ETHNOCENOLOGY IN BRAZIL
THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES
Keywords: ethnocenology, spectacularities, theatricalities, epistemological pillar.
This paper discusses ethnocenology in Brazil from theoretical and methodological perspectives. Ethnocenology emerged in 1995, in the wake of ethnosciences, with the publication of the “Ethnocenology Manifesto” in France, as a result of a partnership between the Maison des Cultures du Monde and the Paris8-Saint Denis Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Spectacular Practices . Its definition, at the time, proposed as provisional, remains, until then, as the guiding axis of most of the researches carried out in this field of studies until today: Organized Spectacular Human Practices and Behaviors (PCHEO). However, in view of the breadth of area and performance of ethnocenology studies, 25 years after its foundation, it can be seen that its epistemological pillar no longer meets the research developed in this field. Thus, comparing the theoretical productions published between the years 2008 and 2018 in the Annals of ABRACE (Brazilian Association of Research and Graduate Studies in Performing Arts), as well as the legacy left by Armindo Bião and the works developed in theses and dissertations, a new epistemological pillar is proposed: studies of the forms of expression of biopsychosocial bodies from cultural and aesthetic perspectives. In this sense, this work proposes the discussion and expansion of the main notions of ethnocenology, theatricality and spectacularity, deepening the comprehension and possibilities of appreciation of spectacular phenomena substantively, adjectively and adverbially. Finally, it presents possible relations between ethnocenology, critical ethno-research and practice as research, as well as the importance of rethinking the epistemological pillar of this transdisciplinary perspective.