SABERES ANCESTRAIS: A PERFORMANCE DO RITO NAS CANÇÕES DA DANÇA DE CAÇA MAKWALO, DO POVO YAWO

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the interface between performance and rite, as a major expression in makwalo rituals. In the performance of the rite, we bring the representation of the performer's body and voice, as inscription points of ancestral knowledge of various natures. For us, the body in the performance of the rite is a panel where is inscribed the knowledge that is written in the gesture, in the choreography, in the various movements, on the surface of the skin, in the frantic throws of the feet, in the rhythm and tone of the voice. The voice and the body simultaneously translate epistemes. Gesture and orality are a mimetic representation of a symbolic apparatus, conveyed by the performance, but it establishes and, finally, institutes the performance itself (LEDA, 2002). The approach of this paper is mythical-telluric, based on a descriptive and interpretive perspective of the makwalo rite, attached to ancestral knowledge, such as memory, mode of recreation, reconnection, based on African philosophy. Its celebration ensures relationships with the divine, reassures and confirms protective taboos (ZUMTHOR, 1993). Thus, the points on the agenda are a proposal that contribute to the rewriting of the yawo culture: reverberation in the form of animal preservation and the ancestry as a knowledge that comes to contribute to the new epistemological paradigm.

KEYWORD: Orality; Performer; Religion; Rite; Ancestral Knowledge.