Detail map

Brazil

4 entries in 4 subareas: 2 at grade A, 2 at grade B. The points fall where the entry was collected, not where the story is set. Hover a point to see the subarea, click it to open the entry.

Amazonia, with the documentary centre of gravity at Belém and on the lower Amazon

ACurupiraBrazil — Amazonia, with the documentary centre of gravity at Belém and on the lower Amazon

Middle and lower Amazon, ribeirinha communities; documentary core at Tefé and in the Mamirauá reserve

ABoto cor-de-rosaBrazil — Middle and lower Amazon, ribeirinha communities; documentary core at Tefé and in the Mamirauá reserve

Minas Gerais and the rural Brazilian interior, with the São Francisco valley (Januária) as the earliest dated point of collection; the belief is also recorded at Cuiabá, in São Paulo and in Rio Grande do Sul, and the Iberian origin, Portuguese or Spanish, is a scholars' hypothesis rather than an attestation

BMula sem cabeçaBrazil — Minas Gerais and the rural Brazilian interior, with the São Francisco valley (Januária) as the earliest dated point of collection; the belief is also recorded at Cuiabá, in São Paulo and in Rio Grande do Sul, and the Iberian origin, Portuguese or Spanish, is a scholars' hypothesis rather than an attestation

Vale do Paraíba and the Brazilian south-east, with Monteiro Lobato's inquiry centred on Taubaté

BSaci-PererêBrazil — Vale do Paraíba and the Brazilian south-east, with Monteiro Lobato's inquiry centred on Taubaté

The entries, in brief

The folklore of Brazil documented in this atlas: Curupira, Saci-Pererê, Boto cor-de-rosa and Mula sem cabeça. Every entry is placed on the map at the point where it was collected or attested — not where the story is set — and carries its declared grade of documentation (2 at grade A, 2 at grade B), with the sources it comes from. The 4 subareas are not an administrative division: folklore lives in cultural areas, which rarely coincide with state borders.

Boto cor-de-rosa A
At village festivals a most elegant young man appears, dressed in white, who never takes off his hat — because beneath it is the blowhole. He dances all night, seduces, leads the woman to the river and vanishes before dawn.…

Curupira A
A dwarf with hair of fire and feet turned backwards, who rides a peccary, whistles piercingly and rules the forest. He punishes those who hunt beyond need, those who kill pregnant females, those who leave nothing for the…

Mula sem cabeça B
In the sources she is the punishment of a priest's concubine. Cascudo defines her as «a forma que toma a concubina do sacerdote»: on the night from Thursday to Friday the woman becomes a strong animal, «of controverted…

Saci-Pererê B
A black boy with a single leg, a red cap and a pipe, who travels inside dust devils and stinks of sulphur. He makes people lose their way, plaits horses' manes, turns milk sour, hides objects. He is caught with a sieve, with a…

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