Phenomenology of Life and Orixality: ontological aspects of Yorùbá thinking

Abstract

The development of the central thesis of this article, its ontological considerations guided by the Phenomenology of Life, demands a dual task. The task of presenting (1) the hypothesis of the pre-ontological privilege present in the interpretation of human existence conveyed by the narratives of the Yorùbá ethnolinguistic groups. In this case, these narratives underpin the Brazilian Afro-diasporic religious practices of Orixá worship. In addition to this stage, the comparative consideration, whose purpose is to display the privileged assumption as such (meaning: in relation to which narrative it is possible to determine there is a privilege), requires the (2) exposition of the critique of so-called ontological monism, as developed by the phenomenologist Michel Henry (1922 - 2002). As a preparatory procedure for the central theses and conclusion, an explanation of a metatheoretical nature should be integrated into the text: the justification of the relevance and conceptual articulation, as well as the orientation of this investigation from a phenomenological ontology. Finally, this work will conclude that, unlike classical Western philosophy, the narrative-cultural expression and existential interpretation preserved in the religious experience of Orixá worship retains in its practices fundamental alethic aspects of the phenomenological nature of Subjective Life.