The contributions of participant listening in terreiros of Umbanda for brazilian ethnopsychology

Abstract

Ethnopsychology proposes a dialogue between anthropology and psychology. The ethnopsychologist seeks to understand how a community to be studied builds its own ethonotheories. The objective is to discuss the ethnopsychological model used in research carried out in terreiros of Umbanda in the countryside of the state of São Paulo (Brazil), in order to contribute to methodological reflections to be applied to other community contexts of African origins in the country. To this end, ethnographic procedures (participant observations and entries in field journal records) incorporated by psychologists working with a psychoanalytic approach were analyzed. Participant listening proved to be a relevant instrument for research regarding to field experience, transference relationships and refinement of listening in psychoanalysis, based on Freudian and Lacanian perspectives. The first step is to start with the field relationships, memories, existential baggage and to what extent they weave us with the theme. The second step is the construction of the fieldwork, the immersion into the perspective of participant listening and the ‘affected subject’ as well as the definition of procedures. The third step is selecting what repeats, the centering of the pieces, the analyses, the significant combinations and all of what they enunciate. It is hoped to contribute to other researchers and professionals who want to use ethnopsychology in their work, interventions and/or fieldwork. It is believed that the ethnopsychological method model presented here is useful to the fabric of an attentive listening to the way that each community builds its knowledge, in order to restore to the other the possibility of speaking and the position of being heard on their own terms.