O que se fala, se sente: a oralidade na Comunidade Quilombola Peixoto dos Botinhas, Viamão, RS

Abstract

This research seeks to understand how orality can be characterized as cultural heritage in the Peixoto dos Botinhas Quilombola Community - CQPB, located in the Capão da Porteira area, Viamão, Rio Grande do Sul. In addition, we aim to understand the relationship between memory and orality in the quilombo, as well as the relevance of the quilombo space for the same people who build it and, simultaneously, build themselves in a relationship with it. The work becomes important, socially, for the search for valorization both of the history, practices, and knowledge of a quilombola community, as well as of the voice of the community itself, of what its members have to say, to tell. Academically, the work becomes significant for the attempt to contribute to ethnic studies and cultural history with regard to quilombos. Methodologically, the bibliographic method was used in the gathering and selection of materials related to the theme in the specialized literature. But, mainly, oral history was used to constitute the sources, based on semi-structured interviews, together with discourse analysis as a way of analyzing the transcribed oral sources. Among the results of the research, it was possible to understand orality in Peixoto dos Botinhas in a present form, responsible for transmission, as a memorial enunciation, close to a notion of metamemory, of a wealth of memories considered important within the quilombo. What was and has been transmitted ranges from the founding narrative to various stories about daily life, teachings, types of conduct and values. Orality ends up being understood as a cultural asset in its function of enunciation, memorial transmission and even identity affirmation through a dynamic between storytelling and memory. This makes us reflect on the importance of the means of transmission, of the form of enunciation of memory as much as on the memories themselves, since both, form and content, are related. Furthermore, it was possible to observe the presence of fear of loss on the part of the interviewees, in relation to a generational problem of recipients, currently uninterested in hearing about the past and without active participation in the continuity of the memories of the quilombo and of the quilombo itself, in the sense of community and in what concerns the maintenance of the current headquarters. Orality is characterized as a cultural asset in the attempt to continue the quilombo, in its relationship with memory and a legacy left by the elders, represented, including, in the importance attributed to the headquarters itself as a space acquired in the struggle and in the intention of the existence of a future.