Na encruzilhada das práticas e memórias negras: benzedura e ancestralidade no município de Pelotas-RS.

Abstract

Benediction is a common practice carried out all over the Brazilian territory that has been running throughout the country back in history as an exercise of cure. The present paper deems benediction as a hybrid practice – which combines elements stemmed from the diverse African, indigenous and European cultures – nevertheless, it is more concerned about the Negro-African contributions for taking into account that its exercise has been essential to the maintenance of life and moreover to the likelihood of surviving the diaspora so far in place for both healing and self-care alternatives. Beyond the conception associated only to the health-disease operation, benediction can also be interpreted as a learning process for their actors. Thus, the objective of the present master’s thesis is to stand out the understand, through narratives of blessed, the cognition that is potentiated, assimilated or triggered through the experience of benediction and to analyze about the possible ways of their occurrence . For the purpose of this paper, a memorial developed from the narratives reasoned by ten inhabitants of the municipality of Pelotas, RS, Brazil, who have been blessed, allows visualizing the motivations, the process of benediction and what remained after the experience and that, at times, is perpetrated in the everyday life. As to support these notes and to use the adequate lens to do so, the research process also comprises a bibliographic review which mostly uses references based on Geography, Education and ethnic-racial themes, all focused especially on the ancestry study, on the conveyance of knowledge and experiences and also on Negro practices of survival and resistance.