“Bulindo no samba”: Nice do Cavalo Marinho e a representatividade feminina no brinquedo da Zona da Mata Norte de Pernambuco

Abstract

The research investigates the female representation in the brinquedo do Cavalo Marinho, specifically from the performance of Master Nice of the Cavalo Marinho as a black woman, mother, player, educator, and manager of Espaço Tradições Culturais, in the suburb of Novo Condado, in the state of Pernambuco. The research started from an immersive approach, that is, an affective and direct approach with the protagonist of the investigation. It sought to safeguard the forms of the constitution of knowledge about the brinquedo perceived in the fieldwork that lasted three months in the city of Condado, Pernambuco. Still, its basis is on bibliographical and videographic, academic, and artistic references, which facilitated access to historical, structural, and conceptual data about the folguedo. The Cavalo Marinho folguedo involves dance, music, poetry, praise, singing, masks, gestures, and peculiarities regarding the ability of the players to improvise. It is from the observation of the sambada moment – that is, the moment of public presentation of the brinquedo and the relationships between the players of Cavalo Marinho – that the research investigates how the hegemonic discourses of a patriarchal society are reflected in the brinquedo, reinforcing pre-established gender hierarchies. Thus, based on the work of Master Nice – who, in addition to bulir in the traditional structure for claiming the heritage of the Master's role, also develops educational actions to train new players – the research echoes emerging issues of contemporaneity in popular culture. It presents generational conflicts, especially related to the representation of the feminine in play. From the point of view of its theoretical foundation, the research is in tune with authors who seek to deconstruct colonial paradigms in thought (RUFINO and SIMAS, 2018, 2019, 2020; HOOKS, 2014, 2019) as well as criticize patriarchal recurrences (PACHECO, 2019; CARNEIRO, 2011; FEDERICI, 2019a, 2019b) and makes the perspective of fixing tradition in Popular Culture more complex (DE CARVALHO, 2010).