FEMALE PROTAGONISM AND SEMIOTIC ARTICULATIONS IN THE IMAGINARY-SYMBOLIC CONSTITUTION OF CANDOMBLE

Abstract

Although “everyday images” are strongly constituted by the presence of women, in various leadership and management segments in the agency of social and political institutions, hegemonic religious cultures still do not open up to female participation in activities that are commonly developed by the male leader. In contrast, even before the impositions of equalities reverberated by confrontational actions, today, we aim to illuminate the trajectory of women in the symbolic exchanges made possible by their importance in historical, economic and cultural processes as legacies of the black diaspora, but which strangely circulate in contemporary times. without the capital credits that are conferred to the founding imaginary of these aspects. To contemplate the memory objects of the performative textures that update the religious traditions in dance, we used the contributions of Verger (1992; 1995; 2002); Prandi (2001); JUNG (2000); DURAND (2012) and Zumthor (1997; 2007). In terms of methodology, from the perspective of ethnography, our field research unfolds through participatory research, where the researcher is a practitioner of the religious universe under study. Our work highlights that the imagery-archetypal formation of female power is updated as a cultural monument in the mnemonic tradition (RODRIGUES, 2011) observed in the reiterability in the execution of functions and positions (and professions) of the highest rank, as is conferred in the distribution of functions in the egbé (terreiro): the posts. This reinforces that women have always been at the most important level in society, not only exercising functions as central priestesses of the temples of a religious expression called Candomblé, but following the example of the prominence they had since the organization of the Fon and Nagô-Yorubá kingdoms, where they played an active role in the administration of the royal palace, assuming the most important command posts, in addition to supervising the functioning of the State" (SILVEIRA, 2000, p. 88).