"A CORRENTE QUE ARRASTAVA"

HISTÓRIAS E PATRIMÔNIO CULTURAL DOS QUILOMBOS DE ORIXIMINÁ

Abstract

Among the cultural assets identified in the National Inventory of Cultural References of the Quilombos of Oriximiná, the stories told about visages, animals and enchanted spirits stand out due to their linguistic richness, performative eloquence and symbolic charge, constituting a peculiar identity element of the 37 quilombola communities of this city of Pará. Through informal conversations and open interviews conducted with 130 individuals over about two months of fieldwork, approximately 70 narratives of this nature were recorded, which gave rise to a recurrent form of expression of the local worldview. From this collection, which was entirely transposed to textual support, the story about “the current that dragged” is taken, in its written form, as the object of this work. Recorded in Cachoeira Porteira, it translates - in a few words endowed with high symbolic value - multiple aspects of the history of black occupation in the region. It points, therefore, unquestionable references of the cultural heritage of the quilombola communities of Oriximiná.