Travessias: os itans afro-brasileiros e as construções simbólicas de gênero e sexualidade

Abstract

Candomblé is an Afro-Brazilian religion that emerged in the mid-18th century, marked by the resistance to the diasporic living conditions imposed on various ethnic groups from the African continent. This worship system preserved and adapted an entire symbolic system of the African people during the colonization process, which subjected them alongside the Indigenous peoples to the exploitation and violation of their bodies through slavery. This insertion into a completely different human dynamic from their own prompted their resolve to recreate their beliefs and values as a way of survival in the so-called new world. In this context, the study aims to understand how certain history (Afro-Brazilian ancestral histories containing various elements of their cultural imagination) construct within their narratives concept of gender and sexuality in the Camdomblé religion. To ascertain these aims, a qualitative, bibliographic research was conducted, drawing upon the works and analyses of Birman (1991-2005), Prandi (2001), Teixeira (2000), Segato (2018), Landes (2002), Augras (2008), Nascimento (2018), Dias (2020), Oyěwùmí (2021), Vieira (2023), among others. Based on these studies, it was observed that the analyzed histories do not categorically state that the deities possess a specific gender identity or sexual orientation, but rather offers symbolic elements that allow reflecting on the meanings of these categories within the Candomblé context. In this way, they point to other possibilities of comprehending their gender and sexuality beyond binary and heteronormative frameworks.