"A festa dos médiuns": movimento de afirmação e resistência das religiões de matriz africana em Coelho Neto-MA

Abstract

The present work is the result of a study about a festival held by a Umbanda terreiro in Coelho Neto-Ma, which, in the year 2021, completed a decade that is celebrated the "Mediums Festival". A festival that brings important meanings and representations as a festivity of African origin and a way to reaffirm its role in the society that discriminates so much against this religiosity. In addition to giving immense importance to one of the main roles within the terreiro, which refers to the son of saint, the objective of this work is to describe this festive practice that goes beyond its original meaning of the role of the son of saint, which in turn represents a significant weight within a terreiro and Umbanda itself. The development of this work goes through the roots that were responsible for the formation and foundation of Umbanda as a religion of African matrix in Brazil and all its syncretism that is related to the struggle faced every day by Umbanda and all those who represent themselves through it. The methodology used was quantitative with field research along with data collection and interviews with the saint sons and daughters of the terreiro as well as with other brothers and sisters of faith who came to celebrate their feast. In addition, we interviewed the mother of saint of the terreiro Dona Maria Raimunda and the spiritual entity João Carrasco, who was responsible for the creation of this festivity. To understand the different forms and definitions that the festivity has in Umbanda, a survey was made of authors and texts that would help in the understanding of the facts written here. To do so, we used authors such as CUMINO (2015), who talks about the history of Umbanda and how syncretism is part of this process, OLIVEIRA (2008), and LAPLANTINE (1988), with concepts and reports about how the black people integrated an important link to the syncretism process that would become one of the most important currents in Umbanda, taking into account the process since the arrival of the colonizers and BARBOSA (2016) bringing how occurred the first 9 case of incorporation that happened with the medium Zelio de Morais who incorporated the caboclo of the seven crossroads thus giving the first step for the formation of a new religion. With FERRETTI (1997) the stories of how this religion arrived in Maranhão and how it solidified in the state, PRIORI (2000) and PEREZ (2002) explain the concept of party and what characterizes it, being an environment of socialization and social construction and AMARAL (1998) and DUVIGNAUD (1983) bring important characteristics of what is "the party", highlighting two types being the parties of representation and participation.