Dialogues in Mozambique: contributions of Cultural, Humanist and Phenomenological Geography to the unveiling of religiosities

Abstract

This article comes from the debates held during the “Conversas na Casa do Professor” program, which took place in Maputo, Mozambique in November 2023. Our theme addressed some reflections that are still incipient in the scope of Mozambican geographical studies regarding the humanist, cultural and phenomenological approaches in Geography and the intersections resulting from these in studies related to religiosity and the constitution of places. Therefore, this article is divided into three moments that correspond to the lecture given: in the first, we present the initial context of the cultural, humanist, and phenomenological approach in Geography. Afterwards, the debate revolved around the arrival of these approaches in Geography experienced in Brazil. In the third and final moment, the reflection took place on how the approaches presented previously reverberate in the ways of doing research when the theme is linked to the experience of religions in their multiple forms as they are revealed in everyday life, regardless of the religious segment of the people who in their daily practice consecrate their places of worship so that the Divine may manifest itself as such. In order to think of a geography lived in action, that is, in the daily life among people sharing their life experiences, at the end of the lecture we propose to think about the possibility of the existence of a Geography of Religions. This in turn does not privilege the worldview of religious institutions, but rather of the followers who are truly responsible for the unveiling of the religious phenomenon and consequently of the constitution of places.