Do terreiro ao vinil: ancestralidade, cultura e diversidade afro-brasileira nos discos de Umbanda e Candomblé

Abstract

This is a study of history and memory through Umbanda and Candomblé recordings. Listening to these recordings, a rich sonic experience, allows us to experience a part of the intangible heritage of the African peoples of Brazil: the orins, Candomblé chants, and the curimbas, the sung points of Umbanda. The thesis considered vinyl records recorded in terreiros as its object of study, demarcating three perspectives: the records recorded in Ceará, highlighting their influences from African cults such as Xangô and Terecô, and Indigenous cults such as Catimbó and Torém; the records of Black samba artists and their alliances with the povo de santo; and the songs performed by Axé women such as Olga de Alaketu, Mãe Menininha do Gantois, Cacilda de Assis, and Aparecida. Ethnocenology served as the theoretical and methodological framework, intersecting the study's trajectory, the records, and the research collaborators. The technical method is ethnographic, with a qualitative approach, proposing a hybridization of analytical procedures due to the multiplicity of sources of research evidence: interviews with collectors and members of terreiros, consultations with libraries and digital newspaper libraries, visits to archives and collections, documentary analysis of vinyl record covers, back covers, and inserts, and the author's biographical experience with the records. The oral traditions of the people of santo, recorded on records, fostered dynamics between the terreiros and society, influencing culture, the social environment, and power relations. The study asserts that these phonograms represent a significant sonic document of these temples, traditions of African peoples in the diaspora who developed memory technologies in the terreiros, materialized on LPs preserved in private collections in Brazil and in collections abroad. The thesis argues that these records can be adopted as educational supports, referencing the models of grouping and social, political, and spiritual structuring of terreiro communities. The results of this process include the creation of a collection of 400 records, the Acervo dos Santos (Santos Collection), part of the Afro-Brazilian Collections Network, and the broadcast of these songs on the Saravah Soundz radio program on Rádio Universitária FM 107.9. In short, terreiro records are cultural artifacts of education, endowed with representation, historicity, and memory, supporting current educational practices and, potentially, Education for Ethnic-Racial Relations (ERER).