The Myth of Matinta Perera and its variant forms in Curuçambaba, Bujaru (Pará, Brazil)

Abstract

The present study focuses on the Matinta Perera, an Amazonian entity endowed with zoomorphic powers and commonly associated with the female gender. In this direction, we intend to analyse this mythical figure in the context of oral narratives that talk about possible "sightings" that occurred in the community of Curuçambaba, which is a rural area of the municipality of Bujaru, in the north-eastern region of the state of Pará, Brazil. At the theoretical level, the study uses a bibliography that incorporates the contributions of Cascudo, Fares and Silva Júnior to contextualize the myth in its different meanings and to help the understanding of what was heard among the local people. In its empirical conception, the study is drawn based on the oral narratives collected in 2015 in the area in focus. According to the narrators, in Curuçambaba there are Matintas living among them, involving situations of "sightings". In general, the narratives collected about the Matinta Perera point to Amazonian representations on gender, old age and poverty transmitted by the gesture of a story narrating that at the same time scares and educates the younger ones, especially in the rural areas of the Paraense’s Amazon.