Cemitérios e religiões de matrizes africanas – uma etnografia dos enterramentos de povos de terreiro na Maceió do século XXI

Abstract

The human societies develop many diferent ways of facing the death itself, hence, how to deal with the physical parting from the body. That said, the entombments have become, in many diferente layers, wether not exclusively, at least as one of the most common practices of discarding corpses. Until The beginning of the 19th century the burials used to take place in the churches. Due to allegations of the existence of foul odors, hygienists policies were implemented and the burials passed to be carried out in specific places, the cemeteries. Since its appearance, the necropolises, in their great majority, present a symbolic imagery scenario focused on christian religions while religions of African origin were and are still subordinated within these Spaces. That reality is even more problematic in the necropolis of Maceió, field of the current research, where the mortuary practices are recognized by embarassing situations and even by the deterrent of the achievement of all procedures and expected steps for the holy yard community in that moment.There is also the silencing and a non-problematization of the situation when compared to the existing claims in other cities of Brazil in relation to the takement and use of theses spaces. The present work deals with tensions and asymmetries that mark, therefore, the use of cemeteries, in Maceió, by sons and daughters of Saint.