A negritude pentecostal: uma etnografia sobre pessoas negras na periferia de Pelotas-RS

Abstract

The present master’s dissertation was carried out on Pelotas’ (a city on Brazil South) urban area, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. The making of this work, implicate on the comprehension of a peripherical reality of (neo) Pentecostal churches’ insertion on some of the town’s neighborhoods. The objective is to seek evidences, through ethnography, of this religion as a factor of social inclusion based on the idea of equality and equity, starting out from black people experience on Pentecostalism. To that end, it is sought to understand Navegantes neighborhood (a suburban area of Pelotas), place where interlocutors live and where the churches are localized, from a historical perspective of the city’s development. And, with that, imply ways of understanding how this peripherical areas were historically formed e how this affects their actual residential infrastructure and social setting regarding black people. This research highlights the meetings (“cultos”) and the various ways which black people can experience the faith, as well as which religion these people formerly followed before their conversion to Pentecostalism. Posts in charge of black people are analyzed, together with questions about racial relations (adjusted according to the interview’s course), in order to perceive how racism operates in these contexts. Before that, the aim was to show the place where these black people lived until their introduction in Pentecostalism. Thus, this should give an insight on how Brazilian society has its way of thinking based upon a slavery past, which is confirmed, on the peripheries, in the ritual performances, on these people’s conversions and on the racial criteria for the charging of important posts in these churches’ hierarchy