The electronic forró in Cariri: dance parties, gender, and creation in contemporary Brazilian Northeast

THESIS AND DISSERTATIONS

The electronic forró in Cariri: dance parties, gender, and creation in contemporary Brazilian Northeast

Roberto Marques

Doctoral Thesis. Post-Graduate Program in Sociology and Anthropology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - Rio de Janeiro (RJ) – Brazil 2011. [e-mail]

The present work employs ethnographic material from the dance events of electronic forró in the Cariri region to understand how individuals use the typical as representation and presentation to others. Instead of considering forró as a dance of couples in a place characterized by tradition and personhood, the research shows this present-day practice as a spectacle that permits the creative incorporation of different personal projects by the players, constructed from citations commonly associated with the urban world. This approach blurs the criticism on the reinvention of the rhythm that occurred after the 1990s, justified by the close relation of electronic forró with cultural industry; by the constant reception and citation of forms and products distributed by the pop world; and by the trivialization of female bodies and stable family relationships. Instead of criticizing the current rhythm for its lack of capacity to provide the local universe with meaning, we seek to understand the electronic forró through the narratives of the participants in a triangular scheme: stage – audience – anthropologist. We analyze the ways of being in the party – performances, narratives, sequences of actions and speeches – and also the places created by individuals in their interactions with other individuals. Digressing experiences, spatial diversification in a supposedly controlled rural environment, and the anonymous staging were connected in this work in order to eschew the idea of performance as a defining act of the players' identity. We highlight the forró in the region of Cariri not only as a spectacle but also as a place overlooked due to the inflation of some identity signs that are most frequently visited. This dance party allows us to see a thought pattern that is part of it: the electronic forró in Cariri region, including its creative shapes, and the identity and anonymity management established by the rhythm of the music.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  24 Sept 2013
• Date of issue
  Aug 2013