Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: LUANA MARIA SOUSA SANTOS

FAITH, MAGIC AND MIRACLES: Devlesa Avilan gypsy temple

Religiosity; cosmology; cultural relativism; anthropology of body and soul.

Each people of humanity has its own history and different ways of feeling the world, which at some point connect with other peoples. Gypsies have a strong bond with the earth and believe that all elements of nature such as trees, water, fire and wind are sacred and should be treated with respect and reverence. They believe that nature plays
an important role in their lives, helping them connect with their roots and spirituality. The objective of the research in question is to analyze the attributes of bodies and souls that directly influence the sociocultural relations of traditional peoples, thus assuming society as a universal condition of human/non-human life and its explorations in gypsy peoples, distancing themselves from Western ethnocentric theories. The research site is the Devlesa Avilan temple, which works with gypsy philosophy, located in the city of Teresina-Piauí. In order to achieve the objective of the study, ethnography was used as a research method in conjunction with the use of participant observation. Furthermore, photoethnography will be applied with the aim of proposing a construction of the imagery narrative and symbolic nuances of the cultural/religious manifestations of the Gypsy people. Emphasizing that bibliographic and documentary materials will also be used, as well as the use of semi-structured interviews.