{"id":"NASCIMENTO2007-001","label":"Guiné berra-bois for the wandering souls","people_or_site":"Folia das Almas of Guiné","country_current":"Brazil","historic_region":"Guiné, rural São Roque de Minas, Serra da Canastra, Minas Gerais","macroregion":"South America / Brazil","local_name":"berra-boi","source_term":"berra-boi","source_language":"Portuguese","object_description":"A small board tied to one end of a strong cord, with a short handle tied to the other; spun hard, it gives a deep drone like a strong gale.","function_summary":"Third instrument of Guiné's Lenten Folia das Almas, after the matraca and the réu-réu: as many berra-bois as players wished were spun at each farmhouse during the night-time songs and prayers for the souls of the dead.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"NASCIMENTO2007_GUINE_FOLIA_DAS_ALMAS","source_type":"academic_article_pdf","source_url":"https://www.intercom.org.br/papers/nacionais/2007/resumos/r0003-1.pdf","page_or_plate":"pp. 2-3, 5-6, 10-13 (foto 3, p. 13), map p. 18","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Fazenda Guiné, São Roque de Minas (SEMAD-MG vegetation-licensing opinion, process 2100.01.0012548/2022-34, field point 20°15'27\"S 46°13'43\"W), which lies in the Guiné region shaded on Nascimento's appendix map about 15 km east of the town; a regional anchor for scattered farms, not one performance site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Every Friday of Lent, after ten at night, a small band of foliões left the farms of Guiné to sing for the wandering souls. At each farmyard the matraca sounded first, then the bamboo réu-réu rattled like a burst of machine-gun fire, then came the berra-bois, as many as anyone cared to swing, each a small board spun on a strong cord until it droned like a gale. Inside, the family put out the lights and sat silent in the dark through the prayers for the drowned, the lost and the violently dead; alms pushed through a crack in the window might be repaid with a flower left on the sill. \"It was like a pact with the other side,\" a former réu-réu player remembered. They sang and played for the souls, and the souls left the houses alone. Many people, he said, saw others walking with the band, dressed in white.","pull_quote":"Era como se fosse um acordo com o 'outro lado'. Cantavam e tocavam para 'elas' e assim 'elas' não incomodavam as pessoas, as casas.","pull_quote_translation":"It was like a pact with the 'other side'. They sang and played for 'them', and so 'they' did not trouble the people, the houses.","pull_quote_cite":"José Alves Nascimento, former réu-réu player, in Genio Nascimento, Encomendação das Almas (Intercom, 2007), pp. 5-6","term_gloss":"berra-boi (literally 'bellow-ox'): a Brazilian name for the bullroarer.","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":["death_rebirth"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Genio de Paulo Alves Nascimento, “Encomendação das Almas: resistência cultural em São Roque de Minas,” XXX Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação, Santos (Intercom, 2007), pp. 2–6, 10–13","url":"https://www.intercom.org.br/papers/nacionais/2007/resumos/r0003-1.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20220302101221/https://www.intercom.org.br/papers/nacionais/2007/resumos/r0003-1.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Genio de Paulo Alves Nascimento, “Encomendação das Almas: resistência cultural em São Roque de Minas,” XXX Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação, Santos (Intercom, 2007), pp. 2–6, 10–13","source_display":"Genio de Paulo Alves Nascimento, “Encomendação das Almas: resistência cultural em São Roque de Minas,” XXX Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação, Santos (Intercom, 2007), pp. 2–6, 10–13","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A small board tied to one end of a strong cord, with a short handle tied to the other; spun hard, it gives a deep drone like a strong gale.","function_display":"Third instrument of Guiné's Lenten Folia das Almas, after the matraca and the réu-réu: as many berra-bois as players wished were spun at each farmhouse during the night-time songs and prayers for the souls of the dead.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"folia das","display_name":"Guiné berra-bois for the wandering souls","image":{"full":"assets/objects/hunt_rounds123_2026_10_30/mine2026-081_guine-berra-boi.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/hunt_rounds123_2026_10_30/thumbs/mine2026-081_guine-berra-boi.jpg","alt":"Two slim wooden pieces, a blade and a handle, joined by a white cord, against orange.","credit":"Genio de Paulo Alves Nascimento, Encomendação das Almas (Intercom, 2007), foto 3","source_page":"https://www.intercom.org.br/papers/nacionais/2007/resumos/r0003-1.pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"A Guiné berra-boi: the small board, its cord and the short handle."},"slug":"nascimento2007-001-folia-das-almas-of-guine"}