No terreiro das patrimonializações: encruzilhadas da política dos mestres da cultura/tesouros vivos do Ceará (2003-2023)

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the historicity of the processes of heritage recognition of individuals, groups, and collectives in the state of Ceará between 2003 and 2023. Positioned within the field of the History of Cultural Heritage, the research problematizes the practices, discourses, and visual representations that have shaped the implementation, development, and transformations of this policy over two decades. To this end, a wide range of sources was mobilized — including official legislation, meeting minutes, candidacy dossiers, newspaper articles from O POVO and Diário do Nordeste, and the catalogs produced within the framework of the Encontro Mestres do Mundo. Authors such as Michel Foucault (2011), Sônia Meneses (2011), François Hartog (2006, 2013), Pierre Bourdieu (1989, 1997, 2005, 2007), Antonio Gilberto Ramos Nogueira (2014, 2020, 2022, 2024), and Márcia Chuva (2012, 2017) formed the theoretical and methodological foundation of the study. The temporal scope spans from the creation of the Lei dos Mestres da Cultura (Law No. 13.151/2003) to the reformulation under the Lei dos Tesouros Vivos do Ceará (Law No. 13.842/2006), reaching up to 2023, marking two decades of the experience. We reflect critically on the construction of the discourse of pioneering developed by the Secretaria da Cultura do Ceará (SECULT-CE), initiated during the administration of Cláudia Leitão (2003-2006) and persisting today. Through critical analysis of the sources, the study examines the selection processes, the images constructed around the Mestres and Mestras, and the agents and discourses involved. The annual event Encontro Mestres do Mundo, which gathers the titleholders, and the recent academic recognition initiatives through the Title of Notório Saber in Traditional Popular Culture, are also discussed. Thus, we seek to understand how these initiatives shape new spaces, agents, and conceptions within the state's cultural heritage policy. From a historiographical perspective, cultural heritage is treated as a social practice marked by conflicts, narratives, visualities, memories, and affections.