The Living and the Dead in the Folias of the Minas Gerais Backlands

The article explores the interactions between the living and the dead in the context of folias from northern Minas Gerais, with particular interest in describing and analyzing how such relationships are constructed and experienced through sound and listening. Based on extended fieldwork with folias and local communities in northern Minas Gerais, as well as an ethnographic sensitivity to “listening to stories of listening,” the text presents two scenarios in which the living and the dead maintain relationships through songs and other sonic expressions. In the first case, drawing on the life story and devotion of Dona Santa to Saint Joseph, the foliões of Taboquinha, in the municipality of São Francisco, visit cemeteries and graves and sing to the dead. In the second, it is the dead who “intervene” and sing along with the living during the folias of Ribanceira and Buritizinhos, communities belonging to the municipality of São Romão. Based on the ethnographic description of these two cases, the article suggests that in the context of the folias, the living and the dead (life and death) are inseparable entities and planes, intertwined with different sensibilities, sounds, and ways of listening.

Keyword:
Folias; Living and Dead; North of Minas; Sensoriality; Sound and Listening