Orquestra<\/em> innovated the classic form of performance by adding costumed \u201cindias<\/em>,\u201d young women in a few feathers, brightly dressed vaqueiros<\/em> (cowhands in the story), and European instrumentation (rather than the percussion used in other groups).\u00a0 The classic narrative cycle of a prize ox stolen by a slave and slaughtered.\u00a0 The slave is caught by the vaqueiros<\/em> (sometimes aided by indios).\u00a0 Faced with death if he does not restore the boi to its master, the group resorts to indigenous and African shamans who revive the boi.\u00a0 Over the years this slave narrative has become a devotion to Sao Joao (Saint John) and connected to his name day (24 June).\u00a0 In some groups the Catholic devotion and resurrection story (including communion) are melded with African-Brazilian spiritual practice.\u00a0 In this group the Catholic devotional heritage is dominant.<\/p>\n Orquestra<\/em> is considered by some of the older styles as less \u201ctraditional, but this Morte<\/em> follows some of the basic elements of a closing celebration.\u00a0 The photos are in more of less in the order of performance of the celebration.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The Morte do Boi<\/em> is the \u201cdeath\u201d of the symbolic ox that closes the performance and celebration season of a group in the Maranhao Bumba-meu-boi<\/em> tradition.<\/p>\n The boi, or ox, was \u201cbaptized\u201d in a ceremony (batizado<\/em>) on the day of St. John (the night of the 23rd\/24th June) and performed in public celebrations from June until the Morte.<\/em><\/p>\n The death is a symbolic act that closes the season, but it is also symbolic of the life cycle of the harvest, and of human life.\u00a0 It is also deeply significant that the blood of the slaughtered \u201cox\u201d is distributed to the celebrants.\u00a0 In practice, the ox is a four-foot ox puppet that is \u201cdanced\u201d by a \u201cmiolo<\/em>\u201d who is a strong, agile person who carries the puppet on his\/her shoulders.<\/p>\n The leadership of the groups has traditionally been through male lineages and families, but several women have taken over groups.\u00a0 Often this is on the death of the leader who may have been a spouse, partner, or father.\u00a0 This is the leader of Axixa, taking over from her husband who died about two years ago.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n By Maranhao tradition the ox is decorated with a couro<\/em> or skin, that is usually embroidered \u2014 either with great affection by the celebrants in the pre-season, or by a professional embroider (at significant cost).<\/p>\n There are often two ox figures \u2014 the one that has been danced all season and another that is especially decorated for the slaughter.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This ceremony is typically the end of the celebration season (though some of he more commercial groups continue throughout the year).<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here, in the 3rd week of October 2016 is the Morte as celebrated by the group Bumba-meu-boi de Axixa<\/em>.\u00a0 Axixa is a small town near Rosario which is near Morros which is near the river Munim which is about 70 miles from Sao Luis which is about 5,000\u00a0 miles from, say, Oshkosh, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Due to the wine, beer and the late hour, the Morte<\/em> usually ends a bit less ceremoniously than it begins.\u00a0 The\u00a0 tradition blends religion, performance, and community celebration \u2014 it is not as openly ribald or sensuous as the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro, perhaps because of it\u2019s anchoring in small-town and rural devotional traditions.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 The Morte do Boi is the final celebration of the season for this group which performs in the Orquestra rhythmic tradition.\u00a0 This tradition is somewhat newer than the other forms, having been developed since the 1950s. Orquestra innovated the classic form of performance by adding costumed \u201cindias,\u201d young women in a few feathers, brightly … Continue reading Morte do Boi: Bumba-meu-boi de Axixa<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-folk-culture-and-spiritual-practice-in-maranhao-brazil"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1100"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1150,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100\/revisions\/1150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"DM4A5743\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/DM4A5743.jpg\")
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