Entre o soar dos sinos e o apito do trem: modos de pensar o Museu Xucurus de Palmeira dos Índios/AL

Abstract

The Xucurus Museum of History, Arts and Customs, located in the city of Palmeira dos Índios/AL, is based in the building that was for a long time the old Nossa Senhora do Rosário Church. This building, dated between 1803/1805 and consecrated chapel in 1880, was built by black enslaved people and had its formation linked to the Brotherhood of the Black Men. This church is now closed to shelter the current Xucurus Museum of History, Arts and Customs, inaugurated in 1971, in order to cover the aspects of the city's history: Catholic art, indigenous art, enslaved negroes, “cangaço”, politics, uses and customs, armory, collections of coins, medals, old newspapers, etc. The focus of this work will be on the dimension of the "museum" category, discussing its different possibilities from the path of the history of museology to the use and hierarchization of the architectural space. Therefore, the aim of this research will be to make a reading of the conformation of the space of the Xucurus Museum, analyzing the different categories of collection and their dynamics in the context of the building and city. This premise will be analyzed based on the theoretical discussion about the idea of daily life, cultural patrimony, form and function of architecture and a review of the concepts addressed in museology. In order to reach this goal, empirical experiments were carried out, what we will call "experiences" in the Xucurus Museum to observe its space, the uses that people attribute to them, its daily life; asking questions in the light of these theoretical references. In addition, it is intended to conduct interviews with the communities set up for study, namely: indigenous, religious, population in general. Therefore, it is intended with the experience in the Xucurus Museum to understand the idea of museum, through the analytical perspectives that the experiences of this one studied here.