The Boi, the Dance and the Children

Party, Revelry and Play in Childhood Experiences in the City of Manaus

Abstract

We present in this article a look at the centrality of the children in the party and in the game of the bull of Garrote in the city of Manaus. Mindful of the possibility of relating senses of leisure to the rich relations of cultural experience, we propose an approximation of one of the manifestations of the Boi-bumbá, which holds several universes of practices according to its region. In a universe where, for many residents of the city, it was seen as something that no longer existed, we sought to reveal how this revelry is  a lively and active practice that reveals ways of social interaction between children and their neighborhoods. In problematizing its manifestation as time-space we observe several modes of organization that escape the modern senses of the spectacle and the fragmented and individualized life. In establishing relationships between dance, children, education and culture, we seek ways of approaching leisure with the anthropological field, emphasizing in popular culture a unique way of playing the bull and a practice created for and by children.