Mestre Irineu Serra - "O mestre de si próprio" - Trajetória, saberes e autonomia na Doutrina do Santo Daime

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the social trajectory, knowledge systems (saberes), and processes of autonomy construction of Raimundo Irineu Serra, Mestre Irineu, in the foundation and consolidation of the Santo Daime doctrine. Starting from Mestre Irineu's origin in Maranhão, as the grandson of enslaved people, and his displacement to Acre, the research's central methodological approach employs reflexivity, given the researcher's family belonging, and the concept of social trajectory (Bourdieu), as opposed to a linear biography. The analytical focus shifts from a centrality on the "beverage" (ayahuasca) to investigate orality and the hinários (hymnals) as the primary technology for knowledge transmission ("oral school" / "the channels"), as well as the community life in Alto Santo (collective farming, mutual aid) as a practice of material and social autonomy. The research addresses the dispute for legitimacy as a central axis, analyzing the confrontation between endogenous knowledge, codified in the "Decreto de Serviço" (Service Decree), and the attempts at institutional-scientific framing, such as CONAD resolutions and the "hallucinogen" category, understood as "symbolic expropriation". It is concluded that Mestre Irineu's trajectory represents an act of epistemic sovereignty, founding an autonomous social field—with its own legal, pedagogical, and cosmological systems—and affirming himself, in practice, as the "master of himself" (mestre de si próprio), whose legacy is expressed in cultural resistance and the organization of a coherent form of existence.