The myth and rite of the Ethahura dance of the Emakhuwa people

Abstract

ABSTRACT:  In this article, we discuss the permance of myth and rite, as a major expression in the rituals of ethahura dance of the Emákhuwa people. In the performance of the rite, we bring the representation of the performer’s body and voice as points of inscription of remote knowledge of various natures. For us, the body in the performance of the rite is a panel where the knowledge that is written in the gesture, in the choreography, in the various movements, on the surface of the skin, in the frantic throwing of the feet, in the rhythm and in the tone of the voice, is inscribed. The voice and the body simultaneously translate epistemes. Gesture and orality are a mimetic representation of a symbolic apparatus, conveyed by the performance; however, it establishes and, finally, establishes the performance itself (LEDA, 2002). The approach of this article is mythical-telluric and qualitative, based on a descriptive and interpretative perspective of the rite of ethahura and myth of the Emákhuwa people, attached to remote knowledge, such as memory, mode of recreation, reconnection, based on Mozambican philosophy and culture. Its celebration ensures relations with the divine, reassures and confirms protective taboos (ZUMTHOR, 1993). Thus, the points on the agenda are a proposal that contributes to the writing of the Emákhuwa culture, revealing a feature in the form of animal preservation and ancestry as a knowledge that contributes to the new epistemological paradigm based on the myth of Mount Namúli.

KEYWORDS: philosophy; Mozambican culture; performance and ethahura.