Histórias, regras e sentidos. A Federação Espírita Umbandista e dos cultos afro-brasileiros do Estado do Pará em Santarém

Abstract

In previous publications, the “Federação Espírita Umbandista e dos cultos afro-brasileiras do Estado do Pará” (FEUCABEP - a local afro-brazilian institution) was characterized as the “great guardian of the afro-brazilian religious traditions at the state of Pará”. From the data obtained through fieldwork performed in the city of Santarém-PA since March 2012, I noted that the activities of this institution had had affected on life story of many afro-religious of the city. Based on the narratives about the relationships established through the actions of FEUCABEP’s representatives in Santarem in the 80s, I will explore the dialogue between theoretical and methodological approaches from Anthropology and History. I will articulate the concepts proposed by Bourdieu (1983) in his "Practice Theory" with Carlo Ginzburg’s (1987) "microstorie", in order to compose an ethnography inspired by the pretensions of Mintz (1984) for to play with the interpretation’s scales of phenomenas (Bensa 1998), locating "stories within History" (MINTZ 1984: 55), exploring how far it was possible the exercise of "historical imagination" proposed by the brothers Comaroff (2010). I present this monograph as an ethnography of the process that defined the particularities of FEUCABEP’s activities in Santarém in the 80s.