“Levados com a areia” : estudo antropológico sobre a diáspora mouride no sul do Brasil

Abstract

This paper aims to identify the islamic senegalese Mouride brotherhood in Brazil, pointing out to the diasporic characteristics which the Mouride group assumed in the context analyzed here. For such, it will be analyzed, starting from the notions of dispersion, the not acceptance of the collective memories – characteristics which configure contemporary diasporas – the habits and feelings assigned by the Mourides to the dispersion, in the context of a mid-sized city in Rio Grande do Sul. The ways of the group's religious identity will also be identified through the perception of the not acceptance. It wil be demonstrated how the Mourides share their collective memories through their religious practices, which contributes to formulate the idea of belonging to a certain imagined religious community. This study uses a ethnographic approach, whose fieldwork was done between the years 2016 and 2019, in the state's northeast region. The research's collected data suggests that the senegalese immigrants which take part in the Mouride brotherhood make, in the analyzed context, a religious diaspora, which works as their structure in the several travels they make.