A amorosidade essencial e o bem fazer : educação não escolar nas práticas de benzeção do Quilombo de Mata Cavalo

Abstract

This research analyzes the educational practices involved in the craft of blessing in Quilombo de Mata Cavalo/MT. We are interested in the teaching and learning processes of the gift and healing techniques themselves and how this knowledge circulates in the community. The empirical data analyzed here are the result of field research that emerged from the completion of the extension project "Conhecimento Tradicional e o Direito de Reconhecimento de Benzedeiras e Benzedores do Quilombo de Mata Cavalo/Nossa Senhora do Livramento", approved by FAPEMAT (Foundation to Support Research in the state of Mato Grosso) in 2021 through Public Notice 03/2021 - Technological Extension - Knowledge at the Service of the Population, executed by GEPTE (Group of Studies and Research on Work and Education) between 2021 and 2022. Within the scope of the project, the mapping of the healers of Mata Cavalo was carried out, followed by training workshops involving the research group and local curators. 22 people recognized in the community for their traditional healing practices were mapped. Of these, 13 declared themselves healers, being our main interlocutors in this research. From the audios and interviews generated in this context, as well as the relationships established with the community, our methodological approach aimed to build perceptions, senses and meanings to the educational processes experienced individually and collectively, in the different phases of the lives of such people, including the moments lived in training workshops. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to observe the non-school education processes present in the blessing practices in Quilombo de Mata Cavalo from the subsidies generated by the afore mentioned extension project. In this discussion about knowledge and non-school education, we focus on aspects related to the Work-Education binomial from a historical-dialectical materialist perspective (ANTUNES, 2005; ENGELS, 2006; MARX, 1985; 1988; 1977; 2001; SAVIANI, 2007). The learning that circulates in the knowledge and practices of faith healers is evident in the common ways of perceiving the world from different biases, which in general demonstrate the prevalence of customs, according to Thompson (1981; 2005). Theoretically, our research is based on perceptions about knowledge and education in non-school spaces (ALBUQUERQUE, 2015; ALBUQUERQUE, SOUSA, 2016; MEDAETS, 2020; NOGUEIRA; ALBUQUERQUE, 2021; WALSH, 2013); in the concept of Good Living (ACOSTA, 2016; ALBÓ. 2019; CUBILLO-GUEVARA; HIDALGO CAPITÁN, 2019); in debates on Decoloniality (ESCOBAR, 2014; KRENAK, 2020; 2019; QUIJANO, 2005; WALSH, 2007) and Popular Education (BRANDÃO, 2017; 2005; HOLLIDAY, s/d; 2006; PALUDO, 2015). The concepts and categories that enable the construction of our perceptions and impressions about the realities we experience belong to the field of Dialectical Historical Materialism (KOSIK, 2002; FRIGOTTO, 1989; SAVIANI, 2007; MARX, 1988) and Anthropology (GODELIER, 2001; MAUSS, 2017; TEMPLE, 2000; 2003; 2008). In this context, we seek to demonstrate that the knowledge and practices of healers from Mata Cavalo are structured from a decolonial perspective, carrying with it a re-existing logic, which denies the capitalist way of life, thus constituting revolutionary epistemes, based on essential love (BRANDÃO, 2005; FREIRE, 1994; 2000). Such perceptions help us, therefore, in the construction and consolidation of the concept of Good Doing, since the practice of blessing involves, in its essence, care, love, collectivity and the production of life in an associated way.