As máscaras e os instrumentos musicais da "Festa da Moça Nova" Ticuna

Abstract

The Ticuna societies, inhabitants of the Amazon region, perform the "Festa da moça Nova" ritual of great importance to the identity of the group. The objective of this study was to understand how myth and ritual are articulated, in order to establish processes related to ethnicity and, in turn, to have subsidies to analyze the masks and instruments used during the celebration of female puberty. Based on readings by authors who directly observed the party and the "Curt Nimuendajú" Collection of the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, it was found that the social organization of these indigenous people is based on a clan system that has its origin and explanation in myths, and that are reproduced through ritual. This social order, established by their mythical heroes Yoí and Ipi, is divided into exogamous halves classified into nations defined by them as: "feather" and "featherless" or "air" and "earth," subdivided into clans that are the basis of the kinship system (Camacho 1995). The masks observed symbolize the forces of nature, legendary animals, or Ticuna ancestors (Faulhaber 2000) remembered during the festival, and are produced with the intention of following the teachings of their ancestors, so that the continuity of life in their universe is possible. On the other hand, the instruments are made and played by certain people belonging to specific clans: it is assumed that there is a relationship of complementarity between the two opposing halves and that this can be expressed in the use of the instruments in the ritual and that they are associated with the ties that indicate the sense of Ticuna identity.