Simbolismos étnicos afirmados através do matriarcado de mulheres negras de terreiros

Abstract

In this article, although we are focused on ethnicity as a form of social organization of black women, terreiro leaders, who we are calling Matriarchs, our purpose is to think about how tradition is maintained by ethnic symbolism. We understand ethnic symbolisms, as material and immaterial knowledge and practices, taught/learned through mythical narratives that generate traditional symbols and that for us, os scholars of African legacies, we are interested in thinking about the knowledge of Afro-Brazilian traditions, in particular, of women who exercise the Matriarchy in many terreiros. We are talking about Matriarchy, taking all the possible risks that this debate brings. We are taking matriarchy to talk about women, which points us to black narratives referenced in their knowledge, myths and symbols transmitted through songs, dances, prayers. Therefore, the Matriarchs, in the movement made from the “gate to the inside”, maintain the traditions reflected in the knowledge of ancestral ethnic symbolisms regarding the feminine. From the “gate out”, as religious, social and cultural leadership, they fight against sexist and racial discrimination. In this sense, talking about the Matriarch's knowledge of ethnicity puts her in the place of someone who has thedeepest knowledge of the magic and enchantment mobilized by the ethnic group to whichshe belongs.