Wilson Trajano Filho

O precário equilíbrio entre improvisação e regras: reflexões sobre a cultura política da Guiné-Bissau

A tensao entre o balizamento das regras sociais e a criatividade da improvisacao numa situacao social caracterizada por instabilidade politica extrema, estagnacao economica e crise generalizada das instituicoes sociais e o tema desse trabalho. A situacao etnografica estudada e a da Guine-Bissau em 2007. O foco sao os esquemas de percepcao da experiencia cotidiana. Os dados trabalhados sao majoritariamente rumores que realizam a cronica da vida social. A questao central sobre a qual reflito e o que acontece a partir do momento em que o precario equilibrio entre improvisacao e regras e perturbado dramaticamente, quando, por exemplo, a improvisacao toma o lugar das regras. O que sucede a sociedade e a seus membros quando essa tensao constitutiva da dinâmica social se dissolve no ar?

Flutuações semânticas no mundo atlântico

My theme is the process of semantic shift that has affected some traveling terms within the area of creolization that extends from the West African coast to the Caribbean. In this paper I will focus on the route supposedly taken by one lexeme in its journey through the Atlantic Ocean. Tabanka (tabanca) is the word picked up for analysis. I will deal with its vertical journey, from its original context of use in the sixteenth century along the Upper Guinea Coast to its current meaning in Guinea-Bissau, as well as with its horizontal journey, from the coast of Western Africa to the islands of Cape Verde and then to Trinidad, on the Venezuelan coast. Following the route taken by this word I hope to shed some light on the heterogeneous forms of social life brought out by the process of creolization related to the European expansion.

Goffman em África e entre os músicos: reflexões sobre a influência de sua obra

This paper discusses the contribution of Goffman to the legitimating of the study of social interactions as an independent and legitimate field of the social research and the receipt of his analyses among social scientists. Afterwards, it describes the influence of his work in the anthropology here presented.