A Agência política do candomblé: caminhos de mediação entre o terreiro e o Estado (2010-2020)

Abstract

This thesis proposes to reflect about the paths of Candomblé communities political mediation, unfolding the concepts that organize the “Candomblé political ethos”, such as multiple ontology and agency, as well as the authoritative principles of this political action, based on the concepts of “religious and sociopolitical habitus”, which confer authority to the exercise of political control and leadership of the terreiro community. Through two ethnographic texts, produced in fieldwork carried out at different moments, we present two experiences of Candomblé political mediation with the Brazilian public authorities: the “Oficina para Elaboração de Políticas de Cultura para Povos Tradicionais de Terreiro” (2011-2012) and the processes of state and federal listing of Terreiro Tumba Junsara as cultural heritage (2016-2018). These two experiences, connected by the timeline of a cultural policy agenda for terreiros communities, discuss how the terreiros political agency is related to the existence of sociability networks, their forms of communication and “non- evident” (hidden and infrapolitical discourses), and to the establishment of conflicts and alliances (triggered from strategies to promote empathy and synesthesis). Based on this framework, the thesis proposes an analysis about the exchange between the Candomblé political field (internal and between the terreiro communities) and the public policy field, observing the re-elaborations and conceptual adjustments caused by this dialogue, in the notions of religious orthodoxy and social organization of Candomblé communities.