Práticas corporais em comunidades remanescentes quilombolas: análises sobre o Ticumbi e Reis de Boi

Abstract

This study sought to discuss the theoretical contributions on traditional communities based on the framework of Diegues and Arruda (2001) and Derani (2002). Expanding the debate, we sought to expand on the intangible cultural heritage of quilombola communities, with the central focus on body practices (MELO, 2014; SILVA, LAZZAROTTI FILHO, ANTUNES, 2010; SILVA, DAMIANI, 2005), here also interpreted as body techniques (MAUSS, 2003). To this end, field research was developed in quilombola communities located in the state of Espírito Santo, in the Sapê do Norte region. To identify and select the communities investigated, we attended and observed the traditional “Festa de São Benedito e São Sebastião”, which takes place in Vila de Itaúnas, in the municipality of Conceição da Barra. Thus, the Quilombola Community Angelim 1 and the Quilombola Community of Linharinho were listed as places for investigating the Ticumbi and Reis de Bois body practices. The Vila de Itaúnas stands out in the time and space of the festival, as a territory of interactive occupation (LEITE, 1991) that allows the quilombolas to interact with different people and also share their body practices with each other, reaffirming their belonging to their communities, while at the same time going beyond territorial limits. In these festive occasions, traces of the cultural heritage of groups of quilombola communities manifest themselves through the shared experience of the symbolic universe that involves the popular Ticumbi and Reis de Boi manifestations. Such body practices constitute social memories (BALANDIER, 1996) of these peoples. At the same time that they establish relationships with the past, they are made and remade in the present time, linking themselves to the religious, economic, political, educational and leisure aspects of the remaining quilombolas. Thus, we can understand the movements of traditions in Balandier's (1997) footsteps, perceiving the continuation through variance and not through the strict reproduction of intangible cultural heritage. Body practices are understood as fundamental elements in the constitution of quilombola communities. Ticumbi and Rei de Bois are part of the intangible cultural heritage produced by these communities and, therefore, elements of resistance, reaffirmation and identity construction that remain amid the movements of quilombola communities and the body practices themselves.