Dona Arlinda: entre o dom e a tradição

Abstract

This Course Completion Work (TCC) sought to investigate the ancestral wisdom of faith healers, with a specific focus on the practices and cultural and spiritual meanings of the faith healer Dona Arlinda, a resident of the rural area of the municipality of Canindé de São Francisco – Sergipe, more precisely in the Santa Terezinha community, which is located close to the border between Canindé and the municipality of Poço Redondo, and recognized in its community and surrounding areas for its healing abilities and mediumistic expression of incorporation of entities. The main objective of the research is to understand how Dona Arlinda's practice of spirituality contributes to community cohesion and the preservation of cultural traditions. To this end, I analyze how genealogy and orality are related to the support of collective memory, the formation of identity and the perpetuation of religious traditions of black and Amerindian origin. I carry out a socioanthropological theoretical analysis of how their worldview, sociability and practices combined with the social fabric can guarantee the survival of secular knowledge that has been transmitted from generation to generation, and in what ways this occurs. Therefore, Dona Arlinda's social influence goes beyond physical/spiritual healing, given the transfer of invisible knowledge that is fundamental to understanding the process of formation of collective identity and cultural continuity in the region.