JAMBO COLOUR AND OTHER AMAZONIAN HUES: ON THE ABOLITION OF THE MULATA AND THE ADVENT OF THE MORENA CHEIROSA AT THE JUNE FESTIVALS OF BELÉM.

In this article, I consider the state's conscious production of social categories that sexualize race and racialize gender in public policies in order to promote popular cultures. Looking at the practices and discourses surrounding the categories “Miss Mulata” and “Miss Morena Cheirosa” at the June festivals in Belém, I argue that these categories reveal the interference of state organs and their cultural brokers in the production of Amazonian ethnic-racial identities. In addition to looking at the explicit textual content of the regulations of the June contests, I note what the omit regarding issues of race, ethnicity and sexuality. Such omissions do not reflect a lack of normative prescriptions, but mean that the regulation of bodies, subjects, and performances remains hidden and immobile in the interstices of the discourse of cultural brokers who foster policies geared toward popular cultures.

Keywords:
Race; Ethnicity; Popular Cultures; June Festivals; Documents