Nada melhor do que trazer o santo pra casa! : a dinâmica das festas de santos de família, na Baixada Cuiabana

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to describe and analyze some dynamics of the feasts of family saints, from the Baixada Cuiabana. Three different parties have been ethnographed that intersect in the festive scene and represent a mandatory system of total benefits and payments. The feasts are made by families as a way to show permanent devotion to “their” patron saints, with the help of party planners and devotees. These feasts create spaces in the backyards of houses where devotees make a religious pilgrimade, manufacture and make use of important ritual and sacred objects. In the context of festivals, people share the notion of collectivity and reciprocity, constituting experiences, sociabilities, commensalities that mark the relations between them and between them and the saints. Festivities create realities, feelings, and exalt and fill the gaps in the daily lives of people who have errands with the saints.