Musical boundary-work: Ethnomusicology, symbolic boundary studies, and music in the Afro-Gaucho religious community of southern Brazil

Abstract

This article combines ethnomusicology and symbolic boundary theory to explain musical boundary-work: the creation, interpretation, and use of music to reinforce, bridge, or reshape symbolic boundaries for social, political, spiritual, or other purposes. The multi-faith and multi-ethnic Afro-gaucho religious community of metropolitan Porto Alegre, in southern Brazil, serves as the case study, because practitioners use musical liturgy to combine and segregate the Batuque, Umbanda, and Quimbanda religions and their denominations. This essay introduces the community, highlighting ethno-racial identity politics, and describes processes of musical boundary-work within the community, focusing on local concepts of crossing and purity.