Raiz nas mãos: percursos de corpos-territórios artesãos em Feira de Santana (BA)

Abstract

This dissertation aims to understand how artisan body-territories forge an artistic practice that engages with Afro-Brazilian civilizational values in Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil. The research is guided by the following question: how are the knowledge systems, memories, territorialities, and spiritualities that shape local artisans materialized in their handmade productions? Situated within the interdisciplinary field of visual arts, culture, and urban studies, the study is grounded in decolonial debates, the concept of body-territory, and the Afro-Brazilian civilizational values systematized by Azoilda Loretto da Trindade, articulated with discussions on memory and space proposed by Milton Santos. Methodologically, this is a qualitative, exploratory, and cartographic study based on Sociopoetics, which understands participants as co-authors in the production of data. The research was conducted in Feira de Santana and involved three artisans: Dona Marta, Ruz, and Jacson, whose trajectories reveal intersections between art, Afro-Brazilian religiosity, racial identity, gender, and territory. In addition to dialogical encounters and attentive listening, the study culminated in the creation of an artisanal piece interweaving elements from the participants’ productions, which also functioned as a methodological procedure. The findings indicate that artisanal practice in this context constitutes an aesthetic, political, and spiritual act, mobilizing ancestry, collectivity, circularity, memory, and resistance as Afro-Brazilian civilizational values inscribed in the produced materialities. The study demonstrates that such practices challenge historically constructed hierarchies between art and craft, while affirming Black and peripheral cultural identities within the urban space of Feira de Santana. It concludes that artisan body-territories produce not only objects but also narratives and forms of re-existence that contribute to the cultural, economic, and symbolic strengthening of the territory, expanding academic debates on art, culture, and politics in Bahia’s interior.