Umbanda Terreiro Summary
Young university students in a Umbanda terreiro and the narratives on Afro-Brazilian religions
Summary
Among the different areas of youth activity, young people are particularly motivated, with goals ranging from spiritual needs, leisure, building identities, solidarity actions, to fighting against violence and social injustice. From this context, the present article presents the analysis about the participation of young, middle-class university students in an umbanda “terreiro”, located in a city of the State of Minas Gerais, with the aim of investigating: the knowledge of young people about the formation of umbanda in Brazil; its relation with the processes of the African black diaspora; their understanding of the “terreiro” entities; the
meaning of the presence of young university students in the “terreiro”, and their perception of the intolerance against Afro-Brazilian religions. It is a field research, of qualitative character, that made use of semi-structured interviews, using content analysis as an interpretive tool. The results demonstrate a significant knowledge of young people about the enslaving process and the syncretism of religiosities of African matrix as a movement of cultural resistance; their understanding of the entities from a kardecist moral perspective; the university as a way to acquire knowledge about Afro-Brazilian religiosities and to construct a reflection of historical-social criticism; and the relatation that they make between the prejudice that this religious field receives to racism in the country.
Keywords: university students; umbanda, racism
Summary
Among the different areas of youth activity, young people are particularly motivated, with goals ranging from spiritual needs, leisure, building identities, solidarity actions, to fighting against violence and social injustice. From this context, the present article presents the analysis about the participation of young, middle-class university students in an umbanda “terreiro”, located in a city of the State of Minas Gerais, with the aim of investigating: the knowledge of young people about the formation of umbanda in Brazil; its relation with the processes of the African black diaspora; their understanding of the “terreiro” entities; the
meaning of the presence of young university students in the “terreiro”, and their perception of the intolerance against Afro-Brazilian religions. It is a field research, of qualitative character, that made use of semi-structured interviews, using content analysis as an interpretive tool. The results demonstrate a significant knowledge of young people about the enslaving process and the syncretism of religiosities of African matrix as a movement of cultural resistance; their understanding of the entities from a kardecist moral perspective; the university as a way to acquire knowledge about Afro-Brazilian religiosities and to construct a reflection of historical-social criticism; and the relatation that they make between the prejudice that this religious field receives to racism in the country.
Keywords: university students; umbanda, racism