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Within Amazonian indigenous societies, oral storytelling is not merely a mode of entertainment, but an intricate cosmological architecture that encodes ecological wisdom, ethical boundaries, and spiritual genealogy. This paper examines the narrative structures and performance contexts of traditional creation myths recorded among riverine indigenous groups in the Tapajós basin. Utilizing a methodological framework that bridges linguistic anthropology and oral poetics, we analyze how elder storytellers utilize vocal modulation, rhythmic pacing, and archaic lexical registers to evoke non-human spiritual entities and primordial geographic transformations. Our multi-year field research demonstrates that these oral narratives function as dynamic environmental charters, guiding sustainable interaction with tropical forest ecosystems. Furthermore, we investigate the pedagogical mechanisms through which these myths are transmitted during collective nocturnal rituals, ensuring cultural persistence despite rapid modernization and external socio-environmental pressures. The findings emphasize that Amazonian oral traditions constitute sovereign epistemological systems that offer crucial insights for contemporary environmental humanities and indigenous rights discourse in South America.

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Literatura de cordel occupies a unique intersection between oral poetry and print culture, serving as a vital medium for public commentary and folk storytelling across northeastern Brazil. This article investigates how traditional cordel pamphlets produced and circulated in urban centers like Salvador and Recife capture contemporary social anxieties, political satire, and historical memory. By examining an extensive archive of broadsheet poetry published between 2010 and 2016, we analyze the metric structures, woodcut illustration motifs, and rhetorical strategies employed by cordelistas to engage working-class readers and listeners. The study explores the oral-formulaic background of these printed verses, noting how poets frequently recite their compositions aloud in open-air markets to attract audiences. We argue that cordel acts as an alternative journalistic forum and collective memory repository, challenging elite historical narratives through vernacular wit and satirical critique. Ultimately, this research demonstrates the enduring resilience of cordel culture in adapting traditional poetic forms to address modern urbanization, economic inequality, and political shifts in contemporary Brazilian society.

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Within the cosmological and ritual framework of Afro-Brazilian Candomblé, liturgical songs, polyrhythmic percussion, and corporeal movement constitute an inseparable performance system that connects terrestrial practitioners with divine ancestry. This paper explores the phenomenology of sacred speech and somatic memory across traditional religious houses in Rio de Janeiro. Drawing upon performance theory, linguistic anthropology, and diaspora studies, we analyze how liturgical vocabularies rooted in Yoruba, Fon, and Bantu languages are preserved, reinterpreted, and enacted during public and esoteric ceremonies. Our investigation emphasizes the somatic dimension of oral poetics, where vocal timbre, rhythmic cadence, and bodily gesture fuse into a unified communicative act of spiritual invocation and communal healing. Furthermore, we examine how initiates navigate the delicate tension between sacred religious secrecy and academic inquiry. The findings demonstrate that ritual utterances function as sovereign archives of historical memory, safeguarding cosmological knowledge systems that survived centuries of colonial suppression. This research contributes to broader interdisciplinary discussions on sacred language, embodied performance, and transnational African epistemologies.

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Official historiography has frequently marginalized the lived experiences, labor contributions, and oral testimonies of rural women within patriarchal agricultural societies. This article examines life-history interviews collected from female agricultural workers and artisan cooperatives across the rural interior of Rio Grande do Norte. Applying methodologies from feminist oral history and cultural studies, we analyze how these women articulate counter-memories that challenge hegemonic narratives of labor, family structure, and agrarian politics. The oral testimonies reveal sophisticated rhetorical strategies of resistance, humor, and solidarity passed down through matrilineal networks of storytelling. We examine the emotive cadences, silences, and rhetorical tropes that characterize these life narratives, highlighting how spoken testimony serves as an instrument of political empowerment and identity reconstruction. The findings demonstrate that women's oral histories are vital repositories of regional resistance, offering critical insights into the intersection of gender, class, and oral expression in contemporary Brazilian humanities.

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Street theater traditions in northeastern Brazil offer a rich site for investigating the interplay between masked bodily performance and oral satirical verse. This paper examines traditional folguedos (folk dramas such as Bumba-meu-boi and Cavalo Marinho) focusing on how masked characters utilize improvised comedic dialogue and musical chants to subvert institutional hierarchies. Drawing upon Bakhtinian carnival theory and performance ethnography, we analyze video recordings and live performances across rural towns in Pernambuco and Maranhão. The study reveals how the comedic foil acts as an oral commentator who bridges the fictional narrative with immediate local socio-political realities. Through biting wit, double entendre, and direct audience engagement, these performers create an ephemeral public sphere where dominant power structures are playfully inverted and critiqued. Our findings underscore the enduring vitality of folk drama as a sophisticated medium of critical popular commentary and collective catharsis within Brazilian expressive culture.

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The intersection of acoustic ecology and oral poetics opens fruitful interdisciplinary pathways for examining how human speech and environmental soundscapes co-evolve. This paper investigates contemporary sound art installations and acoustic archiving projects in Brazil that capture endangered rural soundscapes and oral testimonies of environmental transformation. By analyzing field recordings of traditional riverine communities alongside sound sculpture exhibitions in urban galleries, we demonstrate how acoustic art acts as a critical medium for ecological awareness. The study integrates theoretical insights from acoustic ecology, sensory anthropology, and environmental humanities. We examine how oral narratives regarding river ecosystems, deforestation, and climate shifts are sonically embedded within artistic compositions, transforming passive listeners into engaged eco-citizens. Ultimately, this contribution argues for an expanded auditory epistemology that recognizes the spoken word and ambient soundscape as inseparable components of cultural heritage and environmental preservation in the Anthropocene.

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Migration and geographic displacement trigger profound crises of identity that are frequently mediated through oral storytelling and diasporic folklore. This research investigates the oral narratives and personal recollections of international migrant communities settled in southeastern Brazil. Drawing upon diaspora studies and comparative literature, we analyze how oral reminiscences, traditional folktales from countries of origin, and adapted urban legends serve as psychological tethers for displaced populations. The study explores the rhetorical features of exile storytelling, highlighting recurring motifs of loss, adaptation, liminality, and nostalgic reconstruction of homeland spaces. Through narrative analysis of recorded interview sessions, we demonstrate how spoken recollections preserve cultural heritage while simultaneously forging hybrid transnational identities. Our findings contribute to the growing body of literature on migration and cultural studies, emphasizing the crucial role of the spoken word in negotiating belonging, trauma, and resilience across borders.

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Augusto Boal’s revolutionary Theatre of the Oppressed methodology relies heavily on bodily expression, spectator intervention, and dialogic spoken improvisation to dismantle oppressive social structures. This paper examines the role of oral performance and verbal exchange within Forum Theatre workshops conducted in community centers across Rio de Janeiro. We investigate how participants transform personal testimonies of oppression into theatrical scenarios, utilizing spoken word and collective dialogue as instruments of critical pedagogy and social emancipation. Drawing upon performance studies and Paulo Freire’s dialogic educational theory, our analysis explores the transition from passive spectator to active 'spect-actor' through vocal articulation and physical enactment. The findings reveal that verbal improvisation within theatrical frameworks enables marginalized individuals to rehearse political agency, voice dissent, and imagine alternative social realities. This contribution bridges performance studies with oral poetics, highlighting the transformative power of spoken dialogue in civic education and community activism.

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Recognized as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO, Bumba-meu-boi in Maranhão is a complex musical and dramatic folk performance that amalgamates indigenous, African, and European performance traditions. This article analyzes the poetic lyrics and musical structures of the totadas (the narrative songs chanted during the festival) examining how they recount the mythical death and resurrection of the sacred bull. Through ethnographic fieldwork and musical transcription, we investigate the improvisational techniques of the lead singers (cantadores) and the antiphonal choir responses that characterize the various stylistic branches (sotaques) of the tradition. The research highlights how oral transmission serves as the primary mechanism for preserving musical intricacies across generations despite official institutional archiving. Furthermore, we explore tensions between commercial tourism and community-based heritage preservation. This study contributes to folklore studies and oral poetics by elucidating the structural beauty and sociopolitical significance of Maranhão's quintessential folk drama.

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The preservation of indigenous languages in the Amazon basin depends heavily on innovative bilingual and intercultural education models that prioritize oral proficiency alongside written literacy. This paper investigates pedagogical practices in indigenous community schools across the Rio Negro basin, examining how native elders and bilingual teachers collaborate to integrate oral histories, traditional ecological knowledge, and indigenous languages into the standard curriculum. Through classroom observation and semi-structured interviews with educators and community leaders, we assess the effectiveness of oral-based pedagogies in combating language shift and revitalizing endangered idioms among younger generations. The findings demonstrate that embedding traditional oral storytelling within formal schooling strengthens ethnic identity, fosters intergenerational cohesion, and enhances cognitive engagement among students. This contribution offers valuable insights for language policy makers, linguists, and educators dedicated to safeguarding linguistic diversity and indigenous heritage in the Americas.

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Literature of the cordel stands as one of the most vibrant manifestations of popular oral poetry in northeastern Brazil. This study investigates the mechanisms of oral composition and public performance practiced by contemporary cordelistas. We explore how traditional rhymed metrical forms serve as dynamic instruments for social commentary, historical archiving, and political critique among marginalized urban and rural communities. Through ethnographic fieldwork conducted in open-air markets and cultural centers across Bahia and Pernambuco, we recorded spontaneous poetic duels (cantoria de viola) and examined pamphlets distributed via cordel networks. Our analysis focuses on the interplay between fixed metrical schemas and spontaneous oral invention, revealing how poets adapt centuries-old Iberian ballad traditions to address contemporary issues such as economic inequality, urbanization, and environmental degradation. The findings suggest that cordel poetry functions not merely as folklore preservation, but as an active, critical public sphere that shapes collective memory and grassroots political consciousness in twenty-first-century Brazil.

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This article examines the intricate dynamic between ancestral oral traditions and contemporary narrative transformation within Amazonian indigenous communities. By analyzing a corpus of mythic songs and spoken-word performances recorded across upper Xingu populations, we demonstrate how traditional bards negotiate cosmological heritage with modern ecological anxieties. The research draws upon performance studies and oral poetics to map out structural motifs that persist despite shifting socio-political landscapes. Furthermore, the study highlights the role of verbal artistry in maintaining cultural resilience and intergenerational knowledge transmission. Through close textual reading and audio-visual transcription analysis, we uncover the subtle metalinguistic markers utilized by tradition-bearers to authenticate their performances before diverse audiences. Ultimately, this contribution argues for a re-evaluation of oral poetry not merely as a relic of folklore, but as a dynamic, evolving epistemological framework critical to understanding contemporary South American humanities and cultural resistance.