As iyabás no Candomblé: as mulheres de terreiro e uma descrição dos itans das orixás

Abstract

This work describes the Iyabás in Candomblé through the myths about the orishas; identifies the female representations in these myths. To this end, a systematic literature review on the theme "Candomblé and woman" is carried out, through research in the Catalog of Theses and Dissertations of Capes, in all areas of knowledge and in all years. The results indicate that there is a relationship and influence of the experience of black African women, brought to Brazil as slaves, with regard to the autonomy and leadership experienced by the women of terreiro, because the matrifocal practice of family organization reproduced on Brazilian soil, allowed the consecration of the religiosity called Candomblé. The review points out that this conception of religion constitutes a space for the preservation, resistance, empowerment and liberation of women, thus understanding the axé houses as an environment for the promotion of feminine otherness, which favors their power, where these identity references, of practice of valuing the feminine being in the communities of axé, permeate and are maintained through orality. These references to ways of seeing and being in the world are transmitted through mythological language. The researches indicate that the people of axé apprehend, through the myths, an ancestral knowledge that communicates concepts and doctrines, being in this way, a teaching instrument that keeps alive the religious tradition of African matrix, and gives access to the references of identities of the orixás that differ from a logic of fragility and submission of women in their non-hegemonic understandings of the world. It was also defined the realization of a descriptive analysis of the iyabás worshipped in Brazil, which circulate in the communities of terreiro: the presence of the iyabás in the creation of the world; getting to know Nanan; being enchanted by Iyewá/Iewá/Yewá/Ewá; moving with Oba; flying with Iansã/Oyá/Oiá; swimming with Iemanjá/Yemanjá/Yemonja and bathing with Oxum/Oxun/Osun. The final considerations indicate an academic production that evidences the appreciation of being a woman in the communities of terreiro, where their religiosity lives from powerful and self-strengthening orishas. It is also considered that the description indicates the individual and collective effects that the representativeness of the orixás allow to focus on the respect and appreciation of the woman of terreiro as an active transforming subject.