Vozes negras na cantoria (1870-1925) O caso de Severino Perigo

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the formation of a ritual space of interaction between black and “white” singers (cantadores), in the context of the slave society in the Brazilian North from mid to late-nineteenth century. Such space was constituted in the middle of the crisis of slavery as an institution. It was articulated, from the date of the Abolition, in a way that did not facilitate the presence of black cantadores – who however continued to sing. We study some aspects of this process of exclusion, which has encompassed, among other factors, sharp disputes over collective memory, as can be seen in the work of folklorists and in many folhetos de cordel  (chapbooks). We scrutinize, in particular, traces of the trajectory and performance of a “non-profissional” black singer called Severino Perigo, who was commented by the folklorist Leonardo Mota in 1925. We argue that, in the critical reading of the folklorist-informant relationship, the examination of the symbolic constructions of the body and the voice is specially proficuous.