The Musical Teaching-Learning Process of Candomblé: Culture, Education and Contemporary Practices

Abstract

This paper presents a study about the musical teaching-learning process of candomblé, a modality of Afro-Brazilian religion. In this context, music plays a communicative role, participates in all rituals, and is closely related to extramusical elements, such as the dance and mythology of the orixas, the African deities. Aiming to extrapolate everyday contents, the objective was to research the musical activities of a specific culture to foster a reflection on contemporary educational practices. So, before advancing into the religious universe of candomblé, it was considered opportune to revise the concepts of culture and education to aid in the understanding of this complex musical and cultural system. Thus, with the experience of intense field work, a bibliographical review was carried out with theoretical support by authors from the areas of education (Brandão, 2007; Machado, 2007), of musical education (Arroyo, 2000; Kleber, 2006), of ethnomusicology (Blacking, 2007, Almeida and Pucci, 2011), as well as specific works on culture (Tylor, 1871; Santos, 2006), and about the music of candomblé (Prandi, 2005; Cardoso, 2006; Fonseca, 2002), just to name a few. Therefore, through a global vision of the cultural environment of candomblé, we aim to bring contributions to contextualized musical education.