputes that eventually arise within the terreiro houses headed by Naldinho, or even those experienced outside the terreiro context. Finally, we infer that it is through welcoming that Custaneira/Tronco is increasingly strengthened as a community and, with this, begins to receive the gaze of people from the most diverse realities for the religious and cultural practices that are developed there