Autoanthropology and Geography of Religion: the dual belonging of the researcher in a candomblé terreiro

Abstract

In order to carry out a research in the field of Geography of Religion, we inserted ourselves in the reality experienced by the members of a candomblé terreiro, located in the city of Cajazeiras, State of Paraíba. On that occasion, we sought to identify and describe the symbolic territorialities that involved this sacred space. However, we did not bring to the debate a random candomblé terreiro, unknown to the authors, but the candomblé terreiro in which the first author is a member. In other words, we carried out what Strathern (2017) calls autoanthropology and what Bourdieu (2004) calls participant objectification, research methodologies that are applied to the affective group of the subject who develops them. So, based on this brief history, this article fulfills the objective of explaining the possibilities and challenges of research methodologies that highlight the researcher's community itself, in his dual belonging (researcher and member). We problematize the scientific neutrality ideal, describing how the field activity of ethnographic nature took place, carried out by the first author in the terreiro which he belongs to, without losing sight of the scientific rigor necessary to avoid turning the work into a “personal adventure”.