Aṣọ òrìṣà: artífices do candomblé ketu em Manaus

Abstract

This thesis aims to understand the meaning of the aesthetic narrative of candomblé artisans from the ketu nation in the production of aṣọ òrìṣà (saint clothing) and sacred candomblé objects from the city of Manaus, especially òrìṣà ọ`sọ (saint ornament) and ìlẹ̀kẹ̀ (candomblé beads). The hypothesis presented is that the àṣẹ Opô Afonjá (Salvador/BA) through the àṣẹ Opô Ajagunnán (Lauro de Freitas/BA) has motivated greater changes as well as concentrating a greater number of adherents in the city of Manaus, which has contributed considerably in the last decade in the production of differentiated aṣọ (clothing) and instruments that decorate divinized ancestors of the african pantheon. The social agents of the research, whom I call artisans of the àṣẹ, were selected in the cities of Manaus, Lauro de Freitas and Salvador. For this, the contribuition of candomblé practitioners themselves in these cities was necessary in the indication of “makers of the sacred art” in order to provide information and present candomblé memories. Categories such as taste, technique, work appear throughout the text, especially in the final part in where I analyze the symbolic production of sacred artifacts developed by craftsmen of the àṣẹ manauara. To a large extent, this is an anthropological text made up of memories of ancestry and arts undertaken inside and outside the candomblé terreiros (sacred place) of Manaus.