Narratives from masters of the oral tradition: knowledge from the vocabulary repertory in an illustrated glossary

Abstract

This study analyzes the life stories of masters of the oral tradition, born in the Maria Quitéria/São José District, rural area of Feira de Santana/Bahia, and also in the municipalities of Poções and Conceição do Coité/Bahia, in order to promote an exchange between traditional knowledge and academic knowledge related to the vocabulary repertoire, produced by these storytellers. From the perspective of the comprehensive paradigm, the reflections presented unfold through the life history method, in which cultural and social facts constitute themselves as texts to be known and understood and the analysis of these as attribution of meanings to lived experiences by subjects in the world. In this way, the narratives of the masters, which convey stories, worldviews and beliefs of a people, were collected through narrative interviews and gave rise to the creation of an illustrated dictionary that materializes a vocabulary repertoire marked by knowledge from popular culture. The results contribute to understanding that oral tradition narratives enunciated by storytellers, socio-historical subjects, culturally situated, are indispensable to the education of adults and children and help to safeguard ancestral knowledge of popular culture, giving them the role of builders of both individual and collective history.