Terecô: uma tradição negro-brasileira

Abstract

This research aims to study a black brazilian tradition known as Terecô that exists in the state of Maranhão, specifically in the Santo Inácio community, which is located in the city of Pedro do Rosário (lowland of the state of Maranhão). In this work there is no search to define what is the Terecô , but what the Terecô does, trying to demonstrate the heterogeneity and the flexibility, characteristics of the central-African tradition, that are.also present in the Terecô . These said characteristics are dynamic, aggregators and vital to the preservation, continuity and displacement of this tradition, and not something disaggregating, that lacks and is inert. Taking as a basis the definition of black Brazilian cultural reposition from Muniz Sodré there will be, initially, a brief historical revision about the process of the entrance of the enslaved Africans into Maranhão.In addition to that, there will be a general presentation of the Terecô . Then, I will address the studied community: the Terecô that is played by those people and the traditional parties in the yards. Lastly, a brief account concerning the persecution and the prejudice, by the State and by the society, in relation tothe Terecozeiros (practitioners of the Terecô ), due to its heterogeneous and flexible character. Because of these characteristics,a few intellectuals and scholars of black Brazilian traditions regard the Terecô as being less pure and less African .