Folclore e museu: a cultura negra no imaginário de um projeto nacional mestiço brasileiro (1947-1982)

Abstract

Among so many debates that marked the construction of a discourse on nationality, this thesis reflects on the theme, observing two places of intellectual production: the Revista Brasileira de Folclore and the Museu de Folclore Édison Carneiro when they were used to express Brazilianness. Our hypothesis is that, by working to safeguard national folklore, the folklorists involved in these projects ended up building an imaginary of mestizo nation, establishing hierarchies between cultures at the time when the African-based religions integrated that national project. To move forward in this investigation, we followed the reports of folklorists associated with the National Folklore Commission and / or the Campaign for the Defense of Brazilian Folklore to understand how they appropriated the ideal of miscegenation and incorporated these religions as domesticated in the identity proposal they defended. In addition to these reports, we analyzed some articles published in the Revista Brasileira de Folclore and the catalogs of exhibitions on these religious practices at the Folklore Museum Édison Carneiro. Through them it was possible to ascertain that Folklore led a program to include religions of African origin in Brazilianness. But, by hierarchizing cultures and silencing racial ethnic conflicts, he ended up marginalizing the black identity before the national when the country legitimized its identity as mestizo