AFRO-TERRITORIALITY: AN AFROCENTRIC GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE TO UNDERSTAND THE TERRITORIAL DYNAMICS OF TERREIROS DE CANDOMBLÉ

Abstract

The reflection presented here has the propositional characteristic of presenting Afro-territoriality as a theoretical-conceptual geographic perspective that makes it possible to understand the territorial dynamics of terreiros de camdoblé territories from an Afrocentric criticism. It is an analytical perspective that highlights the principles and values of the afro-religious traditions as essential elements for the constitution of their own territorialities - a socio-spatial organization that breaks with the logic of hegemonic traditions. To this end, this study was prepared based on the intersection and orientation of Afrocentric investigative axes aligned with the theoretical assumptions that support the concept of territoriality, which enabled us to identify the afro-territoriality as a cultural construct, inherent to the traditions of struggle and resistance of the black agent in its form of use and appropriation of space. From this perspective, it was possible to identify/classify the terreiro de Candomblé as a cultural territory, constituted from a set of mythical-philosophical values that nourish the essences of the signs and symbols that constitute it, while establishing the rules of social behavior of the members who relate to it; both in the different spaces/places of worship arranged inside the terreiros, as well as in those that extend beyond it.