PSYCHOSOCIAL TRAUMA, RELIGIOUS RACISM AND QUALITATIVE APPROACH

EPISTEMIC AND METHODOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Abstract

In Brazil, religious racism, that is, the set of discriminatory practices directed at communities and practitioners of Afro-indigenous religions, read from the perspective of psychosocial trauma, refers to the colonial formation of the Brazilian State and its culture, connecting collective and individual histories. This article aimed to identify strategies and theoretical-methodological instruments of qualitative research for understanding psychosocial trauma in experiences of religious racism (TPRR). The method used was a literature review guided by the question: How to operationalize qualitative research on psychosocial trauma in experiences of religious racism (TPRR)? The results pointed to a scarcity of qualitative studies on TPRR and to epistemic limits in research on trauma. Given the gap, the article proposes three keys to reading a qualitative approach in TPRR, namely, the articulation between complexity and the psychosocial dimension, decoloniality as an epistemic counterpoint, and methodological strategies that incorporate body, affectivity, and spirituality when listening to subjects marked by psychosocial trauma. The approach allows for reinterpretations of actions in the academic fields, public policies, legislative and judicial practices, since, in the process of recognizing fundamental rights, transforming how we do things is as essential as what we do, especially in relation to socio-historically vulnerable subjects.