The Formation of the Person in Tentehar Education

Abstract

The iconography presents a description of significant moments in the formation of the person in the Tentehar ancestral education. The text results from experiences in rituals, extension activities, research and collaborations with the Tentehar people (Guajajara) of the Arariboia Indigenous Land in the state of Maranhão over the past seven years. The work was funded by the Maranhão Research Foundation (FAPEMA) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPQ). In Tentehar culture mythical narratives experienced in rituals transmit values that educate in their cosmology. In this culture, the ancients, grandmothers, and master singers carry in their memories beliefs, knowledge, and wisdoms shared between different generations. They conduct the rituals of childhood and puberty, which are repeated year after year, to form and reactivate in the individual and collective memory their primordial values. The care for the life of the new generations and, of the different beings, guides the formative process in their rituals.