Territorialidades do axé na região sudoeste do Paraná: as múltiplas encruzilhadas da cosmopolítica afro-brasileira

Abstract

This doctoral thesis presents the different territorialities that unfold in the agency network of AfroBrazilian collectives, based on two terreiros of Umbanda crossed with Candomblé and Quimbanda located in Pato BrancoPR: Abaça de Oxalá, directed by Pai Aldacir, black man, 50 years old, my pai de santo (priest); and Encruzilhada do Axé, run by me, a white man, doctoral student, aged 30, and which developed from my Afroreligious initiation by Pai Aldacir, as a new nucleus. Along with these terreiros, a cartography of the multiple territorialities was carried out, aiming to unfold the constitution of their foundations and make visible the modes of resistance to the hegemonic relations that cross them. This ethnographic research is based on the arsenal proposed by the ActorNetwork Theory, of concepts originating from the philosophy of difference, dialoguing with decolonial criticisms in the problematization of modern ontology and developmentalism, and is also guided by ethnographic research from different Afroreligious contexts. The settlement of Exu head chief, in the networks researched, synthesizes all the relationships that made the analysis viable, from my mediation between the terreiro (as a pai de santo) and academic (as a doctoral student), to the descriptions of the cartographic references, initiations, holy places, animal sacrifices, relationships with plants, Orixás, and connections with bodies, portals and places. From there, observing a logic where there are connections between bodies and territories and cosmic powers, multiple territorialities were deployed in the network. At this juncture, the crossroads, which expresses the cosmoontology of the povo de santo, in the senses and meanings it carries both as a holy place or as a model of spatiotemporal thought of encounter, connections and coexistence of differences, proves to be powerful to relate Afroreligious logic to broader academic arenas and counterhegemonic policies that conceive territories as zones of hope for dismantling coloniality.