Coleção perseverança: uma etnografia da mediação no processo de patrimonialização

Abstract

The Perseverança Collection comprises more than 200 sacred objects stolen from AfroBrazilian cults, in the Alagoas State, in the violent episode of religious persecution known as “Quebra de Xangô”, which took place in Maceió and surroundings in 1912. Exactly one century later, the request for its patrimonialization was formalized with the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute (IPHAN), an institution of which I am a member as a servant of the technical area. The present dissertation results from the proposal of ethnography this recognition’ process of the Perseverança Collection as Cultural Heritage of Brazil. Mobilizing the notion of cultural reference, the general objective was to build and qualify the process of mediation and interlocution between the tipping instruction and Alagoas’ religious peoples. The specific objectives included: 1) placing the patrimonialization in the context of IPHAN’s heritage policy; 2) follow the trajectory of the Perseverança as museum collection and qualify the narratives produced around its exhibition modes; 3) describe and collate the joint construction of interlocution and mediation strategies put into practice in the tipping instruction conducted by IPHAN. In the methodological path of the ethnographic practice, I interspersed documentary and bibliographical research to qualify the narratives produced along the trajectory of the pieces and field actions mainly through the formalization and meetings of the Working Group for the preservation of the Perseverança Collection, in addition to participating in religious mobilizations and some comprehensive interviews. Based on the patrimonialization of the Perseverança Collection in Alagoas, I sought to discuss the interface of Brazilian heritage policy with groups/communities in processes of recognition of their cultural references as Brazilian Cultural Heritage.