Tramando a cidade: o fazer-artesão e seu modo de produzir a Praça da Sé

Abstract

The central theme of this dissertation is how the artisans of Praça da Sé produce the space where they work. Throughout the fieldwork, it was perceived that it was only possible to assimilate these relations of space production, after understanding the relationships that the artisans establish with their materials. Accessing the historiography of the Sé region of Salvador, Bahia, from the 18th century to the end of the 20th century, helps to locate the space where the artisans work today. Interested in the way life happens by producing space, the ethnographic method was established as the methodology of this research. In this way, I propose the category of artisan-making to refer to the way artisans construct their works, as well as the category being- in-Sé to consider the way in which artisan-making also constitutes spaces. Thus, artisan-making characterizes attention to details, to the play of elements and their resistances. The being-in-Sé helps us to perceive the intermittency of the Square for the artisans, whether as a symbolic or material place, whether as a workspace and/or as a place of risk of their lives. The relationship between both categories helps us to understand the way of producing city performed by these workers of the Square, who mix so much with the materials, as with the space. The research, therefore, concluded that, for the artisans to construct their workspace, relationships with things distinct in quality and quantity are necessary. Therefore, it is necessary to consider that it is through the mixture that we will find a possible workplace.