Potencialidades de ensino e pesquisa em espaços de sociabilidade: as irmandades negras em São Luís do Maranhão

Abstract

This article explores teaching and research potentialities regarding black confraternities and their churches based on several eighteenth- and nine teenth-century documents from São Luís do Maranhão, Brazil. Its aim is to shed light on these relations as well as on the secular Church, currently linked to one of the city’s historical landmarks, the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of Black People. Emphasis is given to the church’s role in establishing solidarity networks among Africans and Afro-descendants, its ethnic diversity, and the syncretism of its religiousness and sociabilities, to be considered as spaces for negotiation and social inclusion of black communities. The church’s construction and conservation throughout the centuries are a testament to the existence and needs of these populations in the city’s daily life and reveal considerable potential for teaching and research on the topicEl artículo analiza las potencialidades de enseñanza y pesquisa sobre las hermandades negras y sus iglesias con base en variados documentos de los siglos XVIII y XIX en São Luís do Maranhão. El intento es propiciar visibilidad a esas asociaciones y a la iglesia secular, actualmente vinculada al patrimonio histórico de la ciudad, la iglesia Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos [Nuestra Señora del Rosario de los Negros]. Enfatiza su papel formador de las redes de solidaridad entre africanos y afrodescendientes, su diversidad étnica, así como los aspectos sincréticos de la religiosidad y las sociabilidades, consideradas como espacios de negociación e inserción social de las comunidades negras. La edificación de la iglesia y su manutención a lo largo de los siglos manifiesta la existencia y los deseos de esas poblaciones en el cotidiano de la ciudad y presenta un significativo potencial de enseñanza y pesquisa sobre el tema.