A representação social da saúde e da doença para candomblecistas da nação Ketu: conhecimentos, pandemia e cuidados

Abstract

This work has as its object of study the representations of health and illness for the Candomblé practitioners of the Ketu nation, in the region of Baixada Fluminense in Rio de Janeiro, and as objectives: to describe the social representations of health and illness for the practitioners of Candomblé of the ketu nation; to describe care practices in their terreiros and in their religious lives; to analyze these representations with a view to pointing out care for this social group. This is a qualitative, descriptive study, based on the theory of social representations, especially from the perspective of the procedural approach. It was developed in the region of Baixada Fluminense with 30 initiates in this nation of Candomblé, from different terreiros. Data were collected in two stages, the first through a sociodemographic questionnaire to characterize the participants and the second through a semi-structured and in-depth interview. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics, supported by the Excel for Microsoft® software, for quantitative data, and through lexical analysis using the Iramuteq software. All research ethics requirements were adopted and complied with and the approval of their ethics can be seen in opinion: 4,021,453 and in CAAE31050020.00005282. Regarding the characterization, it is highlighted that 56.7% are women, 54% are up to 44 years of age, 73.3% have studied up to high school and 56% have up to 14 years since initiation. The analysis generated two major axes and five classes, which were divided as follows: Axis 1, the religious world of Candomblé and the health, illness and death process, composed of classes 5, the development in the faith of the orixás from the health and illness process, meanings of learning and death; Class 2, the care process in Candomblé terreiros: from diagnosis to treatment; and Class 4, between the human and the divine: anchors of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, Axis 2, between balance and imbalance: representations of health and illness, composed of classes 1, getting sick for Candomblé adherents: the tension between the negative and positive dimensions of life and the presence of comprehensive care for the human body; class 3, health concepts for Candomblé practitioners: integrality and public policies. It is concluded that the representations of health and illness are related to human integrality, to the imbalance in this integrality and to its new scope in terms of axé.