AN EXUBERANT MYSTICAL CLOAK COVERS THE FRACTURED BODY OF THE CANGACEIRO

Abstract

The article examines the exuberant clothes and objects created by the cangaceiros led by Lampião, especially during the 1930s, from a gender perspective. It departs from Judith Butler’s (1990) argument about the superficiality of gender and a photograph of Lampião and his wife, Maria Bonita, taken by Benjamin Abrahão, to suggest that the cangaceiro outfit mystically restore the body of the male worrier, fractured by the presence of women in the band. Mary Douglas’ theory (1966) about the relationship between the limits of the body and the limit of social groups contributes to an understanding of the gender negotiations that took place on the surfaces of the objects produced by the cangaceiros.