As matriarcas mumbucanas como guardiãs da memória e da tradição: uma ressignificação de si e da coletividade

Abstract

The elders of the Mumbuca quilombola community, located in the rural area of the municipality of Mateiros, Tocantins, have stood out as leaders, guardians of their people's memories and promoters of Tocantins' cultural heritage, through the tradition of sewing capim dourado. They are at the forefront of struggles and resistance against the oppression and historical invisibility suffered by their ancestors, defending the community's right to the regularization and delimitation of its territory, as well as the preservation of traditional quilombola knowledge linked to the community. The aim of this research is to analyze the life stories of the elders of the Mumbuca quilombo community (TO), as guardians of the knowledge they have built up and the traditions they have perpetuated throughout the formation and existence of the quilombo. We ask the following questions: How are cultural traditions passed on through oral knowledge, told from generation to generation by the elders of the Mumbuca quilombola community? What is the meaning of ancestral remembrance in the community and how have the elders related to the environment in which they live? The life stories were sources for the research, referring to culture, memory, oral tradition, ancestry from the formation of this quilombola community to the present day. This research is based on the theoretical framework of collective and social memory in Halbwachs (2003) and Pollak (1989; 1992). On cultural transmission, the concepts of Haas (2009) and Geertz (2008), as well as Vansina (2010) and Hampaté Bâ (2010) on traditions, ancestry and orality. A qualitative approach adopted to achieve the proposed objectives. The methodology is based on approach and contractualization with the group, action research tools used (Barbier; 2007; Franco, 2019). Oral history with a focus on life history (Queiroz, 1988 Bosi, 1994, 2018; Thompson, 1993, 2002; Freitas 2006) and participant observation (Ludke and André, 1986) are methodologies used in the field to collect data to achieve a sensitive, interdisciplinary hearing and systematic recording of the reality inserted in relation to the themes addressed in the research. Content analysis (Bardin, 2011) used to analyze the data obtained in the field. During the data collection stage, individual and focus group interviews were conducted (Patton, 1990; Morgan 1997; Gaskell, 2002) with five elderly women who are the guardians of Mumbuca's memory. The interviews followed open- ended questions, using a semi-structured script (Bogdan; Biklen, 1994), but not a rigid one, so that the participants could interact more. We concluded that the life stories of the Mumbuca elders revealed aspects of the community's ancestral culture and customs, and that they are linked to the traditions of their ancestors, intertwined with the transmission of knowledge. The guardians of memory pass on knowledge to future generations in the way they learned it, orally and through expertise in practice, by repeating and demonstrating instructions. Teaching in everyday life at home, in conversation circles, in the plantation, on the footpaths, in the fields and more recently at the community school and throughout the environment that surrounds them for the conservation and preservation of the Cerrado. For the guardians, ancestral remembrance has historicity, ethnic cultural identity and quilombola belonging.