Abstract

PEREIRA, Luzimar Paulo. Devil's doubt: stories of demoniac`s pacts in the north and northwest of Minas Gerais. Rev. Mus. Antropol. [online]. 2018, vol.11, suppl.1, pp.25-34. ISSN 1852-060X.

Abstract The narratives about demonic pacts are an important topic in the social life of ten-string guitar players (violeiros) in North and Northwest of Minas Gerais. On the one hand, they present, step by step, the rules of how to achieve the pacts, pointing the places, the moments and the objects best suited for their execution. Like true "recipes", the reports keep all the knowledge concerning contacts with the devil. On the other hand, the narratives also highlight the supposedly factual nature of the events. For all intents and purposes, the stories are about cases that happened to someone, in a particular place and time. These reports are events which are responsible for engendering a particular battleground where ten-string guitar players (violeiros) and their allies face each other when dealing with reputations. I want to argue that the notion of "doubt" is central in these conflicts around the "fame" of a player. In the reports, the veracity of that account is central, measured not only by its substantive content but also - and above all - the person speaking or the person of spoken to.

Keywords : sociedades camponesas; narrativas; reputação; pactos com o diabo; peasant societites; narratives; reputation; demoniac`s pact.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )