The woman of the street speaks: narratives of the feminine and peripheral knowledge with the pombagiras

Abstract

This article is part of an investigation in process that invests in thinking about the narratives and practices related to the pombagira sign. The problem proposed here is located in the dimensions of the feminine, its relations to multiple forms of production of deviation/sign inscription. We chose a subalternized political identity that enunciates from the peripheries of the world to highlight the multiple faces of the feminine and its daily battles or, as we prefer to call, “feminisms that have no name”. Thus, this text addresses dialogues with narratives about the pombagiras, their presence, knowledge and transits expressed in the field of research, conversations with pombagiras practitioners of umbanda and candomblé terreiros. We propose a reflection on how to be a woman from the various aspects of the feminine that the inscriptions of the pombagira sign reveals. These performances expressed in multiple ways open paths to responses to oppression and gender inequality, not from an automatic confrontation, but in the movement of tactical wisdom that displaces the impositions based on machismo/patriarchy/racism/colonialism.