Between The Blackboard And The Bonfire

Tensions And Dialogues Between School Culture And Oral Tradition In The Jequitinhonha Valley

Abstract

This article analyzes the tensions and dialogues between literate school culture and oral tradition in Povoado do Vau, Jequitinhonha Valley. Based on the analysis of oral sources, it investigates how the institutionalization of formal schooling, especially after coming under state control, promoted what Weber defines as the 'disenchantment of the world,' leading new generations to invalidate local narratives. The study contrasts the 'vernacular school' model of the first teachers, such as Zenólia and Gabriela Braga, who integrated domestic knowledge into the classroom, with the subsequent bureaucratic school system. Methodologically grounded in Alessandro Portelli's Oral History, the work demonstrates how Pedro Braga used writing not to erase orality, but as a strategy of cultural 'translation' and resistance.