Mulheres que celebram: memórias da Festa do Divino em Alcântara - MA (1950-1970).

Abstract

The “Festa do Divino Espírito Santo” occurs every year in the city of Alcântara, Maranhão; like any celebration, it presents some particularities. For us, the fact that women are responsible for commanding the whole feast ritual constitutes a specificity of this event in Alcântara: the ‘Caixeiras’ playing their drums were during many time, the great responsible for both musical and general organization of the feast. This work presents a study of the women’s memory of the Alcântara’s “Festa do Divino”. By using the oral history methodology we try to understand the representations that they elaborate about their past and present, about the city that they live in, the festival in which they participate, their family relationship and the relationships with the other participants of the celebration. And to understand the meanings of the representations that those memories build, we dialogued with some of the main names of the so called Cultural History, such as, Roger Chartier, Robert Darnton and with one of the most important historians of the trend called Micro-History, Carlo Ginzburg. At the methodological level, we used the oral history methodology which helps us in the indictment of the representations that those women, by their testimonials, create about the feast and life; testimonials that state the meanings of being “Caixeira” and how this activity was important in their past and present.