Ethnoterminological glossary of urban quilombos Liberdade and Fé em Deus, in São Luís-MA

Abstract

The Quilombo Community of Liberdade – comprised of the neighborhoods Liberdade, Fé em Deus and Camboa , located in the capital São Luís - consists of the first urban area of the state of Maranhão certified as a remnant quilombo  by the Palmares Foundation on November 13, 2019. This space is an important stronghold of resistance and cultural practices inherited by Black communities in São Luís-MA. Starting from the premise that language and culture are inseparable, this research aimed to compile a glossary of denominative specificities and, above all, semantic particularities constitutive of the lexicon of two constituent neighborhoods of the Quilombo Community of Liberdade -Liberdade e Fé em Deus- in order to understand the unique world view semiotically constructed by these groups in metropolitan area of the state. For this, bibliographical research was carried out with regard, above all, to Ethnoterminology (Barbosa, 2004; 2007); (Andrade, 2010); (Pais, 2009); Data collection was performed through the application of an ethnoterminological questionnaire, adapted from Santos´ research (2013), constituted by 58 questions organized in nine semantic fields, namely: territoriality; conviviality and social behavior; music; dance leisure and games; clothing and accessories; religion and beliefs; food and identity-blackness. We highlight that the six collaborators, distributed between male and female, are residents of these quilombola neighborhoods and have the following profile: self-identified as Black, born/as or residents of these neighborhoods for over 10 years and participants in cultural, social or religious activities in these spaces. As a result, the ethnoterminological glossary consists of 23 terms.