No tempo da fé e do encontro: sabenças em circularidade

Abstract

Focusing on Nagô-Egbá Candomblé terreiro communities, this dissertation investigates the dynamics of knowledge acquisition, transmission and preservation. It frames these territories as ancestral educational spaces in which body, time, and faith intertwine to forge identities and foster belonging. It is grounded in the concepts of a pedagogy of circularity and “escrevivências” — understood here as a method of listening and storytelling —, where knowledge is shared spirally, orally, and ritually is mapped. This process emerges from the relations among elders, the younger generation and the divine presence itself. This research is situated within the field of Religious Studies, in dialogue with decolonial perspectives, theories of the body, and Afro-diasporic epistemologies. It seeks to understand how historical, racial, and social mechanisms shape the formation of axé subjects. The methodological approach integrates ethnography, dialogues with priests and devotees, participant observation, alongside personal records and memories, centering gesture, chant, dance, and rituals as pedagogical technologies.The chapters examine the historical and cosmological bases of Afro-Brazilian traditions, analyze the distinctive temporality of “terreiros” —marked by secrecy, silence, and fundamento—, and investigate the bodily practices that sustain the religious experience. In conclusion, the trajectories, narratives, and escrevivências of members of the house under study are presented, highlighting how terreiro communities forge modes of resistance, healing, and the reordering of daily life in response to colonial and contemporary forms of violence.The results demonstrate that learning in the “terreiros” follows a non-linear trajectory, taking place via a pedagogy that weaves together the corporeal, the spiritual, and the quotidian, thus reasserting the primacy of ancestrality and community living. In shedding light on these educational processes and their affective and symbolic layers, this thesis expands the comprehension of terreiro-based pedagogies and evidences the generative power of circular ways of knowing in shaping worlds, memories, and senses of belonging in Brazil