Lenda do Boto (Brazilian Folklore): origins, variations and interpretations

A lenda do Boto is one of the most famous stories of national folklore. Or cetacean, a species of golfinho de agua doces that inhabits the rivers of Amazônia, ended up becoming the center of a very popular narrative in Brazil.

See, face part of the common imagination of two Brazilians: a personagem has continued to be represented in texts, music, films, theater pieces and novels.

A lenda do Boto

In some special noites, from lua cheia ou festa junina, or Boto sai do rio e transforms into a homem sedutor e gallant, all dressed in white.

He uses a chapéu to disguise his identity: hair with a large nose, continues to grow or golfinho de agua twelve e, not top of the head, a hole where he breathes.

Surpreendendo girls na beira do rio, or dancing with them during the dances, or Boto gets seduced by them as jeito doce e charmoso. There, he decides to lift them up into the water, where you face love.

Na manhã Seguinte, it returns to its normal form and disappears. As women ficam in a row, the mysterious figure is many times engraved, I tend to reveal the world or he found himself as Boto.

O myth of Boto not Brazilian folklore

As well as its own identity, the traditional Brazilian culture was formed through the crossing of indigenous, African and Portuguese influences. Or myth seems ter uma hybrid nature, combining elements of two European and indigenous images.

A historia do Boto, which originated in the northern region of the country, Amazônia, illustrates the proximity of her with water and the way she reproduces in her experiences and babies.

Faced as a friend or as a predator, or a cetacean ganhou a magical conotação and passed to be celebrated and feared in various regions of the country. Currently, he is still represented in rituals and folkloric dances, in commemorations such as Festa do Sairé, in Alter do Chão, Pará.

Variations and curiosities about a lenda

Or I contact among the populações that were next to lead to um assimilation process da lenda do Boto pela regional Brazilian culture.

Assim, a narrative was transforming and assuming different contours, depending on the time of the region of the country. Initially, history was passed on in noites de lua cheia, when the author appeared for the women who were banhavam no rio or passeavam nas margens.

Na version more known at present, a magical entity is transformed into homem in the period of the June festivities and appears to us dances, wanting to dance with a prettier girl. In some variants of history, he also plays bandolim.

Luís da Câmara Cascudo, famous historian and anthropologist, summarizes also estória, na work Dictionary of Brazilian Folklore (1952):

O boto seduced the young ribeirinhas the main tributaries of the Amazon River, and it is the country of all the filhos of unknown responsibility. For the first few hours of the night, he transforms himself into a pretty raptor, tall, white, forte, great dancer and A drinker, he appears to us, dances, namora, talks, frequent meetings and faithfully appears at years of meeting. feminines. Before dawn, he turned to be boto.

The stories were frequent in the oral and written tradition that virou costume, in certain regions, the homens will shoot or chapéu and show or topo da cabeça when chegavam nas festas.

Before this popular version, other Falavam indigenous narratives of an aquatic being that assumes human form: Sight. She was worshiped by Tapuian hairs, Indians who did not falavam tupi, who accredited their divine protection.

Os povos tupis do litoral também falavam de um homem marinho, or Ipupiara. Faced as an ally and protector, or Boto was seen as a friend, mainly two fishermen and women who resgatava das Águas. Because of this, or consumption of its meat, it became frowned upon in various communities.

O seu enchantment of him, however, leaves sequels to the life of burning. After I found out how to be fantastic, as women seemed to adore de paixão, entering a state of melancholy. Lean and pale, many tinham to be raised to a healer.

A lenda seems to be um male parallel from Iara, to Mãe d'Água that attracted humans with their beauty and their voice. It is interesting to note that some stories davam told of Boto, who also became a woman, maintaining relationships with homens that she was going to keep.

Na melhor das hipóteses, or Boto começava to haunt a cabin and a canoe do seu beloved. Na pior, o homem morria de exaustão logo depois do sexo.

Em 1864, na work A Naturalist in the Amazon River, or English explorer Henry Walter Bates narrates a similar version, which he learns in the Amazon.

Many mysterious stories are related to the boto, such as e chamado or golfinho maior do Amazonas. One of them was that either boto tinha or the habit of assuming the shape of a bela mulher, like hanging hair attached to the joelhos and, saindo à noite, to walk around the streets of Ega, to lead the boys até ao river.

Somehow she was quite old to follow - I tied her to praia, the safe went to the victim's waist and to the mergulhava in waves with a shout of triumph.

All these fables fizeram also how popular people come to fear it, trying to ways of or afastar. Assim, nasceu or habit of being washed alho nas embarcações. Not interior, there is a belief that women should not be menstruating and wear vermelho when the platform of a ship, these fatores will attract a child.

You filhos do Boto

A creation of a magical entity that appeared to seduce incautious women survived and was transformed during the tempos. However, one thing remains the same: lenda is used to explain the pregnancy of uma mulher solteira. Or myth, many times, it is a way of embracing forbidden or extra-conjugal relationships.

Because of this, it has been known that Brazil has children of unknown countries that prove to be filhas do Boto. In 1886, José Veríssimo represented the situation in the work Dinners gives Amazonian life.

Rosinha from this time began to grow thin; how pale she was tornou-se amarela; she ficou feia. Tinha um ar sad de mulher desgraçada. Seu pai de ella notou essa change and perguntou à mulher because of it. Foi o boto, answered D. Feliciana, sem give another explanation.

Outras interpretações da lenda

Behind this myth, there is um cross between magic and sexuality. Besides promoting a union between women and nature, the narrative seems to be related to the female desire and fantasy of a homem with supernatural powers, capable of seducing any mortal.

On the other hand, some psychologists and sociologists argue that, many times, as women use lenda as a form of hide episodes of violenceou incest that geraram a pregnancy.

Contemporary representations of Boto

As told through gerações, lenda do Boto continues to assume a role of relay in Brazilian culture. A mysterious personagem has been represented through various arts: literature, theater, music, cinema, among others.

In 1987, Walter Lima Jr. directed or film Ele, or Boto, starring Carlos Alberto Riccelli.

O personagem também é o um curta-metragem de animação center directed by Humberto Avelar, part of the project I swear i saw, a series of curtas on Brazilian folklore and environmental protection, 2010.

Veja o curta na integral:

In 2007, or myth also appears in minissérie Amazônia - From Galvez to Chico Mendes, where Delzuite (Giovanna Antonelli) lives a prohibited and engraved relationship. Embora she estivesse noiva de outro homem, she is pregnant with Tavinho, or filho de um colonel, and places the blame on not Boto.

Recently, a novel To Força do Querer (2017), we meet Rita, a young man from Parazinho who accredited to be a sereia. It is a girl who is responsible for the fact that in his proximity he ate water and her powers of seduction, she was a family member: she was filha do Boto.

A soundtrack of the novel included theme O Namorador Boto by Dona Onete, a singer, composer and poet from Paraná. A song, as the title itself indicates, face menção to the character conqueror of Boto, a kind of Don Juan Brazilian.

Contam that a pretty boy
Saltava to love
Contam that a pretty boy
Saltava to dance

All dressed in white
Pra dance with cabocla Sinhá
All dressed in white
Pra dance with cabocla Iaiá
All dressed in white
Pra dance with cabocla Mariá

Envelope or Boto-cor-de-rosa

As a scientist Inia geoffrensis, or boto ou uiara é um fluvial golfinho that inhabits our rivers Amazonas and Solimões. The coloration of these mammals can vary, being that the adults, mainly the males, have a pink tonality. O nome "uiara", derived from tupi "ï'yara"means" senhora da agua ".

Conheça also

• Lendas of Brazilian folklore
• Lenda do Curupira explained
• Lenda da Cuca explained
• Poems about Amazônia
• Lenda da Iara analyzed
• Indigenous art
• Macunaíma by Mário de Andrade
• Livro Iracema, by José de Alencar
• 25 poems by Carlos Drummond de Andrade