Banca de DEFESA: FRANCISCO DEMETRIUS LUCIANO DE CALDAS

THE “SKIRT” AND “WINE” BABAS: THE MEANINGS SOCIOCULTURAL RITUALS OF FOOTBALL IN SALVADOR-BA

"Skirt Baba"; "Wine Baba"; Meanings; Salvador. 

“Baba” is a form as soccer is experienced at leisure and its more popular aspects known in Bahia. In Salvador, at the Semana Santa holiday and in the last day of the year occurs traditionally the “Baba de Saia”, also denominated “Baba do Vinho”, which consists in a ritual match in which the men dress themselves with women clothes and accessories. These events, situated between the matches and the traditional parties, provides reshape the traditional values associated to the masculinity and femininity, congregating in a regional perspective, base elements in the national identity with the soccer and the carnival. The general objective of this thesis is constituted and interpret the sociocultural meanings of Babas de Saia/do Vinho in Salvador/BA. The especifics objectives were outlined as follows: investigate the meanings of Baba de Saia/do Vinho from two Salvador matches; comprehend the elements that cross the textures of this ritual game such as gender issues and live the experience of Baba de Saia/do Vinho. The methodology consisted of the combination of two approaches. The first is a documentary analysis in printed newspapers and the second, a classic ethnography with two groups of amateur soccer in Salvador, employing participant observation, field diary and interviews. The chapter one addressed, through Cultural History, the look of two printed newspapers in Salvador regarding the phenomenon, the periodicals A Tarde and Correio; in the chapter two, the meanings were analyzed based on ethnography with the soccer group Amigos do Acupe on Piatã beach. The third was dedicated to players from the BabaSextou group in the Calabar community. The conclusion propose a synthesis of the meanings through these sources, narrowing the relationship between the game and education. The results revealed that the Baba de Saia or do Vinho were denominations of the same phenomenon in the city, assuming distinct characteristics by depending on the group who realized, being a leisure practice for the soteropolitan in the catholic holydays, constituting of the following sociocultural meanings: space for male sociability, female performance spaces which project social constructions about masculinities and femininities, a cultural tradition interregional, violence and symbolic productions, the community action of social visibility and the establishing relationships with nature.