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Carnival: joy of the immortals. Ritual, person and cosmology among the Chiquitano in Brazil

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Author(s):
Verone Cristina da Silva
Total Authors: 1
Document type: Doctoral Thesis
Press: São Paulo.
Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
Defense date:
Examining board members:
Marta Rosa Amoroso; Marina Vanzolini Figueiredo; Dominique Tilkin Gallois; Aloir Pacini; Joana Aparecida Fernandes Silva
Advisor: Marta Rosa Amoroso
Abstract

This thesis aims at understanding, through an ethnographic examination, the place that the Carnival ritual holds in the sociocosmological life of the Chiquitano indigenous people who live on the border of Brazil and Bolivia. Carnival is the name of the festival and the supernatural entity which is awoken by the sound of musical instruments of the place where it was buried, in order to bring humans and non-humans relation through Happiness. This festival is held in the same date of the Western Carnival; however they have their own ritual calendar which establishes the end and the beginning of the annual cycle. The chiquitano myths narrate that the Deluge would have occurred on the third Day of the Carnival because they believed that the world is periodically destroyed, but it is formed again and, with it, men and women are created from the transformation of the planet. The event brings together families from the village and relatives from the neighboring communities to dance, drink chicha, celebrate Life, eat together and play. Through Carnival, the Chiquitano explain their myths, domesticate the pathogenic beings which provoke diseases in families, change the relationships between humans for the political production of a new chiquitano social order based on the rules of respect and avoidance. (AU)

FAPESP's process: 11/06039-0 - Carnival: joy of the Immortals ritual, person and cosmology among the Chiquitano in Brazil
Grantee:Verone Cristina da Silva
Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate