The Barra do Jucu Living Museum as a formative space for culture and education: a semiotic study on discourses, knowledge, and traditions.
Name: SAMIRA DA SILVA COUTINHO
Publication date: 09/02/2026
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ADRIANA ROSELY MAGRO | Presidente |
| GEOVANNI LIMA DA SILVA | Examinador Externo |
| REGINA CELI FRECHIANI BITTE | Examinador Interno |
Summary: This research aims to elucidate the discourses present in the Museu Vivo Barra do Jucu, understanding it as a territorial museum whose materiality, cultural practices, and landscape constitute a living text. It is based on the hypothesis that space is constructed and discursively traversed by elements present in its spatiality, chromaticity, architecture, knowledge systems, traditions, and other components that make up the studied environment, which, when articulated, project narratives about aspects of Espírito Santo’s cultures. To achieve this objective, a qualitative and exploratory approach was adopted, combining cartography as a data-construction method with discursive and plastic semiotics as the analytical framework, aimed at identifying the meaning-making elements that compose the space. Epistemologically, the research draws on Desvallées and Mairesse and Mário de Souza Chagas, who discuss museums and their characteristics; on José Luiz Fiorin and Diana Luz Pessoa de Barros, who address discourse; and on Algirdas Julien Greimas, Eric Landowski, and Ana Claudia de Oliveira, who present methodological pathways grounded in semiotics. The corpus comprised documentary records, field visits, non-participant observation, photographic records, and institutional materials. In this context, the results show that the Museu Vivo Barra do Jucu organizes meanings around four central axes—environment, murals, congo, and territory— through which discourses on identity, memory, belonging, and tangible and intangible heritage emerge. It is therefore concluded that the museum operates as a formative and cultural space, producing and updating community narratives that reaffirm local traditions and knowledge as the foundation of Espírito Santo’s cultural heritage. As a final product, an educational resource was developed that recognizes the territory as a space for learning, cultural mediation, and the appreciation of the diversity so present in the Museu Vivo Barra do Jucu.
