Voices of the Magi: Enchanted Journeys in Southeast Brazil (review)

Folklore studies of Brazilian culture invoke images of the rich and varied forms of African religions and dance or of the dramatic history of independent African states recreated in the wilds of the Brazilian north outside the pale of European settlement. Alternately, the imagination turns toward the many and varied Amerindian cultures of the largest country in South America. Rarely does one think of religious plays or mummery based upon European folk Christianity. Such traditions offer a rich field for study in Brazil worthy of more attention. Suzel Ana Reily has begun the correction of this oversight in this detailed investigation of the community rituals of Christian mummery performed by groups known as Folias de reis, or Companies of Kings (p. xi).

The phenomenon represented by these musical ensembles offers several interesting areas for analysis. In addition to discussing the form, structure, and distinctive styles of the musical performance requiring both performative and musicological theory, Reily draws upon the literature of ritual studies to gain insight into the ways in which these ensembles have helped specific populations construct a sense of continuity and recreate their social, religious, and ethical identities during the difficult transition from rural to urban environments and from agricultural to industrial and even postindustrial society.

According to Reily, the Folias de reis, with their costuming and rich musical fabric, serve to strengthen a sense of community through the involvement of preparation and practice necessary for the consummation of the ritual events. These rituals are a form of Christian folk drama that will be familiar to those versed in Western European mumming. They reinforce and reify the ethical values of a Christian community that at other times may find little that reflects their spiritual ideals in the daily existence of urban Brazil.

Reily argues that participatory musical performance creates "enchantment," meaning a "highly charged experiential realm in which devotees gain a momentary glimpse of the harmonious order that could reign in society, provided everyone agreed to adhere to the moral precepts outlined in religious discourse" (p. 3). Even more significant in its implications, but completely unmentioned, is the multireferential nature of the term encantaria (enchantment) in the Brazilian context. The term also figures significantly in Afro-Brazilian traditions where possessing spirits are often referred to as encantados, a subject examined in some length in Reginaldo Prandi's Encantaria brasileira: o livro dos mestres, caboclos e encantados (Brazilian Enchantments: The Book of Masters, Indians and Magical Beings [Rio de Janeiro: Pallas, 2001]).

If there is a weakness in this book, it is that the author did not examine more closely the interrelation between this Christian performance tradition and the numerous Afro-Brazilian religious traditions with which it coexists. The coterminous environment of these traditions is heightened in the urban form that Reily has chosen to examine. For example, she notes that one performer was committed to this ostensibly Christian performance by an obligation to participate in the Folias placed upon him by one of his possessing Umbanda spirits, Caboclo Sete Estrelo (p. 60).

One aspect of the term "enchantment" that the author deals with is its ephemeral nature. The enchantment created by these events—that liminal reality, neither wholly human nor divine, which is "a sphere for the expression of the humanity of the saints and the divinity of humanity" (p. 222)—cannot be sustained indefinitely. This temporariness is what requires the regular repetition of this ritual, and indeed of all ritual. This book hints at many aspects of Brazilian popular religion, music, and ritual that one would like to see elaborated. It too, however, is limited. Those topics have their place in other books. Like the repeated performances of the Folias de reis, Voices of the Magi is a book to be returned to for more than a single reading.