"It is when the bells ring that the saints are called": For an Afro-Brazilian Ethnomusicology

• DOI: 10.22533/at.ed.5583372302107

• Palavras-chave: Anthropology, music, Afro-Brazilian religions, black slavery; ethnographic collections, museums

• Keywords: Anthropology, music, Afro-Brazilian religions, black slavery; ethnographic collections, museums

• Abstract:

  This article presents data from an anthropological investigation focused on Afro-Brazilian religious and musical manifestations present in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Beat, extreme south of Brazil), based on a set of documentary sources available in both Germany and Brazil that take as an object of analysis a collection of Afro-Brazilian ritual artifacts deposited at the Ethnological Museum in Berlin and its possible consequences. The investigation is relevant both from an archival point of view and from an ethnographic and ethnomusicological point of view, and aims to contribute to the development of a topic that has been sparsely studied by researchers to this day. Working with a combination of new empirical sources, I conduct “ethnography of/in museums and archives” from both countries involved, comparing German sources with Brazilian ones. It is worth noting here that the first part (Germany) has already been completed. The interpretative lines suggested here foresee a combination of theoretical perspectives arising from Post-Colonial Studies within a Contemporary Anthropology combined with Ethnomusicology approaches.