Based on Mikhail Bakhtin's studies, this article analyses the carnival and other similar popular parties, both as cultural practices and as a view of life and of the world, crucial phenomena of our so-called cultural identity. In particular the author emphasizes two important movements wich led to intense debates in our cultural life, in two different moments of Brazil's recent history: the Antropofagia of the modernist movement in the 1920's, and the Tropicalismo in the 1960's.
carnival; popular parties; cultural practices; cultural identity; modernism