Os “Blocos dos Índios” no carnaval de Piquirí: tradição e prática musical em Canguaretama/RN

Abstract

The present work presents a description about the musical practices in the "Blocos dos Índios" of Piquirí, community that belongs to the municipality of Canguaretama/RN. The "Indians", as it is also called this popular manifestation of indigenous influence, has its origin in the mid- 1970s in Piquirí and was perpetuated until the first decade of the 2000s, that is, currently the groups that make this game are deactivated, which reinforces the importance of this study in understanding and documenting this popular expression, aiming at the preservation and appreciation of the cultural memory of Canguaretama/RN. Thus, it is within this approach, which through a historical and (ethno-)musicological approach and through a bias of oral history as a source and methodological procedure of data collection and analysis that allowed the construction of a historical approach of the groups, pointing out the performative aspects in a general way, in order to understand how they relate to the musical practices in their respective contexts. Thus, it is understood as guiding questions of this research: how did the musical practices occur and with which elements they were related? When, where and for what reason were they performed? And to answer such questions, four semi-structured interviews were conducted with the main people involved with the manifestation in the community and analysis of videos from digital platforms, added to the theoretical survey about the "Caboclinhos" from Pernambuco, the "Tribos Indígenas Carnavalescas" from Paraíba and the "Tribos de Índios" and "Caboclinhos" from Norte-rio-grandenses, in order to contribute to a characterization of the "Bloco dos Índios", from the following of the comparison with works of authors found in the bibliographical survey undertaken.