O Bumba Meu Boi na Fortaleza contemporânea: um olhar sobre a brincadeira do boi em suas redes de significado e de relações de poder

Abstract

This dissertation aims to comprehend the symbolic, classificatory and identity games that constitute and pervade performances of Bumba Meu Boi in Fortaleza, Ceará and specifically, in the Grande Pirambu area. For that purpose, certain procedures were accomplished, such as unstructured interviews, observations at rehearsals and attendances at events held in public or private facilities and mainly, in their most prolonged, distinguished expression: the street party known as Matança de Boi (literally: 'Killing of the Bull'). Methodologically, this work is oriented by principles and concepts present in situational analysis as developed by J. Van Velsen, in ritual analysis by Victor Turner as well as in performance studies by Richard Schechner. The meanings of the rituals were, therefore, approached by identification of their most dramatized liminal points and main symbols perceived as articulated with varied social relations and contacts with alterity. The research presents how said ritual situations reveal conflicts in terms of social distance and proximity by operating appropriations that articulate present and past and tell about the daily reality of performers, especially about processes of segregation and stigmatization. More than telling about, such rituals act on reality and control it by transforming personal and collective identities, reinforcing or questioning values, and expressing and tensioning boundaries.