The death of the cattle/ox and collective consumption of its meat for at folias of Urucuia, MG, are truly sacrifice processes. As such, these processes perform reciprocal movements of sacred acts. On one hand, the ox donated by devoted people to the ceremonials during the Folias' festivities is surrounded by a sacred aura that turns the ox an ownership of the saints. On the other hand, the ox meat offered on behalf of the saints' is a communication from "Sacred above to people down here" of sacred powers associated with a religious entity to the entire community of devoted people. In this article, I aim to study the mechanisms responsible for formation of the sacrifices units (in this case the ox) of the simbolic operations from "Sacred above to people down in earth" involving the cattle/ox in the festive food. The whole sacrifice is built from the idea of cattle/ox meet. The sacrificed ox meet is the entity mediating the live animal and the food ready to eat, which performs all the necessary mediations between natural, social and supernatural aspects taking place during the festivities.
sacrifice; festivities; cattle; religion
