In music or in painting

light and darkness in the religious representations of indigenous peoples

Abstract

In this article, we examine as our study object the song "O Índio do Senhor" (The indigenous of the Lord), authored by Sebastiao da Costa Maciel Junior and Josias de Aguiar Teixeira, performed by the singer Cristina Mel; and also, the historical painting, in oil on canvas, "Primeira Missa no Brasil" (First Mass in Brazil), by the artist Victor Meirelles. Both works are characterized by dealing derogatorily, from different perspectives, with the religion of indigenous peoples, belittling it and imposing a Christian faith. The objective is to analyze and problematize the way in which the particularities of such cultures are represented in these mediums, as well as the religious aspects of peoples rich in rituals and symbologies. The importance of the research is to question what type of information has been perpetuated in the different means of cultural expression throughout history. We adopt as methodology, initially, a critical/descriptive analysis of the song's lyrics and the painting, subsequently correlating it with a qualitative analysis, of a bibliographic nature, where authors such as Blacking (2007), Couto (2008), Florêncio (2016), Giucci (1993), Laraia (2005), Panofsky (2017), Peixoto (2023), and Rosa (2016) were consulted in order to better structure the discussion and provide the necessary theoretical subsidies for the research.