BARU ÈBÌ PÁ MÍ Ọ: MEDIAÇÃO CULTURAL E REPERTÓRIOS TERREIRO EM ESCREVIVÊNCIA

Abstract

This thesis engages with epistemic crossroads (Martins, 1997), guided and defended through the escrevivência methodology (Evaristo, 2006) as a research approach, while drawing upon the philosophy, cosmology, and practices of terreiro culture as sustenance and nourishment. The work problematizes the coloniality of knowledge and power (Quijano, 2005) to enable the (re)existence of African-based traditions in historically marginalized spaces, merging lived experiences and overflowing boundaries. The study focuses on the Ilê Baru terreiro community in Foz do Iguaçu/PR, examining its ancestral repertoires and the performative agency of food. As an element of terreiro culture, food embodies a multidimensional literary practice that nourishes the cosmography of Àṣẹ, constituting a poetics of embodiment and atrevivências. Framed by performative contributions and afrografias (Martins, 1997), the research posits that African-based cultural practices and traditions articulate struggles against colonial confinement, fostering flows of hope (Freire, 1992) and enabling the regeneration of the multiplicity of being (Glissant, 2021). Through an interdisciplinary approach, intersecting literature, the thesis dialogues with bibliographic references, literary works, peers, and socio-educational initiatives that guide an affective and mediational mode. The central objective is to expand the field of literature as a process of search and learning intended to forge new genealogies. Regarding language, the study adopts the perspective of autopoiesis (Maturana & Varela, 1995), which views it as part of biological and social relational systems. The cultural mediation perspective, grounded in an ethics of care (Pereira, 2023), provides a space for this procedure, fostering necessary couplings for personal and social well-being. The mediations of Àṣẹ, in their expanded languages, point to an autopoietic dynamic where the community engages in interactive processes that shape conduct and practices, with corpografias (body-graphies) as a fundamental friction point. Thus, the research seeks to valorize the traditional and philosophical practices of Àṣẹ and enhance the inclusion of this theme in educational environments, in alignment with Brazilian Laws 10,639/03 and 11,645/08. It argues that fostering sociocultural projects that integrate critical interculturality (Walsh, 2010) and relational perspectives of gender, class, race, and Àṣẹ tradition are necessary means for establishing anti-racist and intercultural bridges. The thesis is situated in a border context, represented as a place of folds, multimodalities, and overflow, challenging conventional meanings and promoting porosity, rhizomes, and opacity in literatures and cultural manifestations.