Historically the dance seems to have been the performance outlet for women in the group who did not perform in the early decades (centuries?) of the\u00a0Bumba-meu-boi<\/em>.\u00a0 There may have a number of reasons women were excluded: patriarchy, the rural division of gendered labor,\u00a0 and\u00a0perhaps the violence associated with the early celebrations (groups were often rivals and violent confrontations were reputed to be common, sometimes ending in\u00a0injury, jail or even, rarely, fatalities).<\/p>\n All these factors have changed with the domestication and urbanization of the festival.\u00a0 Women have taken on performance and management roles in the\u00a0Bumba-meu-boi<\/em> itself,\u00a0rendering it less\u00a0patriarchal and gender-segregated than in the past.\u00a0 But even as the Bumba-meu-boi<\/em>\u00a0has changed, the\u00a0traditional gender separation of the Tambor da Crioula<\/em> remains.\u00a0 Women of all ages dance, the few men involved are accompanists.<\/p>\n The dance seems\u00a0distantly-related to the Samba da roda<\/em> practiced elsewhere in Brazil and danced exclusively by women.\u00a0 Men do not dance in the TdC, but perform the percussion on three drums (somewhat reminiscent of\u00a0the\u00a0drums used in\u00a0African-Brazilian spiritual practice).<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The women and girls\u00a0dance in counter-clockwise fashion, improvising on a simple, basic set of steps that become swirls and turns \u2014 dramatized by large flowered\u00a0skirts.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n![\"DM4A4669_DxO\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/DM4A4669_DxO1.jpg\")
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