O ritual da congada e o “estar no rosário”: um estudo etnográfico acerca da festa e das mediações em São João del Rei

Abstract

The human phenomenon dealt with in this study are the relationships among groups of “Congado”, called “Ternos de Congado”, on certain festivals of Our Lady of the Rosary in the region of Campos das Vertentes, Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais. The aim was to notice what the participants mobilized during those festive moments, trying to describe, from the watch of a “terno de congado” in some of its routes between the years 2007 and 2008, the established relationships during the festive context. The dynamics established in field guided the observation and the focus of this research, which provided an essential and leading shift of the focus of observation presented here. The precautions emphasized by the “Congadeiros” - in order “estarem no Rosário” - used to involve a series of traditional procedures in the dialogue with other “ternos do congado”, with dead ancestors, with Catholic saints, with entities from the African-Brazilian pantheon, besides with other participants of the celebration, as the Kings and the Queens of “Congado” and the revelers of the party. In the context of the Our Lady of the Rosary’s festival, the “congadeiros” used to interact with these several actors - participants in a sense - of the same event. Along with these issues, discussions concerning the ethnographic approach and the relational data offered by speakers – the “estar no Rosário” - will be explored here. This data, taken seriously conceptually, made possible to approach some of the interactions that permeated the festivities of the Rosary.