Traveling Through Space-Time in the Manaus Boi-Bumbá

Abstract

The boi-bumbá folklore festival of the Brazilian Amazon is one regional manifestation of the national dramatic dance known as the brincadeira do boi. These festivals tell the story of Brazil’s history of colonization, missionization, and the enslavement of Africans and indigenous peoples. In this chapter, I introduce the boi-bumbá of the Amazonian city of Manaus, Brazil, and present the introduction of an important figure unique to the region: the Caboclo. While real-life caboclos are historically marginalized, mixed-race rural cultivators, in the Amazonian boi-bumbá, they are presented as larger-than-life heroic figures. Next, I present one performance of the folklore festival with in-depth ethnographic detail. Finally, using Bakhtin’s concept of the chronotope, or location in space and time peopled by a particular configuration of social actors, I offer an analysis of the chronotopic locations visited in the boi-bumbá, demonstrating how linking these together can shape new identities in the viewer.

Department(s)

Sociology, Anthropology and Gerontology

Document Type

Article

DOI

10.4324/b23216-15

Publication Date

1-1-2023

Journal Title

Routledge Companion to the Anthropology of Performance

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