Paradoxos, fluidez e ambiguidade do pensamento simbólico (o caso ruwund): para uma crítica a alguns modelos de análise^[1]

Manuela Palmeirim *

 

O conceito de “versões” ou “variantes” tem-se afirmado crucial na análise das tradições orais. Contudo, o uso das versões como textos “fechados” e “delimitáveis” conduz, quando falamos das tradições centro-africanas de fundação do Estado, à emergência de contradições desconcertantes e aparentemente irresolúveis. Os historiadores africanistas crêem-nas passíveis de serem questionadas quanto à sua veracidade; os estruturalistas reduzem-nas a oposições algo estáticas. Ambas as abordagens, tentaremos demonstrar, obscurecem a extrema riqueza, complexidade e, acima de tudo, a extraordinária ductilidade destas narrativas. A leitura que será apresentada da narrativa de fundação da realeza dos aruwund da República Democrática do Congo sugere o paradoxo, a ambiguidade e a fluidez como os mecanismos sobre os quais se constrói o pensamento simbólico e, desta forma, afasta-nos quer das abordagens históricas quer da fixidez dos modelos dicotómicos frequentemente utilizados na sua análise.

Palavras-chave: Lunda (Aruwund), Congo (República Democrática do), ambiguidade simbólica, mitos de fundação, fontes orais e reconstituição histórica, binarismo opositivo.

 

Paradox, fluidity and ambiguity of symbolic thought (the Ruwund case): a critique of some theoretical models

The concept of “versions” or “variants” has been crucial in the analyses of oral traditions. When dealing with Central African narratives of State foundation, however, the use of versions as somewhat rigid and self-contained texts leads to the emergence of apparently inconsistent and contradictory statements. Africanist historians assume that these statements should be questioned for “accuracy” and “authenticity”; structuralists reduce these inconsistencies to rather static oppositions. Both approaches, I hope to demonstrate, risk to obliterate the extreme complexity, richness and, above all, overwhelming suppleness of these narratives. A presentation of the account on the foundation of kingship as told by the Aruwund of the Democratic Republic of the Congo shows that this oral tradition should be better understood as a “constellation” of what will be called “minor narratives”, recalled upon or else omitted to convey different levels of specificity and diverse symbolic emphases to the narrations. This, together with the fluidity conferred to the relationships among Ruwund titleholders by the classificatory nature of the system of “perpetual kinship”, accounts for many of the apparent contradictions and makes Ruwund ideological thought a ground constantly open to different claims and interpretations. The reading of the material presented suggests paradox, ambiguity and fluidity as intrinsic qualities of these narratives and the mechanisms upon which symbolic thought is built. In doing so, this article aims at steering away from both historical approaches and the fixity of the dichotomous models so often applied to the analysis of symbolism and oral tradition.

Keywords: Lunda (Aruwund), Congo (DRC), symbolic ambiguity, foundation myths, historical use of oral sources, binary opposition.

 

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* Secção de Antropologia da Universidade do Minho - mpalmeirim@ics.uminho.pt

¹ Conferência proferida no Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa, a 15 de Junho de 2007. Grande parte dos argumentos aqui apresentados encontram-se desenvolvidos no meu livro Of Alien Kings and Perpetual Kin (2006).