Carnaval do Nordeste de Amaralina: um estudo sobre um carnaval de bairro em Salvador, Bahia, Brasil

Abstract

Carnivals are diverse where they take place, and this diversity is expressed by the groups that organize them in different ways through the streets of Brazilian cities. These performances are guided by social, economic, political, and philosophical factors particular to each place where they occur. The present work proposes to contribute to the reflections about these representative festivities of the imaginary of Brazilian identifications through the study of the carnival held in the Nordeste de Amaralina, neighbourhood of the city of Salvador, state of Bahia, Brazil. The party usually takes place in February and the time frame of this work extends from the 1950s, when the locality experienced a significant population increment to the present day, when the neighbourhood’s carnival festivities took on other features, with the presence of electric mini-trios and the omnipresence of organizational, aesthetic and sonorous desires of the residents of this popular neighbourhood located on the Salvador seafront. The research was built based on methodologies characteristic of qualitative research, using interviews, informal conversations, photographs, and videos collected during field research; also, it was used interviews and articles collected in various media sites, especially the Nordesteusou neighbourhood news portal, hosted in a virtual page. In addition, other digital channels, such as social networks, blogs, videos, and photos hosted into sharing networks are important to frame this text demonstrating the importance of the virtual environment for this composition. Virtual files were consulted which are important at the time when the presential fieldwork in archives were interrupted by the corona virus pandemic decree, and after the gradual resumption and consequent reopening of these spaces physical archives of some institutions was included. The thesis seeks to understand what makes this neighbourhood carnival unique and how historical invisibilities of the neighbourhood, structural issues and its carnivals and sonorities compared to other party places in the city are mirrored in. Also, the thesis will be based on five discursive axes: a brief analysis of the history of the Nordeste de Amaralina constitution and the construction of its carnival; an analysis of the motivations and bases of support for carnivals, mainly carnivals held in Salvador, with comparative elements with others of these events in other cities and countries; the samba sound importance for the transformation of the carnival in the Nordeste de Amaralina into a sonorous and iconic territory, where generational, gender and racial discourses are performed; a discussion of women's work in the neighbourhood carnival and its connections with the struggle for our rights and those of other political minorities; and finally a reflection on how the public administration presents itself for partnership in the organization of Nordeste de Amaralina carnival after its officialization in 2016.