Tradição Xambá, da quase extinção a espaço de referência: um estudo antropológico sobre o Museu Severina Paraíso da Silva

Abstract

The present work steamed from an anthropological study on the Severina Paraíso da Silva Museum, which is dedicated to the history and traditions of the candomblé group of Xamba Nation. It is remarkable that it is located within an african-brasilian worship house, the Terreiro de Santa Bárbara Ylê Axé Oyá Meguê, in Olinda, state of Pernambuco, Brasil. This is an example of a museum that represents the memory of a minority social group, created by its members in order to preserve their ethnic cultural heritage, and used as a political category for obtaining recognition by the current society. The study analysed the interrelations surrounding the museum, observing aspects such as its creation by its members; collection and usage of the objects; target audience; physical space and objects, especially those that have not lost their symbolic power, despite being exhibited in the museum; and the messages that were transmitted to society. Such aspects are an important thread to the understanding of the attitudes of the group members towards society and the formation of their individual and collective self-awareness, i.e., how they develop and interpret their identity as a group through the museum; as well as, to the understanding of the importance of the Museum in the construction of memory and the preservation of the ethnic identity of the Xamba group and of the black culture in Pernambuco. The main issue, however, was to determine whether the memorial and the museum, as spaces of preservation, produce in their members a sense of belonging. The research material included literature, documents and Museum´s publications, in-site observation at the Terreiro, videos, blueprints, formal and informal interviews with the creators of the Museum and with other group members, but mainly participant observation during visits to the Museum and during ceremonies ( toques ). The research revealed a section of the group that stands out due to a search for visibility as a strategy of demand for social rights. In order to legitimate their tradition, such effort makes use of categories such as authenticity and purity, benefits from the presence of researchers and celebrities, and asserts the importance of the Museum for the construction of the black cultural heritage in the State of Pernambuco. A substantial milestone in that search for visibility was the concession of the title of Urban Quilombo , a few years after the creation of the Museum, suggesting that it contributed to the recognition as the place as a space of preservation of cultural practices of African descent in Brazil. There are other elements that represent victories in the struggle for recognition, i.e., an empowerment for the group, such as the naming of the passengers terminal which was built near the perimeter of the Terreiro and within the Quilombo as Xambá. Besides the visibility for the group, the Museum brought along other gains: it creates cohesion among its members who begin to see themselves as a group, as a nation.