Women Witnesses: Female Role and the Construction of Traditional
Samba Claudia Toldo, Débora Facin

Abstract
This paper aims to discuss the role/participation of women in the historical process of consolidating the samba de raiz. For this, the methodological principles that structure the reflection are organized around the notions of testimony and witness (Agamben, 2008) and the necessary relation between language and society (Benveniste, 1968/2006). Under the inspiration of saussurean thoughts about the system, we place ourselves in the field of language as tongue and take it as the norm for all manifestation of language. The woman, since her presence in Pequenaáfrica, was a witness (superstes) of raiz do samba. For this reason, the value of her testimony, which is imprinted in the language, survives even today in Brazilian culture.

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