O espetáculo das tradições: um estudo sobre as práticas de culturas populares no Cariri cearense

Abstract

This study analyzes the trajectory of the folguedos populares in the Cariri region of Ceará, from 1950 to 2000, with the city of Crato as the locus of the research, region recognized by official cultural organs as a "barn" of traditions of popular cultures, also called folklore. Originated among rural workers, folguedos populares are plays that are developed with the presence of masters and jokers, whose knowledge is inherited and passed on from one generation to another through orality. In the context of the modernization of the region in the second half of the twentieth century, folguedo practices undergone through changes in their way of objectifying themselves and in the sociability gestated in rural areas. Based on the action of intellectuals and folklorists, influenced by the romantic vision, folguedos begin to represent matrices of identities in need of shelter, and, when integrating themselves as folkloric scenarios in various events in the city, they begin their process of visibility. Our research deals with this trajectory of changes in the way of objectifying the practices of folguedos, from the following questions: what these practices represent for their protagonists, masters and players? What dynamics of relations are established to guarantee the process of conservation and continuity of these plays? How are conceived the senses of folguedos in their denomination of Folklore or Cultural Patrimony? Our theoretical and methodological choice is based on the categories of culture and tradition, from the critical perspective that includes culture as action and work, objectification of man in the world, historically situated, and tradition as mediation of sociability. With normative senses, the folguedos populares are aimed at moments of celebration, in which the ties of belonging between the subjects of the community of players are reaffirmed, and, in the exchange of experiences, a network of relationships is created between the players to make sense to their cultural practices. Thus, this study reveals that in the dynamic process of social relations culture is understood as a field of struggle and acts as an element of change and permanence. In the community studied, the spectacle of folguedos, presented as scenes mediated by the folkloric movement and interested intellectuals, to give them visibility, does not prove sufficient for the continuity of these traditions, although the cultural heritage statute and the politics of safeguard falls on them.