Singing With the Spirits: Musical Life in Sao Luis, Northeast Brazil

Sandler, Patricia Joan

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Description

Title

Singing With the Spirits: Musical Life in Sao Luis, Northeast Brazil

Author(s)

Sandler, Patricia Joan

Issue Date

2002

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Nettl, Bruno

Department of Study

Music

Discipline

Music

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Religion, General

Language

eng

Abstract

This dissertation describes and compares three musical-religious traditions practiced by descendents of African slaves in Sao Luis, an urban, socially stratified, and economically marginalized city in northeast Brazil. The first, Tambor de Mina, is part of a complex of African-based spirit-possession religions characterized by a unique organizational structure, ritual calendar, set of musical practices, and cosmological beliefs. The second, Cura , takes place within sacred enclosures of Tambor de Mina centers and is strongly influenced by Amazonian healing rituals (pajelanca) in which spirit-possession and participatory music-making figure prominently. The third, Tambor de Crioula, is a popular, street-based tradition, increasingly linked to tourism, and danced in honor of the black Catholic saint, Benedict the Moor. These traditions have many musical elements in common; others are particular to each. Music is a vital part of each tradition's identity and is the primary medium through which ritual action unfolds. It mediates spirit possession and human interactions and, in so doing, helps to affirm and create meaning while preserving or forging new social roles and relationships in contexts of historical continuity and change.

Graduation Semester

2002

Type of Resource

text

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