“0 Pau de Santo António”: performances and masculinity agencies in the feast of the saint

Abstract

The Santo Antônio fiesta is an event that takes place in the city of Barbalha, in the interior of Ceará, Brazil, being recognized through the prerogative of a popular celebration, which preserves its cultural traditions. Arising in the 18th century, the festival was consolidated as one of the most important cultural manifestations of Cariri de Ceará, awakening the interest of the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (Iphan), which in 2015 recognized it as Brazil's intangible cultural heritage. The narratives about the city were built around an event known as the day of the Pau da Bandeira de Santo Antônio, a moment in which the trunk of a tree traveled a path of approximately 8 kilometers from the countryside to the urban area of ​​the municipality. During the process, participation female is reduced to spectators. To the detriment of this, there is male agency, which assumes centrality in the party's narrative. Through it, the present work attempts to think about which performances are constructed and available in this context and which tells us about the gender relations present in that context. We will try to think ethnographically about how the figure of being a bearer is associated with the normative construction of the northern man, male and virile “goat”, contrasting with the female images, generally associated with the figure of the woman who seeks marriage. The work seeks to tension gender relations, popular culture and party.