Religião e poesia oral como linguagem : modo de vida e realização de sentido nos processos rituais de culto aos santos da Taieira de Laranjeiras em Sergipe

Abstract

Taieira de Laranjeiras is a group part of popular cultures formed mostly of women, whose leaders are members of the “nagô”, a religion of African origin that worships Orishas da Costa in Brazil. This group also worships two Catholic saints – known to be the saints who protect black people, namely, São Benedito and Nossa Senhora do Rosário – especially in the Ritual of Coronation of Taieira’s Queen that takes place at the Three Kings Festival, a festivity linked to the Cultural Encounter of Laranjeiras. Taieira moves mutually both from the Terreiro Nagô Santa Bárbara Virgin and from the Catholic Church São Benedito and Nossa Senhora do Rosário, located in the municipality of Laranjeiras, State of SergipeBrazil. Taieira and other groups of popular cultures may go through actions to be said or recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage and are commonly referred as cultural expressions to stimulate local tourism. In general, they are also chosen as faces of “sergipanidade” in official speeches, in cultural places (such as Largo da Gente Sergipana) and in cultural events and festivities. This doctoral thesis started with the concept “religion” as a useful category for research in Sociology of Religion and sought to build dialogues with Religious Studies and Cultural and Literary Studies, focusing on “oral poetry”. In the doctoral research, we sought to understand public ritual processes carried out by Taieira to analyze whether the categories oral poetry and religion understood as language are comparable and mobilizing factors in the historical permanence of the group. The qualitative study – based on field and theoreticalbibliographic research in Sociology of Religion – allows us to affirm that these notions are comparable from their traits and formative elements that can be observed in the social dynamics and in the continuity of Taieira group. This conclusion was possible through the following research paths built on 4 sections. (1) Panoramas and concepts – focusing on the term “religion” – to offer a view on religion as a sociological issue and to see how the construction of this concept appears in Cultural Studies. (2) Construction of the analysis category proposed in the doctoral thesis: religion and oral poetry as language, highlighting some theoretical perspectives on the concept of ritual. (3) Map of bibliographic research, panoramas and deconstructions on other related themes associated with our research object (popular cultures, folklore, cultural heritage, popular religiosity), to inform the reader about the huge intricacy that makes up the field of popular cultures. (4) Research studies and panoramas concerning historical aspects of Taieira; conflicts, recognition and agency of groups of popular cultures in the Cultural Encounter of Laranjeiras; secondary empirical data based on research; primary empirical data collected in field observations (description of ritual processes and challenges experienced by Taieira); resistance, recognition, appreciation and material conditions of Taieira; data analysis based on the analysis category religion and oral poetry as language in ritual processes of Taieira. We conclude that oral poetry and religion as language are comparable, inseparable and non-dichotomous elements in the ritual processes of Taieira, revealing agency towards realization of meaning, which corroborates a way of life. Taieira's oral-poetry-as-language is, concurrently, ludic and religious, and Taieira's religion-aslanguage is, concurrently, religious and ludic.