Arquitetura,cidade e rito: espacializações do sagrado afro-brasileiro em Maceió-AL

Abstract

African diaspora. Black people of various origins are enslaved and exploited. Despite the assaults of the masters against the cultural preservation of the black people in Brazilian lands, much has been left overseas. But a lot were brought. The socio-spatial dynamics of the black people are closely linked with the history of their religions in the Brazilian urbanization process. The Ketu nation Candomblé is one of them. The present research investigates dialogical relations between space and this sacred African matrix in the city of Maceió to discuss the ritual folds of the city. To this end, some questions are pursued: how could we speak of Maceió based on this religion regarding its dynamics in the inhabited space? How was this sacred spatialized? What is the role of architecture in this process? Since there is a concrete city, is there also a ritual city? Does this polarization between a concrete city and a ritual city makes sense or is the adjective “concrete” ineffective in its approach given the fact that, besides the sacred in question, there are other symbolic codes interacting in the city? The search for the answers is supported methodologically by the construction of a qualitative approach with contributions from indicial and social-spatial ethnographic methods using field diaries, photographs, open interviews, croquis and sound and audiovisual records as tools. Among the various dialogical relationships identified in the first chapter, those that occur in the terreiro space are addressed — Ilê Ìyá Mí Ipondá Axé Igboalamo — which was in the Village Campestre II neighborhood in Maceió. In the second chapter, these relationships are expanded based on three urban celebrations: Bomfim Wash (Lavagem do Bomfim), in the Poço neighborhood; Rezado Alto Shango (Xangô Rezado Alto), in the neighborhood of Centro; and the Waters Celebration (Festa das Águas), on the Pajuçara-Ponta Verde seafront. The third chapter interlaces the theoretical data with empirical data, observing the sacred-city dynamics in question as intra-and extra-agency elements.