CULTURE ANDIDENTITYIN THE CHRONICLE "BANHO DE CHEIRO", BY ENEIDA DE MORAES

Abstract

This work presents, through the chronicle “Banho de Cheiro” (1997) by Eneida de Moraes, the plurality of peoples and cultures that make up the Amazon, from which forms of knowledge emerge in relation to the ways of life of a people and environmentalpreservation. These considerations are provided because it is a chronicle that points to a series of plural possibilities of existing that have been left out of epistemologies in favor of a scientific hegemonic perspective that intends to establish itself as the only one. In that same text, Eneida brings important memories of her childhood that establish a parallel with some ideas of Stuart Hall (2006) about culture, identity and representation. This is because, in “Banho de Cheiro”, the writer from Pará shows the importance of thinking about and knowing elements that constitute a cultural identity as a way of interpreting reality and behavior. Thus, this study proposes to show, through analysis and fragments of the Aeneid narrative, how social actors, through their systems and conceptualizations, present meanings for the world in which they live; meanings that are constructed within a plurality of forms of existence, leading to knowledge that goes beyond scientific knowledge.