Filippo Bonini Baraldi, integrated researcher at INET-md, and coordinator of its research group on Ethnomusicology and Popular Music Studies, authors the article “Danse, envie et ‘corps fermé’ dans le maracatu de baque solto du Pernambouc (Brésil)”, published in the 38th number of Cahiers d’ethnomusicologie, soon available in open access.
Abstract:
During Carnival season, rural workers who practice maracatu de baque solto—a ritual performance that takes place in the Zona da Mata Norte region of Pernambuco, Brazil—feel vulnerable to various illnesses caused by the “envious eye” of their rivals. This prompts them to implement numerous defensive strategies, mobilizing both religious know-how and an elaborate and multifaceted aesthetic, whose main objective is to “close the body.” The hypothesis I seek to demonstrate in this article is that this individual and collective bodily closure is only effective when musicians and dancers achieve an heightened level of interpersonal coordination, expressed locally by the concept of “consonance” (consonância).