Feasts, Faith, and Struggle: Caiçara Rituals as Educational and Political Practices in Insular Territories

Abstract

This article analyzes the festive rituals held by caiçara communities from the insular areas of Guaraqueçaba, on the coast of Paraná, through the lens of ethnosociology. The aim is to understand how these traditional celebrations transcend the cultural domain and emerge as political practices of territorial resistance and sociocultural formation. Deeply rooted in oral traditions, popular religiosity, and community organization, the festivals function as pedagogical spaces of memory, identity affirmation, and symbolic resistance to exclusionary environmental conservation policies. The research adopts a qualitative approach, based on sensitive listening, participant observation, and document analysis, valuing local voices and their own ways of narrating, acting, and teaching. The theoretical framework brings together authors from Ethnosociology, Anthropology, and Subaltern Studies, as well as perspectives from territorial education and critical interculturality, to interpret the performative nature of these rituals as forms of (re)existence in the face of technocratic logics and institutional invisibility. By repositioning the festival as a political enunciation and formative practice, the study contributes to the appreciation of caiçara cultural expressions as legitimate forms of struggle for territory, knowledge, and dignity.