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The Amazonian Ox Dance Festival: An Anthropological Account

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Cultural Analysis 2001, 2: 69-105©2001 by The University of California.All rights reserved

The Amazonian Ox Dance Festival: An Anthropological

Account1

Maria-Laura CavalcantiFederal University of Rio de Janeiro

Brazil

AbstractThe Ox Dance (Boi-Bumbá) festival, heldyearly during the last three evenings of Junein the town of Parintins, Amazonas, is themost spectacular folk festival staged inNorthern Brazil. In recent decades, it hasassumed massive proportions, combiningtraditional cultural themes with spectacularvisual qualities, thematic innovations, andmany sociological changes.

This paper analyzes the festival from ananthropological perspective, suggesting itsinterpretation as a contemporary culturalmovement that, while enhancing regionalindigenous roots, expresses a positivestatement of a Brazilian caboclo, or mestizo,cultural identity.

The festival is a peculiar development ofa folk play that has existed in Brazil sincethe 19th century and is based on the motif ofthe death and resurrection of a precious ox.An historical examination of the early recordsand studies of this play is undertaken in orderto position the Parintins Ox Dance in thiswider context. A brief ethnography focuseson its evolution from a small group of streetplayers to the spectacular arena presentationsof today’s festival and on the basic structureof the current performances.

Parintins is a small town on theisland of Tupinambarana, in theNorthern state of Amazonas,

close to the border of the state of Pará.Every year the spectacular Ox Dance fes-tival (Festival dos Bois-Bumbás in Portu-guese), held in the last three evenings ofJune, transforms the quiet town. The fes-tival is organized around a contest be-tween two Ox groups: Garantido [Secure],represented by a white ox with a redheart on its forehead, and Caprichoso [Ca-pricious], represented by a black ox witha blue star on its forehead. The perfor-mances are basically free sequences ofdanced dramatic actions, enacted by aset of characters, loosely related to a tra-ditional motif of the death and resurrec-tion of a precious ox.

In the past few years, this festival hasgrown to massive proportions, exhibit-ing an unexpected and creative blend oftraditional cultural themes with spec-tacular visual qualities, thematic innova-tions, and other changes of sociologicalsignificance. Today, it attracts tens ofthousands of fans, coming not only fromManaus (the state capital) and nearbytowns, but from all over the country. Asthe most spectacular folklore festival in

Pa Frank, the Ox, and Ma Katie in one Garantido's performance, 1997.(photograph by Evandro Teixeira)

Maria-Laura Cavalcanti

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Northern Brazil, it has also become abadge of regional cultural identity. Thetaut relationship between permanenceand change, as well as the beauty of thefestival, draws attention to thecelebration’s deep-rooted cultural mean-ings.

The analysis of this festival also raiseswide-ranging questions concerning thestudy of folklore and popular culture. Inthe Ox Dance’s recent development, theBrazilian national media, the culture in-dustry, tourism, government agencies,and different social groups have all par-ticipated in an expansion that, until now,has managed to preserve strong tradi-tional characteristics. From a romanticstandpoint, folk culture is often seen asthe lost haven of a harmonious universe,threatened by the modern world. Fromthis nostalgic perspective, widely publi-cized shows tend to be regarded as de-viations from an original authenticity. Inthis analysis, on the contrary, I examinethe evolution of the Ox Dance festival asan extraordinary example of the capac-ity of Brazilian folk culture to transformand update itself, not unlike the Carni-val parade of the Rio de Janeiro sambateams (Cavalcanti 1994, 1999).

I argue that the Parintins Ox Dance isan integral part of a single ritual cyclethat encompasses different forms of avery traditional and widespread Brazil-ian folk play. This play, designated as ox-play in what follows, is based on themythical motif of the death and resur-rection of a precious ox, and has beenenacted in different regions of the coun-try since the beginning of the nineteenthcentury. Although fragmentation anddiversity pervade this universe, a con-

siderable unity derives from the always-present allusion to the same mythicalmotif. I propose an understanding of theParintins Ox Dance having as back-ground this ample horizon open to com-parative analysis.

My aim is to understand the festivalas it appears today, with an intense ca-pacity for cultural integration but alsowith problems and contradictions inher-ent in its growth. My starting point is ananthropological perspective based onstudies of symbolism and rituals(Durkheim 1968; Turner 1967, 1974;Bateson 1965; Da Matta 1979; Gennep1960; Peacock 1974; Tambiah 1985). Thefestival is considered as a total fact (faittotal), that mingles different dimensionsof social life in a process that must begrasped in its entirety (Mauss 1978). Assuch, the Parintins Ox Dance is a diffuseritual process that interconnects popu-lar and elite cultural realms (Bakhtin1987), as different artistic forms and so-cial groups are all part of it, and it keepspace with the historical evolution of itssocial context. Like carnival, soccer, mu-sic, and religious festivals, it is a fasci-nating forum for the tense and intensecultural exchanges characteristic of Bra-zilian culture.

In the first section, I consider brieflythe history, early records, and study ofthe ox-play in Brazil, sketching its mainfeatures and defining some importantresearch guidelines. I also review theavailable literature on its Northern ver-sion, called Boi-Bumbá, that is, the OxDance. In the second section, I present abrief ethnography of the Ox Dance heldin the town of Parintins, focusing on itsevolution from a small group of street


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players to the spectacular arena perfor-mances of today’s festival. Sketching thebasic structure of the Parintins contem-porary performances, I propose lastly aninterpretation of the Parintins Ox Danceas a cultural movement that, while en-hancing its regional indigenous roots,expresses a positive statement of Brazil-ian caboclo, or mestizo, cultural identity.

I. The Brincadeira do Boi in Brazil

Brincadeira do boi, or the merrymaking ofthe ox, is the Brazilian term that desig-nates different forms of the widespreadox-play. This expression illuminates thedual meaning of the English word“play.” The participants of a brincadeiranot only perform and appreciate a play(the theatrical performance) but all ofthem—performers and spectators—playa lot, that is, they enjoy themselves sing-ing and dancing throughout the perfor-mance.

The brincadeira do boi has fascinatedand challenged generations of scholars.It has been called by many differentnames, roughly corresponding to exist-ing regional variations,2 and its insertionin the annual calendar of Catholic fes-tivities varies. In the Northern states, itoccurs by the end of June, continuingthrough July, in the context of the celebra-tions of Saints Peter, John, Anthony andMarçal. In the Northeast, it happensmore frequently during the Nativity cel-ebrations, in December and January. Inthe Southeast, especially in Rio deJaneiro, it tends to occur during Carni-val.

In the plays, the ox is represented by

a carcass of bamboo or similar material,covered with fabric and with an ox-maskas its head, animated by a player, andaccompanied by other characters. ThePortuguese words bumba or bumbar(sometimes corrupted to bumbá), whichappear frequently in the regional namesof the ox-play, have different suggestiveinterpretations. Borba Filho (1966, 10)offers two meanings: one is bumba asderived from the expression Zabumbameu boi, that is, the ox dancing to the beatof the zabumba drum (a large drum in anupright position played with only onedrumstick). Thus, bumba-meu-boi wouldmean Dance-my-Ox. However, we alsohave the verb bumbar in Portuguese,which means to hit or beat somethingstrongly. Borba Filho prefers the secondmeaning, owing to certain slapstickscenes in the farce. The great folkloristCâmara Cascudo adopts a similar inter-pretation: Bumba would be the same asan interjection giving the idea of a clashor brawl. To say bumba-meu-boi would belike exclaiming: “Strike! Gore them, myox!” An excited refrain repeated in thedance (1984, 150). The relative merits ofthese arguments notwithstanding, it isunnecessary to resolve the question here;as Freud (1965) has suggested, ambiva-lence and over-determination are char-acteristic of this kind of symbolic pro-cesses.

The variety of names indicates manydifferent developments as well aschanges in context and meaning that areimportant issues in the research. Despitethis diversity, all forms of the merrymak-ing display a certain unity. All of themallude to the mythical motif of the deathand resurrection of a precious ox.


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Mythmaking activity is everywhereassociated with the brincadeira. In manycases, oral narratives have developedaround the basic motif of the death andresurrection of the ox. This theme, sungin many songs, is also enacted anddanced in the performances. However,the relationship between myth and riteis not a mechanical one. The numerousvariations of the legend are not neces-sarily present as explicit verbal narrativesin the different forms of the merrymak-ing. But the action of the main charac-ters always suggests the core of a plotthat alludes to the legend.

In one abridged Northern version,taken here as my main reference, the leg-end goes as follows: A rich farmer gavea favorite ox as a gift to his beloveddaughter, entrusting it to the care of afaithful ranch hand (Pai Francisco—PaFrank—represented by a black man). PaiFrancisco, however, kills the ox to satisfyhis pregnant wife’s (Mãe Catirina—MaKatie’s) craving for the ox tongue. Thefarmer notes the disappearance of the oxand sends the ranch foreman to investi-gate. The crime is discovered and, aftersome adventures, local Indians are calledto help capture Pai Francisco, who hashidden in the forest. He is brought inbefore the farmer and threatened withsevere punishment. In despair, he triesto resuscitate the ox and finally succeedsin doing so, with the help of a physicianand/or a priest and/or a witchdoctor.

The long history and the current vi-tality of the brincadeira do boi in Brazilsuggest a depth in this apparently simplelegend warranting a specific analysis notundertaken here. The basic ethnic andsocial categories of the white, black, and

Indian figures from Brazilian history in-teract intimately and in a highly ambiva-lent way in the play. The resurrection ofthe ox, in its turn, always appears to sym-bolize the start of a new social order.3

Historical records

The first written reference I have foundto the merrymaking of the ox is from SãoLuis (the capital of the Northern state ofMaranhão), where the variety section ofa daily newspaper mentions the wander-ings of “dance-my-ox” groups in thecity’s streets in July, 1829.4 The firstknown description dates from January1840, in Recife (the capital of the North-eastern state of Pernambuco). The article,“The Ox Dance folly,” by the Benedictinefriar Lopes Gama, appeared then in thenewspaper O Carapuceiro (Lopes Gama1996). The friar disdained the perfor-mance as a “bunch of stupidities.” As thetitle suggests, the article was rather a col-lection of indignant comments (ex-tremely biased but also very smart andamusing) on the pretext of offering a ser-mon against the play’s mockery of apriest’s character. According to the friar,this was a recent, and unwelcome, addi-tion to the plot.

A second description dates from 1859and comes from Manaus (the capital ofthe Northern state of Amazonas). Thetraveling physician Avé-Lallemant de-scribed a Bumba in that city, a pagan pro-cession inserted into a celebration of St.John, in June.5 His description empha-sizes the characters of the ox and thewitchdoctor dancing to the percussionbeat, the death of the ox, and the won-


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derful lighting effects from the torchesduring the dance around the “dead” ox.The priest’s character had been banned.The physician was also very impressedby the audacity displayed by the cos-tume of a male player dressed as one ofthe “wives” of the tuxáua [Indian chief].Avé-Lallemant acknowledged that therewas, in the Ox Dance, “with its choirsand carefully harmonious soaring song,something attractive, something of awild and pure poetry” (1961, 106).

In the interval between these two de-scriptions, Vicente Salles (1970, 27-29)came across reports about the Bumba innewspapers from Belém and Óbidos(both in the Northern state of Pará).

These facts reveal that the diversityof the brincadeira do boi dates from itsearly days and suggest its simultaneousdissemination in Northern and North-eastern Brazilian provinces during thenineteenth century. They also permit oneto characterize this diversity. First, thereis its diverse insertion in the annualcalendar of popular Catholic celebra-tions, suggesting compatibility with dif-ferent Christian cosmological motifs.Then, there are the variations of its char-acters, with the recent addition of thepriest in the Recife version and thewitchdoctor in the Manaus record. Thisindicates the openness of the ox-play’ssymbolic universe to its cultural sur-roundings. There is also the impressionof plot looseness, especially implied bythe word “bunch” used in the friar’s de-scription. Two basic structural featurescan be inferred from these facts: the frag-mentary nature of the performance’s plotand its flexibility and responsiveness tosocial context.

The study of the merrymaking

When anchoring the unity of the merry-making in the motif of the death and res-urrection of a precious ox, I follow a pathsuggested by many scholars. Many stud-ies see this theme as providing a “cen-tral” or “basic structure,” a “fixednucleus,” a “basic unit,” in short, an“axis” that characterizes one single,though complex, symbolic universe.Nonetheless, all previous writers alsopoint out that this “basic structure” can-not fully explain the merrymaking. Thisrelative unity is always accompanied byfragmentation, improvisation, and vari-ety (Andrade 1982; Queiroz 1967; Galvão1951; Meyer 1990; Monteiro 1972; BorbaFilho 1966; Cascudo 1984; Salles 1970).The point here is that these last charac-teristics are mostly seen as negative traits,very frequently considered as an impov-erishment or even a clear sign of themerrymaking’s decay, due to “moderntimes.” In my interpretation, the frag-mentary nature and flexibility of the plotare fully integrated in the merrymaking’sgeneral pattern, indicating dimensionsthat are essential for the understandingof its symbolic nature. These traits de-rive, at least partially, from the fact thatthe merrymaking’s focus is on action.

In this vein, one should observe thatthe mythical ox, around which a vastsymbolic universe revolves, is also abadge for organizing the competinggroups of players and instilling rivalrybetween them. The performing groupsare called “Oxen,” and each is given itsown special name: “Mysterious Ox,”“The Last Word,” “Young Sugarcane,”“St. John’s Favorite,” “Faith in God,” and


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so on, all over the country. The ox groupis a local, rural or urban organizationbased on a neighborhood and its out-skirts, and the existence of one ox groupanywhere attracts others, as rivalry is atthe basis of the performances.

Scholars have defined the merrymak-ing in different ways, but some care isrequired in selecting the terminologyemployed to capture its nature. Very of-ten it has been defined as a folk play—an initial definition that I kept—allud-ing to the allegorical forms of the medi-eval theatre and to the folk theatricalforms staged in the streets or publicsquares. Some prefer to categorize it as afarce, pointing to the burlesque, buffoon-ery, and grotesque elements of the per-formances. Between 1930 and 1940, therenowned folklorist and writer Mário deAndrade (1982) placed the merrymak-ing of the Ox in the context of the “dra-matic dances” (dances that enact specificplots), an expression coined by him todemonstrate the formal unity underly-ing various cultural manifestations. Inthe 1950s, other folklorists considered itas a revelry (folguedo in Portuguese) high-lighting the festive nature of the perfor-mances that display a mix of music,dance, and drama.

The search for origins, generally morespeculative than historical, has also at-tracted scholars. Câmara Cascudo men-tions the powerful figure of the bull inworldwide mythical domains. Neverthe-less, when dwelling on concrete histori-cal origins, he mentions the tourinhas, alight version of bullfight, and the popu-larity of the ox figure in a number ofCatholic processions in the Iberian Pen-insula. Nonetheless, the Brazilian mer-

rymaking would be an original “inge-nious creation of the mestizo. . . . ThePortuguese humpbacked ox appeared atthe peak of rural slavery, waltzing, leap-ing, and scattering the revelers, withoutthe slightest resemblance to a bullfight”(1984, 150).

Câmara Cascudo described the mer-rymaking as “a play of breathtakingbeauty with reminders of the past anddeep social feeling” and as “the only Bra-zilian festivity in which thematic renewaldramatizes popular curiosity, making itcontemporary. Its constant transforma-tions are in no way detrimental to thedynamic essence of folklore that is of in-terest, but rather revives it in an incom-parable expression of spontaneity andreality” (ibid., 153).

The Ox Dance in Amazonia

The permeability of the brincadeira doboi to the cultural milieu takes signifi-cance from concrete situations. It is there-fore important to place each variant ofthe merrymaking in its own sociologicalbackground. In Amazonia, the merry-making is called Boi-Bumbá, Ox Dance.The relative historic and cultural unityof the region provides the context inwhich the Parintins Ox Dance reverber-ates, alluding to many aspects of atroubled history (Souza 1994; Daou 2000;Reis 1931). The Parintins festival inten-tionally refers to this background, andthis originality is surely one of the rea-sons for its contemporary popularity.Parintins is situated at almost equal dis-tance from Manaus (upstream) andBelém (downstream) in a region known


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as Médio Amazonas, because of its posi-tion in the middle of the river’s course.The Ox Dance’s evolution in the twomajor Amazonian capitals helps to illu-minate the Parintins development.

Research by Salles suggests that theAmazonian Ox Dance spread from thecity of Belém, where it took shape at thebeginning of the nineteenth century. InSalles’s interpretation, it could be linkedto the African-Brazilian regional popu-lation, who practiced an “aggressive andstrange revelry” that would wanderthrough the streets, often culminating ina brawl among the capoeira (dance-cum-martial art) groups. The violence wouldprovoke heavy police repression and thelocal legal codes several times forbadethe revelry in the streets (Salles 1970, 28-33). In the mid-nineteenth century, theOx Dance groups of Belém came underthe influence of a different kind of folktheatre, developed in the festival of OurLady of Nazareth.6 Libretto poets, espe-cially contracted to compose the annualplay for the Nazareth festival, influencedthe Ox Dance presentations in the direc-tion of a type of operetta, keeping, how-ever, “their original elements . . . and thewhole court of traditional players intact”(ibid., 33) This new pattern was pre-served when, after the Second WorldWar, the Ox groups returned to theirmore exclusively popular environments,and it was revived in the 1960s, whentourist agencies and authorities began toorganize other festivals with contests andprizes.

The mutual influence among differ-ent social realms resulted, in the case ofBelém, in an artistic sophistication of theOx Dance performances and in the ex-

pansion of its public. The evolution ofthe Parintins Ox Dance, with its spec-tacular quality and middle class artistsoccupying important roles in its making,displays some analogies with that ofBelém.

The evolution of the Manaus OxDance followed a different path, wherethis kind of cultural exchange is absent.Between the end of the nineteenth andthe beginning of the twentieth centuries,at the time of the economic rubber boomin the region, the elite groups of thenewly affluent city of Manaus especiallyinsisted on their distinction from othersocial groups. The Amazonas Theatre,with its European operas, was the ulti-mate symbol of their aspirations (Daou2000). The Ox Dance, however, has beendocumented there among populargroups since the mid-nineteenth century(Avé-Lallemant 1961; Monteiro 1972, 5).

The writer Márcio Souza (interview,1999) recalls the Ox Dance groups inManaus in the 1950s:

The Ox groups would rehearse in theenclosures and would go into thestreets, performing at homes inresponse to the requests of thepoliticians, or at the invitation ofwealthy townspeople; or thecommunity would put some moneytogether to pay for the presentation.A complete performance would lastfor four to five hours, with amaximum of two shows per evening.. . . And they were like warriors, theywould not only roam the streets butwould quarrel with each other. . . .This would cause the biggest fightsin town and everyone would end upat the police station. . . . When the


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folklore festivals began in the 1960s,their rivalry was controlled and theperformances were shortened.

Belém, at the mouth of the AmazonasRiver, and Manaus, on the left bank ofthe Rio Negro far upstream, are at eitherend of a route along which flows theextensive river traffic of the region. TheOx Dance has certainly found its way tomany riverside towns between the twolargest Amazonian capitals. The field isopen for future investigation.

In the last decade of the twentiethcentury, one of the Amazonian OxDances, the Parintins Ox Dance,captured the attention of researchers.Anthropologist Sérgio Teixeira (1992)remarked on its “magnificentbreathtaking show.” Poet João de JesusPaes Loureiro (1997, 396) considered itone of the important landmarks incontemporary Amazonian culture,commenting on “a rich and livelycannibalizing and carnivalizing process”in progress. In recent decades, theParintins Ox Dance has clearly beenproviding Manaus, the state capital, withan unprecedented site of culturalexchange and integration.

II. The Festival’s Ethnography

The town of Parintins, located in theTupinambarana Island in the middlecourse of the Amazonas River, has apopulation of around 42,000, and thesurrounding county of the same namearound 60,000.7 In the sixteenth century,local groups were driven out orsubordinated by the sweepingmigrations of the Tupi Indians, who had

fled up the Amazonas River, escapingfrom Portuguese invaders. When theJesuits arrived in the mid-seventeenthcentury, building special villages toconvert the Indians, a group of TupiIndians, the Tupinambás, dominated theregion. Speaking a common language,this group would trade and mix with thePortuguese, helping them to captureother Indians. Tupinambarana, the nameof the island where the town is located,means “false Tupi Indians,” andParintins, the town’s name, derives fromanother Tupi group, the Parintintins(Cerqua 1980).

In the mid-twentieth century,Parintins economy was based especiallyon sisal production and processing,which sustained regional economicdevelopment between 1940 and 1960.Nowadays the main economic activityis cattle and buffalo farming.8 On thewhole, the area is poor, with littleinfrastructure and few job opportunities,as formal employment is primarily inlocal government, retail trade, and small-scale business. Even the cattle are takento slaughterhouses in Manaus. Few cars,many bicycles, and, more recently,motorbikes circulate in the town’s streets.

Nevertheless, Parintins sheltersextraordinary cultural wealth and, fromthis viewpoint, it is outstanding as a kindof local capital.9 The town is the seat ofan active Catholic diocese,10 basic publicutilities, good schools, and an advancedcampus of the Federal University ofAmazonas. Town leaders organize alarge number of festivities, especially thepilgrimage of Our Lady of MountCarmel, the town’s patron saint, betweenJuly 6 and 16, and the Parintins Folklore


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Festival in the last week of June. Thisfestival, which includes the presentationof square dance groups, is nowadaysknown as the Festival dos Bois-Bumbás orOx Dance Festival, due to the greatrecognition achieved by the Ox groups’performances in the last three eveningsof June.

The closeness of these festivalsindicates that the dry Amazonian“summer” season, when the rivers areat low levels, is the highpoint of thecalendar of regional events. The twofestivals combine to attract diversevisitors to the town. A mass is alwayscelebrated in the cathedral in the weekbefore the festival of Our Lady of MountCarmel (that is, during the Ox Dancefestival). During the Ox performances,the two rival groups render homage tothe patron saint with refrains and scenesin the arena, asking for her blessing andprotection. After the festival, the Oxgroups decorate the saint’s carriage.Only on July 17, after the end of theCarmel festivities, will the Ox groupshold their merry barbecues and stage the“escape of the ox,” concluding theirannual activities.

Father Gino Malvestio, the localbishop, observed, “The Ox Dance festivalfinishes, and July 6 is the start of OurLady of Mount Carmel’s festival, inwhich everyone is interested with equalfervor” (interview, 1996).

Deputy mayor Osvaldo Ferreiracommented:

There are 180 rural communities inthe county and its surroundings, allwith their own patron saints, andcommemorations on their own

patron saint’s day. Between July 6 and16, most country folk swarm to OurLady of Mount Carmel’s festival.Here it gets quite busy, not as muchas during the Ox Dance, whichattracts around 50,000 visitors, but lastyear [1995] 15,000 people came to theprocession. The visitors are mainlyfolk from the hinterlands, ruralcommunities, and the Parintinsparishioners. (interview, 1996)

While Our Lady of Mount Carmel’spilgrimage is an “inland festivity” thatdraws participants or visitors from theregion, the Ox Dance is a festival thatdraws people from the whole countryand overseas.

The Ox Dance arena

The festival is held in a stadium,commonly called the Bumbódromo, in aclear allusion to the Sambódromo (theSamba Carnival parade venue built in1984 by the Rio de Janeiro stategovernment). Amazonino Mendes, thelocal state governor at the time, built theOx Dance arena in 1988, on the site ofthe town’s old airport. The concretestructures for the stands, seating 40,000,were built around a circular arena.Normally, the stadium is used forsporting events, and it houses a grammarschool underneath its stands. On thefestivity days, the classrooms turn intothe Ox players’ dressing rooms.

The stadium is in the middle of town,forming an imaginary line with thecathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmeland the local cemetery that separatesParintins into east and west. This is


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significant because in all matters relatingto the Ox Dance the town is divided intotwo parts. The stands of the stadium aredivided into the western, red-paintedhalf, belonging to the red fans ofGarantido (the Safe Ox), and the blue-painted, eastern half, belonging to theblue fans of Caprichoso (the CapriciousOx). The fans are organized in galeras,informal youth groups with a strongsense of group identity and intenserivalry towards other groups (forinstance, soccer or funk galeras).

The stands have only four neutralareas, located at the northern andsouthern ends of the stadium. To thesouth, between the two large gatewaysleading into the arena, there is a groupof seats for the local government andeminent members of the community. Thethree other neutral areas are at thenorthern end at the arena, with an areafor journalists and, at the top of thestadium, a long row of cabins especiallybuilt by Coca-Cola for its guests(socialites, actors, business VIPs,journalists, and Brazilian politicians).Since 1995, Coca-Cola has been one ofthe festival’s sponsors, along with thestate government, the Brazilian Ministryof Culture, and the Ox groupsthemselves, who now run their ownbusinesses.

The town area outside the stadium isalso divided into two parts. Garantido’senclosure (the rehearsal court) and itsgeneral headquarters, including theworkshops for manufacturing the floatsand costumes, are to the west of thearena, in the so-called upper town.Caprichoso’s enclosure and generalheadquarters are to the east, in the lower

town.11 This division is taken to suchlengths that to walk “up” (west) or“down” (east) in the streets of Parintinsalways means to enter the networks ofone or the other of the Ox groups.

A brief history of the Ox groups

According to oral tradition, the Oxgroups appeared in Parintins in the1910s. Lindolfo Monteverde, whoseparents were from the Azores, createdthe Garantido Ox in 1913. TheCaprichoso Ox followed in its wake,some even say in the same year andothers a year later, made by the brothersRoque and Antônio Cid (natives ofCrato, Ceará) and by Furtado Belém, aneminent Parintins citizen.12

The Ox groups played in the localsquares and roamed the streets, wherethey would challenge each other andquarrel at each chance encounter. Norwould they let the other pass or turnback: “It was really brutal, that was howit was, there was no middle term; whenthey met they would fight, and thepolicemen would come and put thefighters in jail” (Raimundo Muniz,interview, 1999). The wealthiertownsfolk would pay the groups to playin front of their homes, and others wouldgive them a meal. Lindolfo Monteverde,the owner of the Garantido Ox, had avery good voice. His ox was “secure,”“guaranteed,” and would always leavethe fights unscathed: “His head wasunbreakable.” Consequently, the rivalOx would try to excel in singing anddancing. Other Ox groups existed, butonly Garantido and Caprichososurvived. The reason was the gradual


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and close association of each of them tothe “upper” and “lower” halves of town,which enabled them to embody animportant contrast in the socialmorphology and organization ofParintins. Their strong rivalry was soonable to represent the town as unified.

The shape taken by today’s Ox Danceis a result of the creation of the ParintinsFolklore Festival in 1965. A group offriends from the local Catholic youthorganization—Xisto Pereira, LucenorBarros, and Raimundo Muniz—startedthe festival. Raimundo Muniz (interview,1999) tells of how “we were three friendsand Father Augusto, and we had ameeting on June 1, 1965. We left with theidea of getting the folklore groupstogether.” At that time, he says, thefestivities were waning: “No one wantedto play any more. People would criticizeand say, Oh! I don’t like the Ox Dance;it’s only for the poor, caboclos, fishermen,people like that, charcoal burners. So wethought of organizing a folklore festivalto present the square dances.”

The festival was a watershed in thehistory of the Parintins Ox groups, whichgradually became the stars of the show.When the festival was created, the focuswas on the square dances: “The festivalwould start on June 12, and last for tenevenings, taking advantage of theweekends and Wednesday evenings. Asa result, the country folk would arriveand there were, say, 20 to 22 groups ofsquare dances. The Ox groups appearedonly as a finale to the festivities”(Raimundo Muniz, interview, 1999). Andeven then, each Ox group arrived at itsscheduled time to avoid the terrible streetbrawls. Raimundo Muniz explains

(interview, 1999):

The beginning meant a lot of sacrificefor us. We did not have the resourcesand everything was done with anamateur’s heart. The stands werecalled perches . Timber had to bebought, and we did this each year, wehad to buy on credit and pay later.From 1965 to 1971, the festival washeld in the cathedral square. We soldtickets to the seats at bar tables. Themoney was invested in the folk-groups and a part went towards theexpenses of the festival, because themusic was all to our own account. Ithad a different rhythm from today’s,but we didn’t record it, and we hadno photographers at this time.

The festival soon became a big success.This success was due to the popularappeal of the two rival Ox groups, closelyassociated with the town’s image, andthe cultivation of competition betweenthe fans of the rival groups. In the wordsof Raimundo Muniz:

At the third festival, the town folkshad already made up their minds.You could feel who was forCaprichoso and who was forGarantido, because when the formerwon, no Garantido fan would godown there from the Cathedral, theywould rip the others’ clothes, that oldquarrel. So we decided to separate thesupporters: a stand for each group.

The cohesion of the Ox groupsthemselves was strengthened by theinstitution of a festival contest:

In 1965, it was a free show, while 1966was the start of the contest. We


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thought to ourselves, “What can wedo for the Ox groups to get themtogether to enjoy themselves?” So weinvented a trophy, a jury with judges,a lawyer. . . . And step by step camethe first champion, then the second,and it caught on. (Raimundo Muniz,interview, 1999)

For a contest to be respected andsuccessful, the contestants must basicallyagree on a common set of rules andcriteria for judging. Such agreementtends to strengthen the leadership ofassociations and clubs representing thegroups. The popularity of the Ox groupsgrew with the festival’s contest, as didthe prominence of the Ox Dance show,giving the rival groups a powerfulvehicle to express their traditionalrivalries. Nowadays, for example, thesquare dances, which still precede the OxDance show, are less and less in thelimelight, with much more attentiondirected to the festival’s main attraction.

The festival’s expansion led to thearrival of new social groups in itsorganization. Raimundo Muniz, forinstance, stepped down in 1983 when thetown hall, with the support of the Oxgroups, took over the coordination of thefestival.13 He says of this move:

In 1970 and 1972, folks from Manausmade their first visits to our festival,not to the extent that they do today,but the Ox Dance has always been anattraction. . . . In 1980, I visitedManaus to ask Emamtur [the localtourism authority] to support thefestival; they kept putting me off forthree days. . . . Then they called meback: “Look, pal, the State doesn’thave any money. It only has money

for the festival here because, youknow, this is the capital and ours is avery big festival.” So I invited one ofthe Emamtur directors to come andwatch the Parintins festival. On thefirst evening, when Caprichoso camein, he turned to me and said: “Myfriend, I bow to you!” . . . We had hereoff-campus departments of theUniversity of Rio de Janeiro, and therewere always many visitors from Riode Janeiro, São Paulo. . . . The deanplayed a major role here, as part ofthe jury. People came, enjoyed, andkept talking about it. Then the pressand television helped a lot. In 1987,governor Amazonino came to watch,where the arena is today, but then itwas just a wooden stage. He enjoyedthe festival, and decided: “I want toget a proper place for the Ox!” andordered the stadium to be built in1988.

In brief, the festival began as acommunity festivity in 1965, linked to thelocal Catholic youth organization andtraditional Catholic commemorations.Early in the 1980s it developed to includethe county authorities, and by the endof the decade it was already attractinglocal state investment. In the 1990s thefederal Ministry of Culture and powerfulsponsors (such as Coca-Cola) wouldarrive, bringing the festival to thenation’s view.

This growth also brought newdramatic elements to the ox-play andtransformed its artistic components. Theaesthetic and thematic innovationaccomplished during the 1970s is worthmentioning. Odinéia Andrade (localresearcher and active player in thefestival, interview; 1996) mentions a


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“decline” in the motif of the death andresurrection of the Ox at that time: “Weadded to it themes from the Amazonianculture: legends, myths and regionaltraditions.” Raimundo Muniz (interview,1999) recalls other new features:

The original ox [he means the plasticrepresentation of the ox in the play]did not have all this swing when itdanced. The ox didn’t move its ears;it was an ox from the old folklore. Thefirst to move its head, ear, and tail wasGarantido. Its owner attached somewires to make them move. That’s howit began, Caprichoso was folksier.That was Jair Mendes, a very smartartist, who worked for Garantido. Hewas the one who gave this wholeartistic drive to Garantido and laterto Caprichoso, because afterdisagreeing with Garantido, he spenttwo years with Caprichoso. They alsostarted doing everything Garantidodid. And so it carried on.

Jair Mendes, the Parintins artistmentioned above, had worked in Rio deJaneiro’s carnival from 1970 to 1972. Hetells us (interview, 1999):

I really enjoyed Rio’s carnival.Because I love all the new things . . .and when I came back to myhometown, Parintins, I wanted to dohere what I had learned. But therewas no carnival whatsoever inParintins, nor in Manaus at that time.But they had the Ox Dance. I was aGarantido fan; it was in my area uphere. So what did I do? I startedadding some carnival features. Floatsabout regional legends such as Yara,the Giant Snake, River Dolphin, forinstance. Before that, the Parintins Ox

Dance had nothing out of theordinary, just the same as all the othertowns still have: percussion, ox, oxowner, cowboys and all that.

From the beginning, cultural borrowingsfrom Rio de Janeiro’s carnival have beenadapted to local requirements andmeanings. The Ox Dance floats, forexample, express local themes based onregional legends. They also adaptthemselves to what Jair Mendes calls the“public taste,” the anticipation thatsomething must “happen.” In the hugewarehouse where the Garantido floatsare made, he pointed to a large alligatorthat, in his opinion, would certainly be asuccess in 1999, since its feet, head, andtail would all move at the performance.He even boasted of once having made asculpture smile! In 1975, acting as“owner of the ox” in the performance forthe first time, Jair was in a position tointroduce other innovations. He told meabout his revolutionary insight thatcorresponds to his finely tunedunderstanding of the dramatic nature ofthe Ox Dance:

Something incredible at that time,something very simple that suddenlycame to my mind: what do peoplelike? They like happenings. It’s notjust something good to watch, like thesplendor of a carnival parade passingby. Something has to happen. . . . I wasthe ox owner. So I decided to brandthe ox. I designed a “brand iron” withthe letters “JM” (his initials), and usedblack ink to make a mark. . . . There Iwent with the iron, branding the oxand the ox went “Moo!”


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He explained that he had had tocoordinate that the sound of the ox bemade by someone else each time he“branded” it, since there was no taperecorder. “Well, there was an uproar,people loved it, and it was just a verysimple idea. You see, I know what peoplelike here.”

Another important change occurredearly in the 1980s. In the merrymaking’straditional pattern, each Ox groupbelonged to an owner, respected by hiscomrades and in charge of theperformances. This social roleoverlapped with the play’s character ofthe ox owner (amo do boi). In the 1980s,the Ox groups became formalorganizations, each run by a board ofdirectors. They had no individualowners anymore. In Garantido,however, the traditional owner LindolfoMonteverde continued to act as the oxowner character in the play until hisdeath in 1979. The Monteverde familykept this role until 1995; since then, newtalents, especially good singers, havetaken it on.

In the 1990s, another major changebrought us to the festival’s currentpattern: the growing emphasis on theindigenous and regional elements in thetheme’s development. In the opinion ofSimão Assayag, art director forCaprichoso, the forest Indian fromAmazonian folklore would inevitablyhave to play a role somewhere, and thatcame to be in the Parintins Ox Dance. In1995, a new dramatic scene, called the“ritual,” was included, continuing thesame trend. The main character of thisscene, the witchdoctor, became the mainstar of each evening’s presentation of theOx groups.

Marketing and the Ox groups asorganizations

Today both Ox groups are formalorganizations. Not only do they run theartistic aspects of the festival, but theyare also responsible for its productionand marketing. Their main sources ofincome are: (1) the official patronage ofthe state and federal governments, thelatter through the Ministry of Culture,(2) Coca-Cola sponsorship since 1995(which, in exchange, may advertise itsproducts in the arena and in speciallybuilt booths),14 (3) the sale of the arenarights to television networks,15 (4) thesale of festival CDs, with its annualmusic, (5) ticket sales for the festival inParintins and for the rehearsals held inManaus.16 Their symbols have becomeregistered trademarks at the federalPatent and Trademark Office.Fundraising associations have beencreated in Manaus for the festival.Garantido and Caprichoso have createdfan clubs, setting up dancing spaces,called the mainland enclosures, to holdshows and rehearsals in Manaus.

Their influence has also extended upand down the middle-Amazonas river,to small towns close to Parintins, suchas Maués, Nhamundá, Barreirinha, andeven Santarém, located downstream,and mainly to Manaus, upstream. “Thefolk come here, see how it is, and goaway with the ideas for themselves,”comments a Parintins hotel owner. TheParintins Ox Dance has clearly achieveda regional hegemony. At festival time,Manaus’s role as a capital is subverted,and it becomes, in the words of aParintins citizen, “a kind of


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neighborhood of the island ofTupinambarana.”

The Manaus-Parintins relationship,entwined around the Ox Dance, causessome rivalry. Manaus has its own, andolder, folklore festival.17 Its players talkabout the past revelries, now “suffocatedby the festival of Parintins.” The Manausfestival stops and the capital’s streetsbecome empty during the last three daysof June. However, the Manaus fan clubs,with their mainland enclosures, alsoensure a vast network of collaborationbetween Manaus and Parintins. Today,even at the preparatory stage, Manausyouth “prefer to go to the rehearsals oftoadas (the typical music of the ParintinsOx Dance) for the Parintins festival thanto the rehearsals of the local Ox groups.”

As highlighted by the preference ofManaus’s population, the toadas are atthe front line of the festival’s increasedpopularity. The toadas are a social factin their own right; they anticipate,participate in, and surpass the Ox Dancefestival. For some years now, they havebeen the top regional hits. In 1996, theyburst onto the national and internationalscene as hopeful candidates to become anew national hit, following the exampleof Bahia’s axé-music.18

The river steamers (gaiolas) sailing upand down the Amazonas River generallyhave a bar on the top deck, flanked bytwo enormous speakers constantlyplaying the Ox Dance toadas on theirvoyages back and forth. As the festivaldraws nearer, small groups of passengersrehearse their dance steps while drinkingand chatting. The visitor arriving inManaus at this time is also immediatelycaught up in the characteristic festival

musical environment, with the townresounding to the music playingincessantly on the radio and in localstores.

At the old Parintins harbor, thevisitors are greeted with toadas blastingfrom powerful speakers beside the riversteamers and small canoes, shortly to bemoored alongside motorboats andmodern yachts. The town resonates withthe music’s beat and melodies. Silence isno longer, nor the gentle murmur of theriver. Everything is immersed in anoverwhelming chaotic musicalatmosphere, since even the smallest bars(some makeshift, and multiplying as thefestival approaches) and householdsconstantly play their favorite toadas.

The success of the toadas hasincreased the number of bands inManaus. In addition to independentbands, each Ox group has its ownofficially accredited band and its ownlocal radio program. Every year thebands travel through Northern Brazilcontracted to play at special events andfestivals.19

The mainland enclosures in Manausmust be seen in this context. After EasterSaturday, at the end of Lent, the Oxgroups begin to hold events andrehearsals in their enclosures and inManaus neighborhoods, raising animportant part of the funds necessary forthe Parintins festival. On the eve of thelast rehearsal, one week before thefestivities, the Ox groups organize anelectric bandwagon, jokingly called the“electronic Ox-cart,” with bands playingtoadas. Their activities culminate in ahuge party in the enclosure. This is thestart of the “Ox caravan” towards


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Parintins, a procession of large and smallriver craft carrying thousands of peopleto the island and ‘‘to the biggest folklorefestival in Brazil.”

The geographic location of Parintins,at the far eastern tip of theTupinambarana Island, is wellpositioned to showcase the festival. Asone looks upstream, the vast riverstretches to the horizon. From thatdistant line, all the vessels sailing downthe river appear like specks on the water.On the eve of the festival, river steamersand yachts approach, sailing round theisland and displaying their blue or redpennants, sputtering fireworks beforethey anchor in the harbor. Wealthiertourists arrive in catamarans, with foodand accommodation guaranteed. Touristagencies, which previously would onlybecome busy in June, now begin sellingtheir package deals in October of theprior year. Local people arrive mostly onthe traditional steamers, with theirhammocks. Everyone is looking forwardto brincar de boi (that is to play the ox, inthe sense of enjoying themselves, singingand dancing).

Cars and motorbikes are off-loadedfrom barges from Manaus. The statemilitary police and health department setup special operations. The harborauthorities increase the supervision ofriver traffic, concerned aboutovercrowding, a recurring cause ofshipwrecks. Flights between Manausand Parintins increase in frequency.

The people of Parintins get ready towelcome the visitors. The local town halldistributes the winning festival poster,the result of a contest organized in Marchand April among local artists. They clean

up the streets. Traffic police close andopen the streets to the traffic of the fewcars, the many bicycles, and the growingnumber of motorbikes. Street vendorsare in profusion, setting up their stalls offood and handicrafts in the square nearthe harbor, between the town hall andthe marketplace. Some of them are alsomembers of indigenous groups fromnearby, whose stalls are visited at the lastminute by the Ox artists for the finaltouches to this or that adornment of theirgroups. Many of the residents ofParintins set up food stalls along themain street.

The Caprichoso and Garantido Oxgroups, in turn, have been at work forsome time. An art director is in charge ofthe design and supervises the festivalarrangements. The preparations arebasically made in the enclosures, thecentral headquarters, and the manyother workshops. At the centralheadquarters, a team of artists works,making the floats.20 Other headquartersare scattered throughout the town. Theyouth groups that compose the basis ofthe Ox performances are called tribes.Each tribe has its own costume andrehearses its own choreography. Theartist in charge of the tribe’s rehearsalsand the making of its costumes is calledthe tribe’s chief and organizes its owntribe’s headquarter. The toadas arecomposed in January and February, andhouse competitions decide whicheighteen toadas are to be included on thegroups’ official CDs. These selectedtoadas are then going to “animate theOx” (Ronaldo Barbosa, composer forCaprichoso; interview, 1996). At theenclosures, the band, percussion, and


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lead singer rehearse, and the fans showoff and rehearse the different dance stepsof each toada.

As festival time approaches, the twoOx groups avoid each other more thanever. The collective behavior is full ofprohibitions and taboos: the name of theother Ox group is never mentioned; it ismerely called “the other.” The strongcolors representing each Ox are blue(Caprichoso) and red (Garantido). It isunimaginable (or pure provocation) toattend the rehearsal of an Ox wearing theother’s colors, even if discreetly.Anything that is a reminder of the otherOx group must be avoided. ThePortuguese verbs garantir (to guarantee)and caprichar (to elaborate somethingvery carefully, trying to excel) are eachbanished from the vocabulary of theother group.21 The townspeople joke andcomment that, at this time, husbands andwives who cheer for opposing Ox groupsseparate. When it is time for the festival,the townspeople and fans mark out theirterritories, decorating the streets withflags and paintings in their Ox colors.

Behind the scenes and at rehearsals,this rivalry means secrecy. Nothing mustbe disclosed to the other group,especially the surprise effects that areshared exclusively within the Ox’s artdirector’s team, to be revealed only at theperformance.

On the eve of the festival,representatives of each group sign adocument with the contest’s rules. Whenthe square dances have ended at thearena, the Ox groups offer a smallpreview of their display to test the soundand light equipment.

Rivalry and differentiation between theOx groups

On the evenings of June 28, 29, and 30,Caprichoso and Garantido confront eachother in a renewed contest. Each Ox hasaround 3,500 players, and every evening,the costumes, floats, and legends arevaried in performances that last no morethan three hours. Around 45,000 peoplefill the arena’s stands. A great part ofthem belong to the Ox groups’ galeras(each with about 15,000 fans), who havefree seats in the red (western) or blue(eastern) painted halves of the stands.The galeras arrive early in the afternoonand wait with strong anticipation for theperformance to begin. They will sing,dance, and produce many visual specialeffects throughout the show. While onegalera is intensely participating in its Oxgroup performance, the other will beseated very quietly. It will of course loseimportant points if it disturbs theopponent’s presentation.

From the galera’s viewpoint, eachevening brings alternating experiencesof passion towards its own Ox group andattentive and lucid observation of theopponent’s performance. A famoustoadas composer, Chico da Silva, saysvery perceptively, “In Parintins, peoplewill always love one Ox group andappreciate the other” (interview, 1996).The best observer of an Ox performanceis likely to be a member of the opponentgalera who, watching quietly, carefully,and very critically the other’spresentation, becomes, in spite ofhimself, the other’s greatest admirer.Knowledge and admiration are,however, part of the strong rivalry that


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links one Ox group to the other, and thesewill be transformed into the deephumiliation of the loser when the winneris announced. On July 1, after theannouncement of the contest’s result,when the tourists and visitors are alreadygone, the winning group gathers at itsenclosure from whence it starts aninformal parade through the streets. Atthe central street that divides the towninto the two Ox groups’ moities, fightsand quarrels occur. The parade’sdestination is the stadium arena, whichthen belongs entirely to the winner,whose victory celebrations consistbasically in humiliating and offendingthe absent loser with jokes anddegrading allusions to their players, andin subverting their toadas’ poetry withjoking motifs.

At the evening performances,however, rivalry is controlled by formalrules and is mediated by artisticexpression. The competition’s limitationto two contesting groups is countered byrepetition—each Ox group presents itselfthree times—and has resulted in theexpansion and elaborate internalsophistication of the performances. TheParintins Ox groups have added anotherannual theme to the traditional motif ofthe death and resurrection of a preciousox. In doing so, they have expanded andopened the performances to incorporatethe vast symbolic universe ofAmazonian myths, the modernecological banner, and a new look at thenative Indian groups. From the 1980sonwards, this new approach, especiallywith the enhancement of the indigenouselements and the ecological banner, hasjoined the contemporary trends that now

pervade Amazonian environmentalismand indigenist policies.22

This superposition of motifs is thebasis of the performance’s artisticrichness. The sequence of scenes,composed by different dramatic actions,work as fragments of meaning looselyconnected to each other, relating themultiplicity of motifs that find their wayinto the performance. Roughly speaking,the scenes can be divided in two idealtypes: those that relate to the Ox mythicalmotif and those that derive from theannual slogan based on regional andindigenous motifs. A very clear exampleof this second type is, for instance, a scenecalled “Amazonian legend” that enactseach evening a different legend, bringingto the arena its respective characters.

The content of the annual variabletheme, emphasizing regional andindigenous motifs, expresses thereforean agreement between the Ox groups.Nevertheless, their way of doing thisgreatly distinguishes their respectivestyles today. Where Garantido defends“tradition,” Caprichoso adopts a moreinnovative discourse. Garantido has,however, been demanding a freer reinin addressing the annual slogan. In theirview, “People must understand that oneof the Ox Dance features is not to adoptone single theme uniting the threeevenings’ performances.” Or: “We wantto play; we are committed not to thetheme but rather to the toadas and to thefolklore characters. . . . The Ox Dance isnot concerned with logical sequences.We perform freely, we . . . are in thecontext of the merrymaking tradition . ..” (Emília Faria, Art Director forGarantido; interview, 1996). Caprichoso,


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on the other hand, has been innovatingspecifically toward more unity in thethree-evening sequence. Art DirectorSimão Assayag wrote an elaboratelibretto for the 1996 show, naming it a“caboclo (mestizo) folk opera,” in whicheach evening’s performance wasconceived as a different act integratingone single story.

It would, however, be misleadingsimply to interpret the history of theGarantido Ox group as more“traditional” and that of Caprichoso asmore “modern.” The current oppositionis to be understood as a particularmoment in the Ox Dance’s evolution. Inprevious years, the “traditionalist” and“modernizing” positions had actuallybeen inverted. In the festival’s context,these terms are mainly discourse devices,serving to create separate identities forthe two Ox groups, who must remainopposed, no matter how closely linkedthey are to each other. The stabilizationof new aesthetic standards and thematicemphases also requires the constructionof differences in style.

The Ox Dance performances

It is interesting to contrast the Ox Danceto another awesome festival, the sambaschools’ parade in Rio de Janeiro(Cavalcanti 1994, 1999). Both festivals aremagnificent contests and displays ofmassive proportions. They do, however,differ greatly in their structure andsymbolic meaning.

The carnival parade is a dancedprocession: A samba school passes in acontinuous linear flow before the

spectator, who participates freely, singingand dancing together with the schools,cheering them on, or merely appreciatingthe show. It is an open championship, asbefits a large urban center. There are fiverankings, gathering together around 60samba schools coming from differentneighborhoods. Each year the winnersand the losers of each ranking arepromoted or demoted one level up ordown. The parade’s narrative pattern isorganized by a specific theme, renewedeach year, sung to a samba tune andvisually represented by floats, costumes,and special parade components. Thecombination of the unvarying formalelements with the yearly-renewed thememakes the parade a rich and flexibleevent. The samba school parade hasaccompanied the changes in the city ofRio de Janeiro throughout the twentiethcentury, spreading to many otherBrazilian cities.

The Parintins Ox Dance is a Junefestival, with deep roots in the region andin the Catholic religious calendar aroundit. It is a radical contest between twocontenders in a small Amazonian town.One will win and the other must lose.Parintins, however, intends to address allBrazil, and has organized a festival ofrare beauty and complexity that followsits own original pattern.

On the first night of the festival, aspeaker announces, “Brazil will judgethe Ox Dance.” The phrase indicates howthe jury is composed. Presided over byrepresentatives of each Ox group, itconsists of six members, appointed aftera lottery among the Brazilian states,excepting Northern ones and thosedrawn in the previous year.23 The jury is


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presented to the public, and the show ofthe first group opens with the entranceof the master of ceremonies, followed bythe lead singer and the percussionorchestra that accompanies all thetoadas, who take positions on the sideof the arena that belongs to its Ox group.

The master of ceremonies plays a keyrole requiring a communicative andcharismatic personality. He will stay inthe arena throughout the show,mediating the relation of the Ox groupplayers to the public in the stadium. Heintroduces all the play’s characters andthe different scenes that compose theperformance. Together with the leadsinger, he establishes a very intense andclose communication with the galera,fully integrating it into the Ox grouppresentation, inviting the singing of theappropriate toadas for both charactersand scenes. With the three elements ofmaster of ceremonies, lead singer, andpercussion orchestra, the artisticbackground for the performance’sdevelopment is set.

The performance consists of a loosesequence of scenes of danced dramaticactions, built around specific motifs,centered in certain characters, andalways accompanied by appropriatetoadas. These sequences have nonecessary order except for the ritualscene that always closes theperformances. Different allegorical floats(6 in each evening) compose the visualbackground for the different scenes.Brought on in separate parts that areassembled in the arena before thespectators’ eyes, these floats also providefor many surprises and visual effects.Youths in colorful costumes, divided into

male and female “tribes” (100 membersof each tribe, 30 tribes in each Ox group,and fifteen tribes per evening) enter thearena displaying their ownchoreography. They continue enteringthe arena until it is totally filled up withthe entire Ox group. Their constant andgradual entry fills the intermissionsbetween the different scenes, in whichthey also participate. Similarly, the galerasactivities in the stands assist in the arrivalof mythical creatures or importantcharacters that may sometimes enter thearena from the stands.

The characters in the performance arein accordance with the diversity of motifsthat underlies the composition of thescenes. There are the constant characters,related to the Ox mythical motif, such asthe farmer’s daughter (Sinhazinha), theox itself, the ox owner (amo do boi), PaFrank (Pai Francisco) and Ma Katie (MãeCatirina), the witchdoctor, and even therecently renamed Cunhã Poranga(“beautiful girl” in the Tupi language).Some of the group characters like thecowboys (vaquejada), the Indian tribes,and the Indian chiefs (tuxáuas) may alsobe rooted in this traditional motif.

Other characters, however, derivefrom the variable annual motifs drawnfrom the wide universe of Amazonianlegends and history. These differentlevels of meaning frequently interweave,never coinciding totally with each other.For instance, in 1996, one long scene (ofabout an hour and a half) presented byCaprichoso had Brazil’s discovery by thePortuguese as its central motif. TheTupinambarana Island, where Parintinsis located, was the imagined site of thefirst encounter of the Portuguese with the


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native Indians. In this context, thecharacters of Pa Frank and Ma Katie,coming from the Ox motif, appeared asthe jesters of the Portuguese royal family.Finally, characters like the Queen ofFolklore or the Flag Bearer seem to bederived simply from the festival’sexpanding artistic needs.

The arrival of individual charactersis always designed to elicit surprise. Theymay arrive from the stands, from the skyas if hanging in the air, or from theinterior of an allegorical float. They aregreeted with fireworks, special effects,and specific toadas. Major events andhigh points, one after the other,punctuate each sequence they enact.Some, such as the marvelous tuxauas,come on stage, parade, and soon leave.Most of the players, however, stay in thearena. The ritual is performed when thewhole Ox group has gathered. It is theculmination of each evening’sperformance, a climax that marks thewitchdoctor’s main appearance, and awonderful dance. After that, the Oxgroup moves in circles as it leaves thearena.

Well-defined scenes revolve aroundthe Ox motif. Dancing and swaying tothe music, the appearance of the ox is oneof the evening’s highpoints.Manipulated by its tripa (that is, thedancer who manipulates it from withinthe “entrails”), it is accompanied by a setof characters appearing in the legend’sversions. The cowboys dance around it;the owner of the ox (amo do boi) calls hisox to play in the arena with a specialtoada; Pa Frank and Ma Katie appear asclowns, falling and stumbling around theox; the farmer’s daughter (Sinhazinha da

fazenda), a darling young lady, performsa graceful dance.

But the native characters relatingoriginally to this group have graduallycome to the fore, gaining in importance.Their roles and actions have beenenhanced and transformed by otherlevels of meaning brought to theperformance by the annually varyingmotifs related to the different regionallegends and historical accounts. This isvery clearly the case with thewitchdoctor, who has become central tonew scenes (especially the ritual climacticscene). In a different way, this is also thecase of the tuxáuas (Indian chiefs) who,divided into two categories, luxury andoriginality, multiplied to fifteen tuxáuasin each category. The tuxáuas were cutoff from any specific scene, and nowsimply parade exhibiting their huge andwonderful costumes, each representinga different regional legend. This is alsothe case of the young men and womenof the tribes, whose names, costumes,and dances are inspired by native historyand legends.

Locally invented old-time charactershave been transformed by this newtrend, as in the case of the old “Miss,” awinner of beauty contests in the region,who is now the Cunhã Poranga. TheCunhã is a wonderful and sensual dancerwho accompanies the witchdoctor andcan be related to the female Indiancharacter that appears in some variantsof the merrymaking. The themes of thetoadas have undergone a similartransformation. In 1992, one toadareferred to the Indian as the “humblepartner of the ox.” There would be noroom for this today, when the toadas’


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poetry gives much more emphasis toindigenous and regional motifs.

During the 1990s, the gradual butfirm and conscious emphasis on regionalelements of the play has created a newatmosphere. An emerging nativism, thatis, a valorization of the indigenous andcaboclo cultural elements, is present inthe Parintins Ox Dance. Thisenhancement has created a newsymbolic universe, which impliessignificant changes in relation to thetraditional pattern of the play. This newuniverse, although linked to the oxtheme, corresponds to majordisplacements. The motif of death andresurrection has faded in the scenes thatcenter around the ox theme, and hascome to seem like an allusion tosomething that was once part of the play.There is no enactment of the ox deathand resurrection in the performance.Interestingly enough, the death andresurrection motif migrated to the newlycreated indigenous symbolic universe,and gave new life to the Ox Dance.

This movement has also altered thenature of the Ox Dance as an art form.All previous descriptions of themerrymaking stress the burlesquefeatures of the play. This comic trait isstill present in the Parintins Ox Dance,basically in the satirical performance ofPa Frank and Ma Katie, the couple ofworkers who are represented as buffoonsin the ox theme sequences. But the tragicand solemn character of the ritual scene(the witchdoctor’s main performance)nowadays outmatches this naïve humor.This scene is always a chanted plea forthe dead Indians and their survivors,“those who once owned the land,”

according to one toada from 1996. The sadrecognition of the destruction of manynative Indian groups is, however,accompanied by regional pride, by thevalorization of the rainforest and thesurvival of current Indian groups, thecaboclo type and culture, and therichness of Amazonian history and itsmythical universe. Festive joy is herelinked to tragic worldviews in a uniquemixing of feelings. Maybe somethingnew and different really comes to lifethrough the Parintins Ox Dance. As inthe Durkheimian original rite (Durkheim1968)—the realization of society’sconsciousness of itself—the Parintins OxDance festival seems to be engaged inthe making of a contemporary vision ofan Amazonian and caboclo Brazil on itsmore conscious levels of meaning.

The open, fragmentary, and malleablecharacter of the merrymaking of the ox,a key feature since its early descriptionsin the nineteenth century, is very clear inthis new development. The Parintins OxDance is an integral part of this widertraditional universe, a fascinatingchapter in the long history of thebrincadeira do boi in Brazil. Its evolutionemerges as a cultural movement that hasadopted indigenous images asmetaphors stressing a regional cabocloidentity. Through this powerful ritualprocess, the small town, and with it thewhole Northern region, has quitesuccessfully achieved its objective ofdisplaying itself to Brazil and the world.


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Notes1 This is a first account from research inprogress. CAPES/Fulbright, the Institute forLatin American and Iberian Studies/Univer-sity of Columbia, the Federal University ofRio de Janeiro, and the Brazilian FolkloreMuseum supported this study. The peopleof Parintins and Manaus and the directors,players, and artists of the Ox Dance groupsoffered me generous assistance. Roberto DaMatta, José Reginaldo Gonçalves, and twoanonymous referees provided welcomecomments. My warmest thanks to them all.The data presented here are the result of myresearch from 1996 to 1999.2 Boi-Bumbá in the Amazonia (Salles 1970;Monteiro 1972; Menezes 1972; Bordallo1981); Bumba-meu-boi in Maranhão (Azevedo1983; Pinho de Carvalho 1995) andPernambuco (Borba Filho 1966); Boi Calembain Rio Grande do Norte; Cavalo-Marinho inParaíba (Carvalho 1971) and also inPernambuco (Murphy 1994); Bumba de reisor Reis de boi in Espírito Santo; Boi Pintadinhoin Rio de Janeiro; Boi de mamão in SantaCatarina (Soares 1978).3 For an analysis of the “Myth of the threeraces” as a foundation of the Brazilian na-tionality, see Da Matta 1987.4 O Farol Maranhense [The Maranhense Light-house]. 1829. 7 July.5 Avé-Lallémant (1812-1884), physician, wasborn in Lübeck, Germany. He practicedmedicine in Brazil between 1838 and 1855,and made two reported trips, one to theprovince of Rio Grande do Sul and the otherto the Amazonia. Cf. Cascudo 1965, 137-140.6 For the idea of a “Brazilian Catholic na-tionality” and a discussion of the importanceof the festivals for the “aesthetic melting pot”in the formation of nineteenth century Bra-zilian culture, see Abreu 1998.7 Current official data is 41,591 inhabitantsin the urban zone; 17,192 inhabitants in the

rural zone, totaling 58,783 inhabitants in thecounty. The neighboring town to the Northis Nhamundá; to the South, Barreirinha; tothe West, Urucurituba; and to the East thestate of Pará.8 Parintins has the largest herd of cattle andbuffaloes in the Amazonas state, with120,000 heads. Wood production and fishingare also major activities. Wood and furniturefirms are the highlights of the smallindustrial sector, considered to be the mostdeveloped upstate. Parintins has around 700retail and wholesale stores selling a widerange of goods. Source: Parintins Town Hall.9 Slater (1994) chose the town as the basiccenter for her research on the Amazonianlegend of the dolphin.10 The importance of the Diocese is relatedto the provision of formal education by localCatholic schools and by the priests’ activitiesin the hinterlands. Protestantdenominations, especially Baptists, are alsopresent.11 Although the terrain is completely flat, thecitizens refer to the area upstream in this way,taking the Amazonas river course as themain reference of direction.12 The precise dates vary in a history that isbasically oral and in which there is a rivalryfactor.13 Raimundo Muniz was elected towncouncil member three times. He comments,with his lively eyes sparkling with emotion:“I don’t have any resentment at all for whatthe town hall did, I think that I did my duty,and I am rightfully proud of what I did,making a festival that is known all over thecountry today. When my eyes close, I shallbe leaving everyone dancing and singing”(interview, 1999).14 From 1995 onward, a few other industriesjoined in the patronage of the festival.15 In 1995, the Ox groups sold the arena rightsto TV Amazonas, local broadcaster for the


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Globo network (the main televisionbroadcaster in Brazil) until 1999. The contractwas then renewed.16 In 1996, the budget for the festival wasaround one million dollars. The stategovernment gave $250,000; the FederalMinistry of Culture gave $250,000; TVAmazonas, $80,000; and Coca-Cola,$100,000. Other Brazilian corporations, suchas Suvinil Painting Industry and HavaianasFootwear, and the Ox group themselvesprovided the rest.17 In 1997, Manaus held its fiftieth festivaland Parintins its thirty-second.18 For an overview of contemporaryBrazilian folk music, see Vianna 1998.Despite the publicity in 1996, the toadasremain a regional beat.19 The bands generally consist of a solo singerand musicians who play the synthesizer,ukelele, guitar, bass, drum, caixetas, andrattle. In 1997, in the wake of the toadas’success on the national and internationalmarket, Polygram bought the recording andmarketing rights to the Ox groups’ officialCDs.20 Approximately one hundred and fifty-fivepeople work for two months at the centralheadquarters, in addition to another fiftywho push the floats to the arena during thefestival days.21 Coca-Cola itself, whose brand color is red,had to bow to these taboos. Its advertisingon the Caprichoso side of the arena is blue.22 Discussing contemporary indigenistpolicies in the Amazon region, Conklin(1997) has pointed out how the election ofvisual exoticism (nudity, body paint, colorfulornaments), as a kind of political badge fortransnational audiences, implied acommodification of indigenous images, andcould ultimately work against BrazilianIndians’ interests. The use of Indian images,motifs, and costumes by the Parintins Ox

Dance should, however, be considered in thecontext of another wider and older trend.Brazilian folklore has includedrepresentations of Indians since at least theeighteenth century. The Romantic BrazilianMovement, dating from the nineteenthcentury, has also made the Indian a kind ofa cultural hero.23 The jury grades twenty-two items: Masterof ceremonies; Lead singer; Percussion;Ritual; Standard bearer; Owner of the ox;Farmer’s daughter; Queen of the folklore;Cunhã Poranga (pretty girl); Ox; Toadas(lyrics and music); Witchdoctor; Male tribes;Female tribes; Tuxaua (Indian chief) luxury;Tuxaua (Indian chief) originality; Typicalregional figures; Allegoric floats; Amazonlegend; Cowboys; Galeras; Ox group.

Works Cited

Abreu, Martha. 1998. Mello MoraesFilho: festas, tradições popularese identidade nacional [MelloMoraes Filho: Festivities,Popular Traditions and NationalIdentity]. A história contada[History Retold]. Edited byChaloub, Sidney and LeonardoAlfonso de Pereira. Rio deJaneiro: Editora Nova Fronteira.

Andrade, Mário. 1982. Danças dramáticasdo Brasil [Dramatic Dances inBrazil]. Belo Horizonte: EditoraItatiaia/Instituto Nacional doLivro/ Fundação Nacional Pró-Memória.

Avé-Lallemant, Robert. 1961. Viagem peloNorte do Brasil no ano de 1859 [AJourney in Northern Brazil in1859]. Rio de Janeiro: InstitutoNacional do Livro, Ministério daEducação e Cultura.


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Azevedo, Américo. 1983. Bumba-meu-boino Maranhão [The Dance-My-Oxin Maranhão]. São Luís:Alcantara.

Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1987. A cultura popularna Idade Média e no Renascimento[Popular Culture in the MiddleAges and the Renaissance]. SãoPaulo: Editora Hucitec.

Bateson, Gregory. 1965. Naven. 2nd ed.California: Stanford UniversityPress.

Borba Filho, Hermilo. 1966. Apresentaçãodo Bumba meu boi [A Presentationof the Dance-My-Ox]. Recife:Imprensa Universitária.

Bordallo da Silva, Armando. 1981.Contribuição ao estudo do FolcloreAmazônico na Zona Bragantina [AContribution to the Study ofAmazonian Folklore in theBragantina Zone]. 2nd ed. Pará:Funarte.

Carvalho, Rafael de. 1971. O boi da Paraíba[Ox Groups from Paraíba]. JoãoPessoa: Gráfica Mar.

Cascudo, Câmara. 1965. Antologia doFolclore Brasileiro [BrazilianFolklore Anthology]. 3rd ed. Vol.I. São Paulo: Livraria MartinsEditora.

_____.1984. Dicionário do Folclore Brasileiro[Dictionary of BrazilianFolklore]. 5th ed. Belo Horizonte:Editora Itatiaia.

Cavalcanti, Maria Laura. 1994. Carnavalcarioca: dos bastidores ao desfile[Carnival in Rio de Janeiro: fromthe Backstage to the Parade]. Riode Janeiro: Funarte / EditoraUFRJ.

_____. 1999. O rito e o tempo: ensaios sobreo carnaval [Rite and the Passageof Time: the Evolution ofCarnival in Rio]. Rio de Janeiro:Editora Civilização Brasileira.

Cerqua, Arcângelo. 1980. Clarões de fé noMédio Amazonas [Catholic Faithin the Middle Amazonas].Parintins: Prelazia de Parintins.

Conklin, Beth. 1997. Body Paint,Feathers, and VCRs: Aestheticsand Authenticity in AmazonianActivism. American Ethnologist24(4):711-737.

Da Matta, Roberto. 1979. Carnaval,malandros e heróis [Carnival,Rogues, and Heroes]. Rio deJaneiro: Jorge Zahar.

_____. 1987. Relativizando: uma introduçãoà antropologia social [AnIntroduction to SocialAnthropology]. Rio de Janeiro:Editora Rocco.

Daou, Ana. 2000. A belle époque amazônica.Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar.

Durkheim, Émile. 1968. Las formaselementales de la vida religiosa: elsistema totemico en Autralia[Elementary Forms of ReligiousLife: the Totemic System inAustralia]. Buenos Aires:Editorial Schapir.

Freud, Sigmund. 1965. The Interpretationof Dreams. 8th ed. New York: AvonBooks.

Galvão, Eduardo. 1951. Boi-bumbá:versão do Baixo Amazonas [OxDance: a Version from the LowerAmazonas River]. RevistaAnhembi 3(8):275-291.


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Gennep, Arnold van. 1960. The Rites ofPassage. London: Routledge &Kegan Paul.

Lopes Gama, Miguel do Sacramento.1996. A estultice do Bumba-meu-boi [The Ox Dance Folly]. OCarapuceiro: cronicas de costumes.São Paulo: Companhia dasLetras.

Mauss, Marcel. 1978. Essai sur le don.Sociologie et anthropologie. 6th ed.Paris: Presses Universitaires deFrance.

Menezes, Bruno. 1972. Boi-Bumbá: autopopular [The Ox Dance: a FolkPlay]. 2nd ed. Belém: ImprensaOficial.

Meyer, Marlyse. 1990. O elementofantástico numa forma de teatropopular brasileiro: o Bumba-meu-boi [The Fantastic Elementin a Brazilian Folk Play]. Pirineuse Caiçaras: da Commedia dell’arteao Bumba-meu-boi. Campinas:Editora da UniversidadeEstadual de Campinas.

Monteiro, Mario Ypiranga. 1972. Folclore:danças dramáticas [Folklore:Dramatic Dances]. Manaus:EMAMTUR.

Murphy, John. 1994. Performing a MoralVision: an Ethnography ofCavalo-Marinho. A BrazilianMusic Drama. Ph.D. diss.,Columbia University.

Paes Loureiro, João de Jesus. 1997.Cultura Amazônica: uma poética doimaginário [Amazonian Culture:a Poetics of the Imaginary].Belém: Centro de EstudosJurídicos do Pará.

Peacock, James. 1974. Rites ofModernization: Symbols and SocialAspects of Indonesian ProletarianDrama. Chicago and London:University of Chicago Press.

Pinho de Carvalho, Maria Michol. 1995.O Bumba-Boi do Maranhão: umestudo da tradição/modernidade nacultura popular [The Ox Dance inMaranhão: Tradition andModernity in Popular Culture].São Luís: Edição do autor.

Queiroz, Maria Isaura. 1967. Bumba-meu-boi, manifestação do teatropopular no Brasil [The Dance-My-Ox: Folk Theatre in Brazil].Revista do Instituto de EstudosBrasileiros 2:87-97.

Reis, Arthur Cezar. 1931. História doAmazonas [A History of theAmazonas State]. Manaus:Officinas Typográphicas de A.Reis.

Salles, Vicente. 1970. O Boi-Bumbá nociclo junino [The Ox Dance in theJunine Cycle of Festivities]. BrasilAçucareiro, 38:27-33.

Slater, Candace. 1994. Dance of theDolphin: Transformation andDisenchantment in the AmazonianImagination . Chicago andLondon: University of ChicagoPress.

Soares, Doralécio. 1978. Boi de mamãocatarinense [The Merrymaking ofthe Ox in Santa Catarina].Cadernos de folclore, no. 27. Riode Janeiro: Ministério deEducação e Cultura,Departamento de AssuntosCulturais, Fundação Nacional de


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Arte, Campanha de Defesa doFolclore Brasileiro.

Souza, Márcio. 1994. Breve História daAmazônia [A Short History ofAmazonia]. São Paulo: EditoraMarco Zero.

Tambiah, Stanley. 1985. Culture, Thought,and Social Action. Cambridge:Harvard University Press.

Teixeira, Sérgio Alves. 1992. Garantido eCaprichoso: os deslumbrantesbois-bumbás de Parintins [TheWonderful Ox Groups ofParintins]. Boletim da AssociaçãoBrasileira de Antropologia 1992:15-16.

Turner, Victor. 1967. The Forest of Symbols:Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ithacaand London: Cornell UniversityPress.

_____. 1974. Drama, Fields, and Metaphors:Symbolic Action in Human Society.Ithaca and London: CornellUniversity Press.

Vianna, Hermano. 1998. Música enplural: nuevas identidadesbrasileñas. Revista de CulturaBrasileña 1: 153-165.


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Jeffrey G. SnodgrassColorado State University

USA

B y way of response to MariaCavalcanti’s vivid ethnography,I would like to compare the

Amazonian Ox Dance Festival to aritual feast practiced by a South Asiancommunity known as Bhats. Bhats—literally, “Bards”—are semi-nomadicentertainers of low status from theIndian state of Rajasthan; I haveconducted nearly three years ofethnographic research with membersof this caste community.1 On the birthof sons, though not daughters, Bhatsoffer gifts to the Hindu god Bhaironji, apan-Indian “boss” of the underworld.Any number of Indian castes mark thebirths of children with gifts to this god,who is believed to place child-spiritsin wombs of mothers. But Bhats do soin a manner particularly grotesque tothose not familiar to the ritual. Theyextract a goat’s stomach, slice it open,and pass their wailing newbornthrough the dripping slit seven times.All this takes place over a “well” (kund)dug into the ground in which the goat’sblood and entrails—the goat’s throat isritually slit before disembowelment—are dumped. This “well” issymbolically equated with theBhaironji’s stomach; and Bhaironji,ruled by his stomach, is said to screamfor the blood of animals and children.The child, who is passed over and attimes into this well-stomach, isbelieved to be “digested” by Bhaironji,symbolically sating this god’s ravenous

hunger for human flesh, and assuringthat the deity will not actually “eat” thechild.

This birth ritual is framed by a mythdescribing the birth of the god Bhaironjihimself—or at least one localincarnation of this god referred to asMalasi-Bhaironji. As the story goes,Malasi-Bhaironji was a Jat, a memberof a Rajasthani agricultural caste. Hewas visiting his wife’s sister in the townof Malasi. He was in a lustful mood,teasing the women of the village, andespecially his sister-in-law, with sexualinnuendo. He also touched his sister-in-law’s body in “dirty” ways,caressing her genitals through herclothing, thus hoping to entice her intointercourse. In one version of the story,he successfully seduced his sister-in-law, and the two engaged in consensualsex. In another, he raped her. In eithercase, the two were caught in the act—and in some versions of the tale, thewoman became pregnant. The enragedmen of the village of Malasisubsequently grabbed the lecherousman, hung him upside-down in a well,slammed him forcefully against thewell’s walls, and bludgeoned him todeath. After his untimely death,however, the murdered man’s spiritlingered, haunting the villagers’dreams. Though terrifying, this spiritwould inform the women of Malasiwhen they could expect to becomepregnant. As many of the predictionsproved to be true and the spirit’s famegrew, a temple was set up next to thewell where this man was killed.Infertile women hoping to be blessedwith offspring now travel from afar to

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make offerings to the shrine of thismurder victim, worshipped as a kindof fertility god.

This Bhat ritual, and especially in itsunderlying myth, seems to mereminiscent of the Amazonian festivaldescribed by Cavalcanti. In theBrazilian case, a pregnant wife—MaKatie—craves a forbidden foodobject—the tongue of an ox owned byher husband’s boss. Such craving leadsMa Katie’s husband, the black ranchhand Pa Frank, to steal and then killhis employer’s ox. Pa Franksubsequently flees into the forest, butis hunted down by local Indians hiredby his boss. However, with a magicalhelper, and after a few misadventures,Pa Frank manages to resuscitate theslaughtered ox, thus avoidingpunishment from his boss’s cronies. Inthe Bhat case, the lusty Jat—and insome cases his wife’s younger sister—craves forbidden sex. Such desire leadsto illicit intercourse and an unwantedpregnancy. The Jat man, who like PaFrank is described as black,presumably tries to flee from the townof Malasi into the Rajasthani jungle—taking refuge in the jungle is a commonmotif in local folk-tales. But, unlike PaFrank, the unlucky Jat is caught andmurdered. The Bhat tale, then, concernsa desire for forbidden sex rather thanfor forbidden meat as in the Brazilianexample. But, in the Bhats’ ritualsacrifice to the god Bhaironji, suchdesires get jumbled. As an example, theyoung Bhat mother is said to beperceived by the god Bhaironji as“tasty”—sexually and thusmetaphorically as well as literally.

Moreover, this young mother is said tobe herself ravenous for food, andsometimes for sex, like the godBhaironji; she thus demands thechoicest items from the sacrificialgoat—its testicles, eyeballs, andtongue—thus bringing this Bhat ritualeven closer to the Brazilian festival.

Each of these myths seems tocomment on the dangerous nature ofhuman desire—dangerous, perhaps,because such desires do not respectsocial boundaries of class (Brazil) andkin (India). In the Amazonian tale,sexual desire leads to a pregnancywhich in turn sets in motion a series oftransgressions—a forbidden theft of anox for its tongue, and the hunting downof poor Pa Frank. In the story ofBhaironji, likewise, sexual desire leadsto forbidden intercourse, unwantedpregnancy, murder, and the birth of adangerously unpredictable if alluringgod of the underworld—who, I mightadd, is seen by Bhats as almosthumorous in his grotesquely forwardexpressions of desire, “howling” forfood and sex as he does. But, howeverdangerous, human desire also figuresin each of these mythic contexts asessential to social and biologicalreproduction. The two tales along withtheir ritual contexts, then, are notsimple condemnations of desire.Rather, each comments—in avocabulary of pregnancy, race(blackness), craving for tongues,animal sacrifice, and murder—on theway human desire inevitably bringsdeath as well as rebirth. These, then,are myths of transformation in whichbeginnings bring ends which in turn


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lead to new beginnings.The ambivalent commentary of the

tales on human desire would seem toexplain, at least in part, the multiplicityof tone characteristic of these twocelebrations. For example, the dances,songs, and processions of the twoneighborhood Ox Dance groups—thered fans of Garantido (the Safe Ox) andthe blue fans of Caprichoso (theCapricious Ox)—are not meremerrymaking. Rather, the desires,pleasures, and skills of one group arealways pitted against the desires,pleasures, and skills of an opposinggroup—manifested, for example, inplayfully taunting songs andprovocative dances. In the festival,then, as in the underlying myth, theexpression of desire is inextricablybound up with danger and violence—and, according to Cavalcanti, the twogroups do sometimes come to blows.One might imagine, moreover, thatsimilar conflicts emerged historicallybetween Amazonian Indians and theCatholic Church—especially given thatlocal festivities such as the Ox Dancesometimes explicitly parody Christianpersonages. The Bhat feast, too, onmany levels, is a bawdy and raucouscelebration of desire—the gift of thegoat-stomach is offered in a chaoticallyrevelous atmosphere, replete withkisses dripping with saliva and sweat,monumental over-eating, passing out,bone-crushing hugs, and occasionalvomiting. Even closer to Bhaironji’sexpression of desire, Bhats engage inflirting and even groping of otherpersons’ wives and husbands—behavior which on this particular

occasion is sanctioned (it imitates themodel of the god), though not alwaystolerated, leading in some cases to rockfights. This Bhat feast, though in somesense a celebration of desire, istherefore also encircled by a dangerousundercurrent of violence. This isseemingly exacerbated by the fact thatthe Bhat feast violates certain dominantcodes of propriety related to bodilyimpurity—for example, bringing Bhatsand their progeny into intimate contactwith, by Brahmanic standards, themost disgusting substances, not theleast of which, a disembodied goatstomach coated with partially digestedgrasses and garbage (goats scavenge),feces, and blood. As an affront todominant sensibilities—perhaps akinto the Ox Dance Festival’s mockery ofCatholic morality—this feast, howevercelebratory of desire and pleasure, isfurther tainted by danger.

But here the similarities between thetwo ritual celebrations would seem toend. With all the new innovations inthe Ox Dance, Cavalcanti suggests thatthe underlying myth of the death andresurrection of the ox has been for themost part lost. Instead, the festival hasbecome a slickly organized massspectacle, modeled loosely onCarnaval, which in some way isperceived as emblematic of nationalBrazilian—that is, mestizo or caboclo—identity. Bhats, too, market their “folk”culture in various ways. Working nowas so-called “traditional” puppeteers(though this work is relatively new forthem), they pose for tourists in state-organized folklore festivals; they hawkpuppets to tourists in five-star hotels


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throughout India; and some Bhatsrecord traditional folk ballads for AllIndia Radio, even making their owncassettes and CDs for sale in themarket. Bhats, like the Ox DanceFestival, have thus become emblematicof a “traditional” national identity; theyare sold, and sell themselves, as livingartifacts of the nation’s past. Bhats,however, do not allow their ritualoffering to the god Bhaironji to be usedin such a manner. Bhats do not evenlet outsiders (besides the occasionalanthropologist ) view it. It is aneminently private, even secret, affair.As a result, its intricate relationship tothe underlying myth—and thus to thethemes of desire, death, and birth—remain central to the festivities.

As to why these two feasts whichundoubtedly share many features havebeen used so variously in the nationalarena, I do not have an easy answer. Imight suggest that we return to themesof desire, so central to each of thesefeasts, as they have been uniquelyfigured in Brazilian and Indian nationalstereotypes. In Brazil, as I understandit, the celebration of physical desire hasbecome the very emblem of nationalidentity, especially as it is sold tooutsiders such as tourists. It is notsurprising to me that the Ox DanceFestival, commenting as it does onbodily desire, is drawn into such adiscourse; nor is it surprising that themore ambivalent commentaries ondesire, the underlying theme of thedangers associated with human wantas expressed in the death andresurrection of the ox, for example,drop out in order to bring the ritual

more in line with the nationalstereotype of libertine excess. India,however, is sold to tourists and Indiansalike as a place with an ancient history.Such a history, moreover, is said to berooted in ancient religions—in variouslocal ethics of restraint and moraluprightness. To simplify, tourists visitIndia for enlightenment rather thansex. This explains why Bhats, whenthey are used to market India tooutsiders, put on puppet playsdescribing ancient battles betweenupright Hindu kings and outsiderinvaders (Muslim and Christian)—thatis, dramas describing the moral defenseof a culturally rich and religiouslyunique homeland. It would also seemto explain why the Bhats’ ritual offeringto Bhaironji, given its ambivalent andtypically bawdy commentary onhuman desire, would not be so used.Bhats, not wishing to reveal how outof sync with dominant morality theymight be, would not allow it; the Indianstate, for similar reasons, does notdesire it.

Ritual performances are languagesthrough which groups establish theircharacter by identification andopposition with other groups. Suchlanguages are undoubtedly in partuniversalistic—articulating, forexample, a certain relationship to theuniversal theme of human desire, be itfor meat, sex, or the blood of others. Butthese languages seem to be culturallyspecific: after all, Pa Frank survives thethreat to his person brought on by hisand his wife’s transgressions (at leastin one Northern version of the BrazilianOx Dance tale), while the young Jat


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from Rajasthan is not so lucky. Suchcultural specificity becomes even morepronounced when one takes intoaccount the projects of the world’svarious nation-states—reworking folktraditions either to celebratedebauchery or to condemn it.Cavalcanti’s description of theAmazonian Ox Dance Feast, andhopefully my description of a similarBhat celebration, then, would seem topoint to a kind of double elaborationwhich may be characteristic of mythand ritual in each of these contexts. Thehuman body provides a fertilereservoir of images and themes whichare elaborated into culturally specificmyths and rituals. Such myths andrituals, in turn, can be furthermanipulated by the nation-state to saynew kinds of things. Nature becomesculture, and then culture again. And,in the process, myth and ritual, alreadyfertile languages, yield even morebounties.

Notes1Articles on Bhat religion and ritual prac-tice by the author may be found in forth-coming issues of the Journal of the RoyalAnthropological Institute (December 2001),Cultural Anthropology (February 2002), andAmerican Ethnologist.

Francisco Vaz da SilvaUniversity of Lisbon

Portugal

I n this stimulating article, Maria- Laura Cavalcanti proposes to

understand the Boi-Bumbá festivalin relation to the dynamics of itssociological background in a specificcontext, the Amazonian town ofParintins. Rightly implying that aromantic standpoint concerning folkculture tends to miss what is actuallyout there, Cavalcanti uses her ownethnographic inquiry to show thecapacity of Brazilian folk culture totransform and update itself. The authoracknowledges that the festival hasmanaged to preserve, through anddespite changes, strong traditionalcharacteristics; and she states that, inthe overall development she studies,“the taut relationship betweenpermanence and change . . . drawsattention to the celebration’s deep-rooted cultural meanings.” Moreover,refusing to consider such meanings “asthe lost haven of a harmoniousuniverse, threatened by the modernworld,” Cavalcanti suggests that theyare put to use, through symbolic action,to promote cultural identity in achanging context.

Arguably, the two notions ofsymbolic action and cultural identityprovide the main unifying thread toCavalcanti’s essay. One basic idea inher article is that, although an original“mythical motif of the death andresurrection of a precious ox” providesan axis to the Parintins Ox Dance, the“fragmentary nature and flexibility ofthe plot” allows for the integration of


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local requirements and meanings.More precisely, Cavalcanti suggeststhat the festival’s evolution has broadlyconsisted in, on the one hand, thegradual incorporation of locallypertinent themes—“the vast symbolicuniverse of Amazonian myths, themodern ecological banner, and a newlook at the native Indian groups”—tothe constant framework of rivalrybetween two oxen; and, on the otherhand, in the institutionalization of thisrivalry into a festival contest, so as to“embody an important contrast in thesocial morphology and organization ofParintins.” Hence, Cavalcanti argues,this festival has become a badge ofregional cultural identity as well as abadge for organizing competinggroups of players. Indeed, shemaintains, the festival is able torepresent the town as a unified wholeby embodying an important contrast inthe social morphology andorganization of Parintins. Cavalcantiaptly summarizes this trend of heranalysis by invoking “the Durkheimianoriginal rite”—“the realization ofsociety’s consciousness of itself”—before going on to suggest that theoverall evolution of the Parintins OxDance “emerges as a culturalmovement that has adoptedindigenous images as metaphorsstressing a regional caboclo identity.Through this powerful ritual process,the small town, and with it the wholeNorthern region, has quite successfullyachieved its objective of displayingitself to Brazil and the world.”

This overall argument seems to mevery plausible as far as it goes. Throughit, we do get a clear idea about the

function of the festival in terms of theassessment of a caboclo regionalidentity. My one regret is that we areleft with but scarce clues as to how thepresent-day integration of localelements fits within the traditionaltheme that still gives the festival itsframework—for this theme itself isscarcely considered in the first place.Although Cavalcanti acknowledgesthat “the Parintins Ox Dance is anintegral part of a single ritual cycle thatencompasses different forms of a verytraditional and widespread Brazilianfolk play,” and adds that in this wideruniverse “a considerable unity derivesfrom the always-present allusion to thesame mythical motif,” she explicitlyforegoes a specific analysis of thismotif. I am not sure that this is aproductive option, for it amounts toconsidering details while disregardingtheir thematic context. Cavalcantiherself allows that, through themomentous changes she describes,“the death and resurrection motifmigrated to the newly createdindigenous symbolic universe, andgave new life to the Ox Dance.” Whichamounts to saying that a fundamentalconnection of the Ox Dance to a themeof death and resurrection prevailsdespite, or rather through, changes.

To my mind, this raises thepossibility that what Cavalcanti calls “anew symbolic universe” of emergingnativism need not be opposed to “thetraditional pattern of the play”—that,in other words, the “new symbolicuniverse” could be best seen as a localtransformation of the traditionalpattern that still frames it. In whatfollows, I wish to explore briefly this


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possibility. Not being a specialist inBrazilian folklore, I will rely on bothethnographical data provided byCavalcanti and on a homeopathic useof comparative elements. I have tostress that what I am about to offer isassumedly speculative; no more thana preliminary venture into the symbolicpossibilities of some leads leftunexplored in Cavalcanti’s rich article.

Let me start from the author’s clearassertion that the “mythical motif” ofthe death and resurrection of a preciousox “always appears to symbolize thestart of a new social order.” Here Iwould note that, since the festivitiesassociated with it throughout Brazilhappen at such liminal times assolstices and Carnival, a cosmicdimension seems to be involved. In thislight, the death and resurrection of anox, of all animals, might start to makesense. On a transcultural scale, the ox’shorns make this animal singularly aptas a symbol of the lunar process ofcyclic rebirth through death (Briffault1927, 3: 191–95; Gimbutas 1982, 91–93;1989, 265–72; cf. Chassany 1989, 194–96; Gaignebet and Florentin 1974, 135–36, 158–61; Ginzburg 1991, 226–49).Thus, in African ritual for example,transitions between the old and a newsocial order famously involve thesacrifice of oxen (Kuper 1961, chap. 13;cf. Beidelman 1966; Heusch 1985, chap.5; Kuper 1973); and African datasuggest the identity, in a cosmologicalsetting, of the dead king with thesacrificed ox, from the grave of whichthe new king will mystically arise alongwith a new social order (Cartry 1987;cf. Fortes 1967, 12, 15). In this light,could the killing and resuscitation of

the ox by African characters, as well asthe involvement of Indians—“thosewho once owned the land,” standingfor the regenerative land itself—in theprocess leading to rebirth, make somesense? At any rate, this parallelism callsattention to the link between Indiansand a liminal phase of death ending inregeneration in the “myth,” of whichthe “sad recognition of the destructionof many native Indian groups . . .accompanied by . . . the valorization ofthe rainforest and the survival ofcurrent Indian groups” is, seemingly,a thematic transformation in themodern play.

The comparative hypothesis of adeath and rebirth with cosmologicalimplications may be furthered, instrictly local terms, by exploring thelink between the “mythic” theme of thedead and resuscitated ox and the ritualplay consisting of a fight between oxen.Apparently, violence was always a partof the Amazonian Boi-Bumbá, the veryname of which evokes the idea of aclash or brawl, and—as Cavalcanti putsit, in short—“rivalry is at the basis ofthe performances.” In order tounderstand how this all-importantclash between oxen in praxiscorresponds to the background themeof the death and resurrection of the ox,note that in this theme of death andresurrection the usual biological axis:life (youth) à death (old age) isreversed into the metaphysical axis:death à new life. Let us consider, inthis light, some coherent features of therival oxen in Parintins. Note that theirvery opposition is keyed to that of Eastand West—the quarters, that is, of therising and setting of heavenly bodies.


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This being so, it might be significantthat the ox associated with the East is“Capricious” as a youth would be, isassociated to blue as a young starshould be, and is linked to “lower” (the“lower” section of town) as a rising starwould be; whereas the ox associatedwith the West is “Secure” as a seniorwould be, is linked to red as an old starshould be, and is associated to “upper”(the “upper” section of town) as anascended star would be. Whateverother social dimensions may beinvolved, these attributes are mutuallysupporting in suggesting an overallmodel of young stars rising in the Eastand setting in the West, oldish, in orderto rejuvenate and rise again in the East.Again, this background modelcorresponds to the “mythical” idea ofthe death and resurrection of theprecious ox, for both involve the sametheme of death leading to new life. Inother words, the possible cosmologicalconnotation of the oxen helps toexplain how a seemingly prosaic brawlbetween rival oxen enacts the“mythical” theme of death leading tonew life, in an overall image of cyclicrenovation that is essentially in tunewith the seasonal setting of the OxDance.

Let me explore this. If I am right, theindispensable annual victory of one oxover the other reenacts the prototypicaltheme of the death of the precious oxleading to his rebirth, on the model ofa star disappearing in order to reappearwith a promise of rejuvenation. Notethat, for the Indians in the Amazonianregion, the Pleiades—that mostconstant astronomical marker of seasonchange in South America, as elsewhere

(Lévi-Strauss 1964, 222–29)—woulddisappear in May, staying supposedlyhidden for a short period of time at thebottom of a well, to reappear in June(the time of the Ox Dance, at the heightof the dry season) “announcing therains, the molting of birds, and therenewal of vegetation” (224). Theannual brawl reenacts, therefore, thedeath and rebirth of the ox at the verytime period in which the reappearanceof the Pleiades announces the renewalof life on a cosmic scale. Maybe, in thisperspective, the contrastive marking ofthe two oxen with respectively a bluestar and a red heart could be associatedto the conceptual opposition of thePleiades and Corvus, sometimesconceived as a heart-shapedconstellation (236), in a common roleof seasonal markers (224–37)?Whatever the answer to this particularquestion may be, the setting of the oxenbrawl at a time of dramatic seasonalchanging would seem to confirm thecosmological symbolism of the oximage as proposed, above, in acomparative perspective.

But then, beyond the visible celestialaxis in which stars go from Eastern“birth” to Western “death,” the blueand the red oxen together wouldrepresent in their clash the invisible,antipode/underground (cf. Krappe1944), process of seasonal regenerationthrough death into new life. Note thatthe two oxen are interchangeableinsofar as, in any given year, either onecan be the defeated party; andCavalcanti comments on the overallreversibility of their positions by sayingthat what matters is that they “mustremain opposed, no matter how closely


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linked they are to each other.”Moreover, the association of blue andred with death (whence springs newlife) is widespread on a transculturalscale. For example, in a Japanese tale,a mountain woman standing for herdead mother gives an orphaned girlriches conducive to marriage. The girlmust, however, feign being a rottencorpse with worms swarming out ofher mouth when the old woman’s sons,a blue and a red ôni (a kind of troll), goby her (Seki 1963, 130–34; cf. Mayer1984, 44–46). In Japan, these red andblue ôni are clearly reminiscent of theclassical blue and red dragonsconnoting mizuchi, or water spirits(Mauclaire 1991, 71; cf. 1982, 89, 106 n.3); and the image of worms swarmingin a rotten corpse evokes that of theprimordial goddess Izanami, from thenetherworld impurity of which herhusband Izanagi brings about afundamental spurt of creation (Aston1990, 1:24, 29–30; Mauclaire 1982, 94;Philippi 1992, 61–63). Let me take mysecond example from Europe. Here, forinstance in Burgundy, red and bluewould be the colors for mourning(Verdier 1979, 138 n. 4). And a group ofDanish tales presents an old woman,standing for a dead mother accordingto two versions and dressed in blue andred according to a third, who assists abride into marriage (Holbek 1998, 460–75). Taken together, these exampleschosen from faraway parts of the worldpresent a constant association of redand blue to death and renovation—thevery same “mythical” theme that thered and blue oxen of Boi-Bumbá enact,in Brazil, every year.

Here my speculations come to aterm. Overall, I have argued that toforsake viewing the festival as a“superposition of motifs” falling into“two ideal types”—the “Ox mythicalmotif” and the “regional andindigenous motifs”—may be of somehelp in perceiving an overall coherencethat informs the ever-creativeadaptation of the “mythic” theme inthe terms of contemporary localculture. As I proposed, there isarguably a fundamental continuitybetween the “traditional” theme thatassociates death and renewal to theIndian population on the one hand,and the present-day “festive joy . . .linked to tragic worldviews” on theother. The very time of the festival isone of death and renovation accordingto native Indian conceptions (which areactually compatible with the Christianassociation of the June solstice to thewane of Saint John the Baptist inpreparation for the redeeming birth ofChrist; Gennep 1949, 1809, cf. 1733).And, of course, the witchdoctor“ritual” that always closescontemporary performances refersback to the same encompassing motifof death and resurrection. The“mythic” story, in turn, blends into thiscoherent frame the very three ethnicelements that seem to have contributedelements to the Boi-Bumbá festival, aswe know it today thanks to the richanalysis of Maria-Laura Cavalcanti.

Works Cited

Aston, William George, trans. 1990.Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan fromthe Earliest Times to A.D. 697.


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Rutland, Vermont, and Tokyo:Charles E. Tuttle.

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Cartry, Michel. 1987. Le suaire du chef.In Sous le masque de l’animal.Essais sur le sacrifice en Afriquenoire. Edited by Michel Cartry.Paris: Presses Universitaires deFrance.

Chassany, Jean-Philippe. 1989.Dictionnaire de météorologiepopulaire . 2nd ed. Paris:Maisonneuve et Larose.

Fortes, Meyer. 1967. On InstallationCeremonies. Proceedings of theRoyal Anthropological Institute ofGreat Britain and Ireland for1967:5–20.

Gaignebet, Claude, and Marie-ClaudeFlorentin. 1974. Le Carnaval:essais de mythologie populaire.Paris: Payot.

Gennep, Arnold van. 1949. Manuel defolklore français contemporain,vol. 1(4), Cycle de mai, cycle desaint-Jean et saint-Pierre. Paris:Picard.

Gimbutas, Marija. 1982. The Goddessesand Gods of Old Europe. 2nd ed.Berkeley, Los Angeles:University of California Press.

_____. 1989. The Language of the Goddess.London: Thames.

Ginzburg, Carlo. 1991. Ecstasies:Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath.Translated by RaymondRosenthal. New York: PantheonBooks.

Heusch, Luc de. 1985. Sacrifice in Africa:A Structuralist Approach .Translated by Linda O’Brienand Alice Morton. Manchester:Manchester University Press.

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Krappe, Alexander H. 1944. Antipodes.Modern Language Notes 59:441–47.

Kuper, Hilda. 1961. An AfricanAristocracy: Rank Among theSwazi . London: OxfordUniversity Press.

_____. 1973. Costume and Cosmology:The Animal Symbolism of theNcwala. Man, n.s., 8:613–30.

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Mauclaire, Simone. 1982. Le sacrificedu serpent. Cahiers de LittératureOrale 26:83–105.

_____. 1991. Serpent et féminité,métaphores du corps réel desdieux. L’Homme 117:66–95.

Mayer, Fanny Hagin, ed. 1984. AncientTales in Modern Japan: AnAnthology of Japanese Folk Tales.Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press.

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Seki, Keigo. 1963. Folktales of Japan.Chicago: Chicago UniversityPress.

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