Culture and Education: Ethnographic Aspects about the Ganza Culture

(Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil)

Abstract: The present work is inserted in the ballast of production related to Afro-Brazilian education and culture based on Law no. 10,639 of 2003, which establishes in the official curriculum the guidelines and basis of national education, inclusion and compulsory teaching of History and Afro-Brazilian Culture. It is a cut of the interdisciplinary doctoral thesis developed by University of São Paulo by the Program of Humanities, Rights and other Legitimacies since 2015. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001. The same one was previously published in the Annals of ANPAE 2018. The objective of this work is to present a brief ethnography on the “Ganza Culture”, formed in North Africa thousands of years ago. The main purpose is the mediumistic development, millennially “cultivated”, until the present day, with entities of the spiritual plan and different mediumistic practices. The food and dance ritual manifests one of the ways of being and believing of these people. In this sense, discussions in the educational area, on themes involving Afro-Brazilian cultures, as well as other cultures, should serve to promote effective and public policies that bring in the different social contexts better conditions of access to information and respect for the ways of being and living of each one of several groups. Therefore, it is part of the objective of this ethnographic work, to highlight the important role of Education and Teaching as a way to preserve cultures. Thus, I emphasize the importance of one among many others manifestations of Ganza Culture, as part of this preservation and respect for to the Human Being and the Afro-Brazilian cultures.

Key words: education, Law No. 10,639 of 2003, Ganza culture, mediumship, “dance of the crown”