The religious sense of the barefoot gesture: analysis from the perspective of Luís da Câmara Cascudo

Abstract

To know and discover the importance of the details found in the sacred space is something memorable. The present details in gestures and rites are relevant when one another wants to know the drops of the details present in the sea of that which is surrounding and called Sacred. The barefoot or the barefoot is just a drop in this immense ocean, an arrow pointing to the path. The studies of this gesture present an opportunity to know significant details in several religious traditions that avail it during their ritual. In this research this gesture is described in the way it is performed in some institutions and in different mythologies. On the other hand, it is also the way of know certain particularities related to the social aspects in the Indigenous and African cultures during the colonial period of Brazil. The intention in this Dissertation is to present the resemblance and also divergences envolving this gestural practice, from the analysis of Luís da Câmara Cascudo about this theme. Added to these considerations are pointing on the possibility of understanding the gesture barefoot as a metaphor, a possible way to eliminate the prejudices of what is unknown about the culture of the other, in the same step in learning to be solicited, creating a relationship of respect and closeness as described in the aureate rule.