PATHS OF SYMBOLISM: STEPS OF FIELD RESEARCH IN CULTURAL GEOGRAFHY

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to present the results of a reflection on challenges and propositions about fieldwork that are part of research based on Cultural Geography. The researched surveys are focused on the religious phenomena expressed in space and in constant movement. The main question in this study is: how to read the various aspects of religious manifestations collaboratively to the studies? Starting from this questioning and supported in a bibliography that perpasses by classical and contemporary authors of the Cultural Geography we elaborate a theoretical-methodological proposition that divides the fieldworks in three distinct moments: pre-field, in-field and post-field. Therefore, it is proposed to think the fieldworks in Cultural Geography considering this temporal trilogy as support in the reading of the scenarios-symbols that are, in turn, a theoretical-methodological construction that classifies the religious scenarios according to the present movements and the symbologies that they carry, namely: Statue-Totem; ii) Party-Ritual; iii) Itinerary-Sacred Way; iv) Grotto-Altar; v) Temple-Home; and vi) Event Jubilee. It is considered in this construction the theoretical reflection in dialogue with the empirical efforts, thus, these categories, although separated typologically interact deeply each other.