Em meio às memórias e histórias de “asè”: uma epistemologia da encruzilhada na análise da ancestralidade e oralidade nos terreiros de umbanda da cidade de Muriaé, em Minas Gerais, tempo presente

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the Afro-religious Umbanda terreiros based on their histories and experiences within the city of Muriaé, Minas Gerais, considering, on the one hand, their experiences of religious racism and, on the other, their constitution as an expression of Afrodiasporic resistance in Brazil. The aim is to outline a micro-historical study – from cultural and oral perspectives – about these presences in the city and to understand their practices through orality and their trajectories also inserted in a national context, in the present time. Thus, through interviews with two Umbanda terreiros, the experiences and daily lives of these leaders are presented, as well as their paths and processes of encounter with the sacred, and how they face the daily prejudices against their religious manifestation. Regarding resistance, in addition to the bibliographical discussion, a conversation with one of the leaders of the black movement in the city in the 1998s elucidates the strong historical participation of the terreiros in the fight for respect for their faith. In the methodology, we trace the crossroads of Exu and the confrontation with cruel religious racism that still results in the mass persecution of terreiros of African and Afro-indigenous origins.