| This thesis explores the relationships between music, religious affiliations, and difference. The primary case study is the multi-ethnic, multi-class "Afro-gaucho" religious community in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The local term "Afro-gaucho" calls attention to African descendents in the region and their efforts to valorize their contributions to gaucho culture. Since a majority of the estimated 40,000 worship houses practice three religions (Batuque, Umbanda, and Quimbanda), participants use music to help segregate and mix the religions and their denominations. As a secondary focus, the thesis analyzes the musical liturgy of Umbanda and Quimbanda---hybrid Afro-Catholic-Spiritist religions with an estimated 20 million followers. The interpretive framework combines ethnomusicology with theories of religious syncretism, symbolic boundaries, and community. Ethnographic research methods included observation of rituals, interviews, and music lessons, conducted in ten months between 2006 and 2009 in Porto Alegre and also in Rio de Janeiro, Florianopolis, Salvador, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.;In Porto Alegre during the 1940s, worship houses of the African-based Batuque religion began practicing the highly eclectic Umbanda religion from Rio de Janeiro, while keeping the religions distinct. Batuqueiros changed Umbanda's music, but kept musical developments in Umbanda from altering Batuque. The mono-directional musical influences reflect the intricacies of communal politics. In general, the black underclass appears to have controlled syncretism to mitigate the white hegemony of Umbanda. Within the community, decisions to combine and segregate musical traditions overlap with participants' idiosyncratic beliefs, aesthetics, competencies, and competitive ambitions.;The high value placed on musical innovation and the semi-egalitarian musical practices of Umbanda and Quimbanda contrast with the hierarchical and preservationist values of the orthodox Batuque and Candomble religions. Umbanda's lay-composed liturgy and its ritual structure, as observed in Porto Alegre and Rio de Janeiro, suggest that codifiers created Umbanda by Catholicizing and Africanizing Spiritism Innovations since the 1960s have challenged musical hierarchies within Umbanda communities, creating tensions between laity and clergy over issues of authority and authorship. Disenfranchised populations---women, Afro-Brazilians, and Romani Brazilians---have shaped Umbanda's music and rituals for self-empowerment and political activism within race politics of Rio Grande do Sul. |
