Abstract

STEIL, Carlos Alberto; DE MOURA CARVALHO, Isabel Cristina  and  ABRAHAO GONZAGA, Francisco. Learning in the context of new age. Learning with indigenous people and their power plants.Translated byIsabel Perez. Soc. relig. [online]. 2020, vol.30, n.54, pp.1-27. ISSN 0326-9795.

In this text we discuss, from indigenous worldviews and ritual practices, operated by the New Age movement, a learning experience that questions modern hegemonic knowledge. The reflection we make is empirically based on the ethnography performed in the Espaço Holístico Agora and in the Espaço Terra Zen, in New Age contexts, in the metropolitan region of the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. In the field observation work, we looked at the processes of intercultural learning, by white, schooled and middleclass subjects, about Amerindian shamanic practices, related to the use of power plants, and Maya traditions, associated with Sincronário da Paz. Based on ethnographic data, we analyze the conceptions of learning that are produced in that context, with emphasis on the idea of ​​a care education, where mastery is distributed among human agents, who act as guardians and facilitators of knowledge, and no humans, like power plants. We call attention to the role of indigenous shamanic rituals, as mediators in learning.

Keywords : New Age; Indigenous; Learning; Ritual; Power plants.