CATIÇO: a construção do corpo negro na encruzilhada

Abstract

This research, whose theme is “Catiço: the construction of the black body at the crossroads”, is the result of the researcher's intimate relationship with the sociocultural and philosophical heritage that constitutes the performative dimensions of Exu in its conditions and possible translations by the transatlantic diaspora: Africa x Brazil, having as a cut the recreations of the same cultural sign/divinity in Brazilian territories, the Exus and the Pombagiras — also popularly named as Catiços, Castiços, slaves, encatados and others. In this way, this study proposes a critical reflection of the cross paths in which the symbology of Exu, in its various translations, established itself as a central sign of the event of African culture in Brazil. From a methodological process that sees the body as the primary place of the exuziac experience, this work was developed from the memories that constitute the researcher's own-body/being, as well as the intimate relationship of exchange and listening with other subjects-bodies, named “guardians of memories”, who are immersed in the contexts (candomblés, umbandas and others) that produce and say about the Exus and Pombagiras. As an unfolding of such relationships, the research concludes as a dance thought based on the complexities of Brazilian performance practices centered on the black, from the investigation of the corporal, aesthetic and political event present in the performances of Exu and Pombagira. It proposes the dance thinking named “Vibrate, spin, unbalance, fall and come back: the corporal event of Exus and Pombagiras”, a counter-hegemonic artistic making that raises new narratives and epistemic possibilities for the area of knowledge of dance in Brazil. For this, the concepts of “performance-ritual” by Martins (2002), the studies of “Body Ancestry” by Santos (2006) and “The State of Research on Performance in Africa” by Drewal (1999) were fundamental. As a materialization of the conceptual and practical path of this research, a short cinematographic movie called “CATIÇO” was produced, a dance film by João Petronílio, Laryssa Machada and Victor Mota, available through a QR code in the last chapter of this dissertation.