Quem canta um ponto reza duas vezes: festivais de ponto de pontos de umbanda e suas circularidades musicais

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation investigates the festivals of Umbanda songs, known as pontos cantados, as spaces of ritual expression, musical creation, and symbolic circulation within the field of Afro-Brazilian religions. The study focuses on the Prêmio Atabaque de Ouro (Atabaque de Ouro Award), a prominent festival held in Rio de Janeiro that gathers musical compositions dedicated to entities and orixás of Umbanda. By combining ethnographic fieldwork, participant observation, interviews, and the analysis of CDs recorded from 2004 to 2018, the research explores how these songs move between religious terreiros, stages, and media platforms, operating simultaneously as prayers, performance, and cultural heritage. The work conceptualizes the ponto as a symbolic operator that mediates between liturgical foundation (fundamento) and embodied reza, allowing us to understand its role as both a religious and aesthetic element. Furthermore, the study examines the dynamics of dispute, innovation, and community belonging that emerge within the context of festivals, revealing how musical performance becomes a strategy of legitimation, memory, and identity within the Umbanda universe.