Boitatá

Folklore & Cultural Studies • pp. 1–28 • Open Access

Narratives under Lockdown: Pandemic Folklore and the Digital Resurgence of Oral Storytelling

Dr. Beatriz E. Siqueira (& Department of Social Anthropology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil); Prof. Marcus V. Alencar (& Centre for Folklore Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal)

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The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 triggered unprecedented global disruptions, isolating communities and transforming physical social spaces into virtual enclosures. This article examines the immediate emergence of pandemic folklore, viral legends, quarantine humor, and domestic oral storytelling across digital platforms in Brazil. Drawing upon digital ethnography and folkloristic motif analysis, we investigate how citizens utilized traditional storytelling formulas, urban legends, and satirical anecdotes to process collective anxiety, quarantine fatigue, and institutional distrust. The study documents how oral traditions adapted to video conferencing applications, messaging apps, and social media feeds, creating a unique cyber-folklore characterized by rapid mutation and participatory co-authorship. Furthermore, we analyze how elderly storytellers and community elders leveraged digital channels to transmit historical accounts of past health crises, bridging generational divides through tele-oral performance. Our findings argue that oral folklore is fundamentally resilient, demonstrating an extraordinary capacity to re-anchor human emotional solidarity during periods of existential threat and enforced physical separation.

Keywords: Pandemic Folklore, Oral Storytelling, Digital Era, Quarantine Narratives, Cultural Resilience

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Oral Poetics & Literature • pp. 29–52 • Open Access

Aquatic Guardians of the Amazon: Ecocriticism and Mythic Representations in Riverine Oral Poetics

Dr. Tainá K. Guajajara (& Institute of Amazonian Studies, Federal University of Amazonas, Brazil)

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The hydrological labyrinth of the Amazon basin sustains not only an astonishing biodiversity of flora and fauna, but also a rich tapestry of mythic entities known as aquatic guardians (encantados, Mãe-d'água, and boto-tucuxi). This article investigates the ecocritical dimensions of oral narratives transmitted across riverine communities in Pará and Amazonas states. Through ethnographic interviews and structural poetics analysis, we examine how oral stories concerning spirit protectors function as indigenous environmental ethics and conservationist mechanisms. Rather than dismissing these accounts as mere superstition, our research demonstrates that riverine oral literature encodes sophisticated ecological knowledge regarding seasonal fish migration, flood cycles, and sustainable resource harvesting. The oral narrative constructs a relational ontology wherein non-human beings possess moral agency and demand respectful reciprocity from human inhabitants. The article contrasts this ancestral cosmovision with extractivist industrial pressures, concluding that riverine oral poetics offer vital epistemological models for contemporary environmental humanities and climate justice discourse in Latin America.

Keywords: Amazonian Mythology, Riverine Communities, Ecocriticism, Oral Poetics, Environmental Ethics

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Performance Studies & Cultural Studies • pp. 53–76 • Open Access

Kinetic Counter-Memory: Capoeira Angola and the Somatic Archives of Afro-Brazilian Resistance

Prof. Leonardo C. Nascimento (& School of Performing Arts, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil); Dr. Amira J. Washington (& Department of Dance Studies, New York University, USA)

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Capoeira Angola is widely celebrated as an Afro-Brazilian martial art, but its deeper epistemological value resides in its status as a living somatic archive and kinetic counter-memory. This paper investigates how bodily movements (ginga, rasteira, esquiva), musical accompaniment (berimbau and pandeiro), and oral lyricism combine to transmit historical consciousness across generations in Salvador da Bahia. Departing from Eurocentric paradigms that privilege written historiography, we utilize somatic performance theory to analyze how practitioners embody historical struggles against enslavement, police surveillance, and racial marginalization. The study explores the pedagogical dynamics of the roda (circle), where elder masters (mestres) impart ethical philosophies, codes of resilience, and communal solidarity through physical dialogue rather than didactic instruction. By examining song lyrics (corridos and ladainhas) alongside kinetic execution, we demonstrate how capoeira operates as an autonomous archival system that preserves subaltern memory. The research concludes by emphasizing the vital role of somatic traditions in contemporary decolonial pedagogy across Latin America.

Keywords: Performance Studies, Capoeira Angola, Somatic Archives, Afro-Brazilian Resistance, Kinetic Memory

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Language & Oral Poetics • pp. 77–100 • Open Access

Vocalizing the Sacred: Phonetic Form and Grammatical Parallelisms in Yanomami Ritual Songs

Dr. Silvana M. Roraima (& Department of Linguistic Anthropology, Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro)

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The verbal art of Yanomami shamanism represents one of the most elaborate acoustic and poetic systems in indigenous South America. This linguistic study examines the intricate phonetic structures, morphological alterations, and grammatical parallelisms embedded within formal ritual songs (zalama and yõee) recorded in northern Roraima. Utilizing acoustic spectrogram software alongside rigorous morpheme-by-morpheme translation, we analyze how ritual chanters (xapiri) manipulate pitch contours, nasalization vowels, and suffix derivation to construct multilayered semantic messages. Unlike everyday spoken Yanomami, ritual language employs archaic lexical roots, semantic inversion, and sound symbolism that evoke spirit voices and celestial geographies. The research documents how these poetic devices facilitate spiritual mediation during mortuary and healing ceremonies. Furthermore, the paper addresses the extreme linguistic vulnerability of Yanomami oral traditions amidst aggressive illegal gold mining (garimpo) and territorial encroachment. The findings contribute to anthropological linguistics by detailing the structural mechanisms through which endangered native languages preserve complex cosmological philosophies and emotional registers.

Keywords: Linguistic Anthropology, Yanomami Language, Ritual Songs, Phonetic Analysis, Indigenous Poetics

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Literature & Folklore • pp. 101–124 • Open Access

Rhymes of Resistance: Satirical Verse and Social Critique in Contemporary Cordel Literature

Dr. Joaquim P. Cavalcanti (& Faculty of Letters, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil)

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For over a century, Brazilian literature of cordel has served as the journalistic and poetic voice of the Brazilian Northeast, chronicling political corruption, social injustice, and daily life through rigorous rhyming verse. This article investigates the resurgence of satirical cordel poetry during the tumultuous political and sanitary crises of 2020. Analyzing over fifty newly published broadsheets (folhetos) and viral digital verse performances by northeastern repentistas, we explore how traditional metrical forms (such as the sextilha and decima) were mobilized to critique government mismanagement, public health inequities, and misinformation campaigns. The study highlights the remarkable adaptability of cordel poets who seamlessly transitioned from open-air street markets (feiras) to digital social networks, reaching transnational audiences of expatriates and scholars. Through stylistic text analysis, we demonstrate how humor, irony, and folk morality combine to create a powerful counter-discourse against authoritarian political narratives. The research confirms that cordel remains an indispensable repository of popular political consciousness and literary innovation in modern Brazil.

Keywords: Cordel Literature, Satirical Verse, Social Critique, Repentistas, Popular Poetry, Brazil

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Folklore & Oral Narratives • pp. 125–148 • Open Access

Whispers in the Caatinga: Supernatural Folklore and Spatial Memory in Sertanejo Oral Narratives

Dr. Francisca L. Montenegro (& Institute of Folklore & Regional Studies, Federal University of Ceará, Brazil)

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The semi-arid backcountry (sertão) of Northeastern Brazil is characterized by an unforgiving climate, thorny caatinga vegetation, and a profound oral tradition populated by wandering ghosts (almas penadas), enchanted beasts, and miraculous saints. This article explores the intricate relationship between supernatural folklore and spatial memory in oral narratives collected across Ceará and Paraíba. Utilizing motif-index categorization alongside spatial phenomenology, we analyze how rural storytellers (causistas) map historical violence, prolonged droughts, and banditry onto specific geographical landmarks through ghost stories and local legends. The narrative landscape transforms physical wastelands into morally charged terrains where human suffering and divine retribution leave indelible spiritual traces. Our findings indicate that supernatural folklore functions as an indigenous cartography of survival, enabling rural communities to process historical trauma and negotiate their fraught relationship with an extreme natural environment. The paper concludes by evaluating how these oral legends persist within regional literature and contemporary folklore studies.

Keywords: Folklore, Supernatural Narratives, Sertão, Spatial Memory, Caatinga, Oral Legends

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Humanities & Oral History • pp. 149–172 • Open Access

Echoes of Freedom: Oral History and the Re-inscription of Quilombola Memory in Modern Brazil

Dr. Arnaldo D. Santos (& Department of History, University of São Paulo, Brazil); Prof. Claire M. Fontaine (& School of Humanities, Sorbonne Université, France)

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Official Brazilian historiography has long marginalized the foundational contributions of runaway slave communities (quilombos), frequently omitting their continuous resistance from state educational archives. This article explores the critical methodology of oral history as an emancipatory tool for recovering and re-inscribing quilombola memory across rural Minas Gerais and Bahia. Based on extensive life-history interviews conducted with elder community members (anciões), the study examines how generational oral narratives preserve clandestine genealogies, ancestral land stewardship practices, and spiritual rituals that predate formal abolition. The authors analyze the narrative tropes and performative cadences through which testimonies of displacement and survival are transmitted. We argue that listening to quilombola oral history constitutes a decolonial intervention that challenges hegemonic state narratives and supports ongoing legal land-titling claims. The research underscores the ethical imperative of collaborative archiving and data sovereignty, ensuring that recorded communities retain stewardship over their cultural heritage.

Keywords: Oral History, Quilombola Communities, Cultural Memory, Subaltern Studies, Decolonial Archives

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Interdisciplinary Research • pp. 173–196 • Open Access

Acoustic Topographies: Sound Studies, Oral Poetics, and Environmental Memory in Latin America

Dr. Vanessa R. Brandão (& Centre for Sonic Arts & Cultural Heritage, Federal University of Minas Gerais)

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Integrating acoustic ecology with oral poetics, this article proposes the analytical framework of "acoustic topographies" to examine how oral traditions interact with environmental soundscapes across diverse Latin American ecosystems. Rather than treating oral texts as autonomous verbal transcriptions divorced from their ambient sonic environments, the author argues that storytelling, chanting, and vernacular poetry are fundamentally co-produced by physical acoustic architecture and environmental noise. Drawing upon field recordings from the mining-impacted mountains of Minas Gerais and urban peripheries of São Paulo, the study analyzes how human voice projection negotiates industrial soundscapes, river echoes, and forest silence. The research demonstrates that environmental degradation alters not only physical landscapes but also the resonant frequencies of cultural memory. By synthesizing digital sound spectrogram analysis with qualitative ethnography, this paper opens innovative methodological pathways for interdisciplinary research in the humanities, urging scholars to listen critically to the fragile sonic dimensions of cultural heritage and ecological vulnerability.

Keywords: Sound Studies, Acoustic Ecology, Oral Poetics, Environmental Memory, Interdisciplinary Research

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Oral Poetics & Literature • pp. 1–24 • Open Access

Cosmic Weaving: Mythic Poetics and Shamanistic Cosmology among the Tapirapé

Dr. Hélio T. Tapirapé (& Department of Anthropology, Federal University of Mato Grosso, Brazil); Prof. Fiona M. Sterling (& School of Indigenous Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK)

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Shamanistic chanting and oral narrative performance among the Tapirapé people of central Brazil constitute an elaborate cosmological architecture wherein words function as active agents of celestial ordering and spiritual healing. This paper examines the formal poetic structures, repetitive parallelism, and vocabulistic nuances embedded within nocturnal ritual chants performed during seasonal festivals. Through meticulous textual transcription and audio-spectral analysis, we demonstrate how ritual specialists negotiate invisible spiritual dimensions, commune with celestial masters, and maintain the fragile equilibrium between human society and forest ecology. The study highlights that in Tapirapé ontology, oral poetry is neither ornamental nor subsidiary to ritual action; rather, it is the fundamental ontological fabric through which the cosmos is continually regenerated and sustained. By contrasting indigenous models of collective poetic transmission with Western individual authorship paradigms, this research contributes fresh methodological perspectives to the study of oral poetics in lowland South American indigenous cultures.

Keywords: Oral Poetics, Shamanism, Tapirapé Cosmology, Indigenous Literature, Central Brazil

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Folklore & Cultural Studies • pp. 25–48 • Open Access

Portals of Nostalgia: Oral Narratives and Folklore in Brazilian Immigrant Communities in North America

Dr. Mariana R. Vianna (& Department of Sociology, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil)

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Geographic migration disrupts not only physical proximity to ancestral territories but also destabilizes traditional narrative repertoires and communal folklore. This paper investigates the oral life narratives and folklore transmission within Brazilian diaspora communities residing in Massachusetts and Florida. Through in-depth qualitative interviews, the author examines how personal accounts of labor struggles, economic displacement, and cultural adaptation are structured around familiar folklore motifs, hometown legends, and traditional humor. The study reveals how intangible folklore functions as a portable homeland, allowing migrants to recreate familiar social networks and emotional solidarity in foreign urban environments. Special attention is given to the oral transmission of folk healing practices, culinary traditions, and musical memories to second-generation children born abroad. The research concludes that diasporic oral narratives are characterized by a permanent dual consciousness—nostalgic idealization of the abandoned homeland paired with pragmatic integration into host societies—transforming physical exile into a dynamic site of transnational cultural vitality.

Keywords: Folklore, Diaspora, Oral Narratives, Migration, Cultural Identity, Transnational Studies

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Performance Studies & Gender • pp. 49–72 • Open Access

Carnival Inversions: Gender, Masking, and Festive Subversion in Northeastern Street Performance

Dr. Camila S. de Oliveira (& Program in Gender & Performance, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil)

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Traditional street festivals and regional carnivals across Northeastern Brazil—such as the Papa-figos, Caretos, and Bumba-meu-boi performances—frequently feature elaborate gender-bending masking traditions where male and female performers adopt transgressive personas, cross-dress, or embody grotesque mythological figures. This article examines the performative mechanics of gender inversion within these folk traditions, evaluating how masking operates as a site of critical resistance against entrenched patriarchal norms. Drawing on feminist performance theory and ethnographic fieldwork conducted in interior Pernambuco and Maranhão, the author analyzes how posture, vocal modulation, and satirical improvisation allow performers to temporarily dismantle normative gender expectations. The study argues that these traditional festive inversions are not merely conservative safety valves releasing social pressure, but active experimental laboratories where gender fluidity and counter-hegemonic subjectivities are rehearsed in public view. The paper contributes to ongoing dialogues in performance studies concerning folklore, gender performativity, and localized resistance in Latin America.

Keywords: Performance Studies, Gender Inversion, Masking, Carnival, Northeastern Brazil, Subversion

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Language & Folklore • pp. 73–96 • Open Access

Dialectical Vitality: Sociolinguistic Variation and Narrative Strategies in Rural Minas Gerais Storytelling

Dr. Otávio N. Meireles (& Department of Linguistics, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil)

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This sociolinguistic inquiry explores the intricate correlation between vernacular speech variation and oral narrative structure in traditional storytelling (causos) across rural Minas Gerais. Analyzing over forty hours of recorded anecdotes narrated by veteran rural storytellers, the study maps out how phonetic variation, syntactic adjustments, and lexical choices are strategically deployed to heighten dramatic tension, generate comic relief, and delineate character traits. The author demonstrates that rustic Brazilian Portuguese (caipira dialect) possesses sophisticated poetic devices—such as ideophones, evidential markers, and dramatic direct discourse—that standard academic grammars frequently overlook. By examining oral storytelling as a cooperative communicative event between narrator and attentive audience, the research highlights how sociolinguistic markers reinforce local identity and community solidarity. The empirical findings offer invaluable data for scholars working at the intersection of variationist sociolinguistics, oral literature, and folk speech ethnography.

Keywords: Sociolinguistics, Oral Storytelling, Rural Dialects, Folklore, Caipira Speech, Narrative Structure

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Cultural Studies & Literature • pp. 97–120 • Open Access

Archives of the Unwritten: Popular Memory and Subaltern Archives in Contemporary Latin American Fiction

Dr. Gabriela S. Pires (& Institute of Literary Research, University of São Paulo, Brazil); Prof. Marcus Vinícius (& Department of Comparative Literature, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul)

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How do contemporary Latin American novelists translate oral memory and ephemeral subaltern archives into written fiction? This article investigates the narrative strategies employed by modern Brazilian writers who incorporate folklore, oral testimonies, and unwritten cultural archives into their literary texts. Focusing on novels from the Amazonian and Northeastern regions published in the late 2010s, the study explores how literature acts as an intermediary space between official historiography and popular oral tradition. The authors analyze techniques of "ventriloquism" and collaborative narrative framing, where literary authors position themselves as editors of oral lore rather than omniscient creators. By examining how folklore motifs challenge linear novelistic plots, the research demonstrates that literature can function as an emancipatory counter-archive. The article concludes that contemporary Latin American fiction continually revitalizes itself by drawing upon the inexhaustible wellspring of oral poetics and popular folklore.

Keywords: Cultural Studies, Latin American Literature, Popular Memory, Subaltern Archives, Oral Tradition

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Humanities & Oral Traditions • pp. 121–144 • Open Access

Rescuing the Voice: Digital Humanities and the Preservation of Endangered Oral Traditions

Dr. Rafael M. Arantes (& Centre for Digital Humanities, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil)

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As globalization, language shift, and environmental destruction threaten indigenous and traditional oral repertoires across Brazil, the digital humanities offer unprecedented tools for documentation and archiving. This article examines the methodological, ethical, and technical challenges involved in building digital audio-visual repositories of endangered oral traditions. Drawing on practical experiences from archival projects in the Pantanal and Amazonian regions, the author discusses best practices for collaborative digital archiving, metadata tagging, and community-managed databases. Particular emphasis is placed on the ethical imperative of data sovereignty, ensuring that recorded communities retain full ownership and control over their digitized cultural heritage. The study evaluates how web-based interactive maps, searchable audio corpora, and digital storytelling platforms can empower younger generations to reconnect with ancestral oral poetry. Ultimately, the paper argues that digital preservation must be paired with active community engagement to ensure living oral traditions survive beyond archival databases.

Keywords: Digital Humanities, Oral Traditions, Cultural Heritage, Preservation, Data Sovereignty

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Interdisciplinary Research • pp. 145–168 • Open Access

Interdisciplinary Horizons: Methodological Convergences in Oral Poetics and Performance Studies

Prof. Beatriz F. Drummond (& Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Humanities, Federal University of Pernambuco); Dr. Liam O'Neill (& School of Arts & Performance, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)

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This concluding article of Volume 5 reflects upon the methodological trajectories, theoretical convergences, and future horizons of interdisciplinary research in oral poetics and performance studies. Tracing the historical separation between literary textual analysis, folklore studies, and ethnographic performance research, the authors argue for a robust, integrated methodology that treats oral poetry as simultaneously verbal, kinetic, acoustic, and social. By synthesizing insights from ethnopoetics, dialogic criticism, and somatic anthropology, the paper outlines a comprehensive framework for analyzing oral expressive culture across diverse global contexts. The discussion emphasizes that contemporary challenges—ranging from environmental crisis to digital globalization—require scholars to cross traditional academic boundaries and engage in collaborative research with tradition-bearers. Ultimately, this article reaffirms the vital intellectual mission of the journal Boitatá in fostering rigorous, interdisciplinary dialogue across the humanities and social sciences.

Keywords: Interdisciplinary Research, Oral Poetics, Performance Studies, Ethnopoetics, Methodology

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