Corpos alterados: gesto, performance e paixão entre torcedores do Paysandu

Abstract

The present Thesis has as its central theme the performance of the Paysandu’s passionate supporters. In the path I took, I worked with the notion of “restored behavior”, by Richard Schechner (2003); and with the idea of “fans as a community”, by anthropologist Roberto da Matta. I begin by making a historical retrospective of football, showing its evolution, from ancient times to the present day, when it becomes governed by rules and characterized as a sport. Historical data about the arrival of football in Belém, state of Pará, were collected in the works of Gaudêncio (2007) and Costa (2007). Aquino (2002) presents the first signs of a practice similar to what is known today as 'soccer'; Zainaghi (1998) puts us in touch with the beginnings of football in Brazil; Leal (2000) tells us about the practice of Tsuchu (2nd century), considered the oldest form of game in China; Grisard (2003) talks about handling the ball in games; Brustolin (2008) looks at football as one of the most important social and cultural phenomena of the 20th century; Carioba (2017) reflects on the dark side of football as an elitist practice in the 19th century. The heart of the work – the ethnographic description of the Paysandu’s passionate fans’ performances – is found in the chapter entitled ‘Sunday of the Passion’ [‘Domingo da Payxão’]. In it, I hypothesize how the passion of “the biggest and the best” football team in the North Region – Paysandu – was born.