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

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Sandler, Patricia Joan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Nettl, Bruno

• Religion, General

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3070425

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/85709