** BETANIA MACIEL DE ARAUJO

In any culture exist communication practices that give significance to their users and also explain changes suffered in time and space. A better undressing of the myths and rituals as well as detection of their implications within the system of beliefs practiced by the people subjected to the study, is derived through various theoretical matrixes. The knowledge of the belief system leads us to discover and understand the cultural roots of acceptance and rejection of new information and teaching.

Using as a source the thoughts of Lèvi-Strauss (1985), proceeding from arguments taken in the field of the general theory of information, suggest that "the myth is not only a telling of tales: it contains a message". The author recognizes that the actuation of one sending the message is not very clear to the outsider, but it is obvious to whom is receiving the message.

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** Professor in the Department of Language and Human Sciences at Federal Rural University of Pernambuco - Brazil.

The cited author clarifies the process of communication experienced by the myth and the commute in the following form: classifies the ancestors (A) as the "emitters" and the present generation (B) as the "receptors".

Firstly, imagine that the message emitted by A to B is almost out of hearing range and that communication is difficult because of various interferences. The message will need to be passed in various forms both verbally and gesturally, and elaborated various ways and times, clearly resulting in various interpretations.

The author emphasizes that as an extreme, it is very likely that B will misinterpret the messages but once assimilated, all the redundancies will disappear and it will be clear what is "really" being said. The verbal and gestural forms, embedded in the rituals will determine the behavior of the group.

Turner (1974, p. 19), the purpose of rituals: "The rituals reveal the values at the greatest depth. Man expresses in the rituals that which touches him most intensely, and being a means of expression that is conventional and obligatory , what is revealed are the values of the group. The study of the rites is the key to understanding the essential constitution of human societies".

Revealing the values in the practiced rituals, the community is able to affirm its ethnicity, maintaining the group coherent. The group presents itself through its ritualistic performance.

Learch (1978) observes the relationship of the people who participate in the ceremony admitting that "the participants of a ritual are simultaneously exchanging communicative experiences. They represent, through various different sensory channels, an ordained sequence of metaphoric facts in the territorial space that was in itself organized to offer a metaphoric content for execution". He adds the following, "that all of the verbal, musical, choreographic and visual esthetics dimensions seem to form components of the total message. When we partake of an experience at the same time and condense it into one unique experience which we describe as ‘attending a wedding’ or ‘attending a funeral’, from there ever after. The analyst should isolate every dimension, one at a time, and then it makes it almost impossible to make a really convincing account of how the different superimposed dimensions adjust themselves to produce one unique combined message".

In the development of the ritual, the scripts are defined: Strauss characterizes the communicational process basically between the emitter (ancestral) and receptor (present generation). Leach names the agent of the communicational process as executors and hearers, not separating them, affirming that there exists a separate audience : executors-hearers are the same person. They participate in the rituals transmitting messages collectively among themselves.

Leach (1978, p. 55): "In common ritual culturally-defined practices, there does not exist a ‘composer’ besides the mythological ancestors. The proceedings follow an ordained pattern established by tradition - ‘this is our custom’. There generally exists a ‘maestro’, a master of ceremonies, a chief priest, a central protagonist whose actions give a temporary boundary to all the others".

The author compares the proceedings of a ritual in our civilization with an act in which the actor performs the part of the emitter and the audience the receptor. In labeled primitive societies, the communication in the ritual is elaborated in horizontal form, all performing the characters as emitters and receptors of the message, characterizing a collective message.

In this line of thought, Leach (1978, p. 8) completes that: "The culture communicates, the complex interconnection of cultural events itself transmits information to those who participate in these events".

From the systematic proceedings we are able to decode the messages contained in the complexities observed. Detail is its essence.

Based on Leach’s (1978) thesis we can present the indigenous ritual of the "menino do rancho" as a mythical-religious representation that surpasses messages to the members of the group, initiating their wishes and frustrations and anxieties, integrating into the community.

We analyze the internal vision, how they feel about their ritual, and what they think about it, producing psychological benefits symbolically represented in the rites. This analysis of the ritual not only treats the psychological effects, as say Almeida, (1957, p. 25): "besides the social determinates of the function of the rite, the study of the music, the choreography, the clotting, the musical instruments, the implements of dance, all the non-psychological factors, without speaking of the historical-geographical deductions, always present in our observation".

Emphasizing the character of the "Praiás" (chiefs, sacerdotal) based on the observation of the myth Malinowiski (1948, p. 38): "The myth is a type of primitive evangelic, which exalts and codifies the beliefs, preserves and legitimizes the morality, guarantees the efficiency of the ritual and contains practical rules to educate man. Thus, it results in a vital ingredient for the human civilization: it is not an intellectual explanation nor an artistic fantasy, it is nothing but a pragmatic letter of faith and moral wisdom".

According to Victor Turner, "ritual is a formal behavior to be executed during occasions not determined by technological routine, and that relates with the beliefs in the powers and mystical beings". (1967, p.19).

The study of the rituals makes possible a better comprehension of the relevant cultural meanings for a process of dynamic analysis. On the other hand, the discovery of specific functions, performed by the ritual in the society being studied, helps to better understand the changes. In studying the rituals, one needs to keep in mind a basic question: what are their functions or purposes in the society in which they are practiced?

Through the ritual practices, innumerous societies believe to arrive at benefits related with problems, whether of physical order or psychological order. These rituals can be related with questions of biological character, like fertility, as well related with physical and spiritual dangers.

The rites of passage include indications of the social order of a community and their study permits a better understanding of how the individual member of a society is supported in time of crisis. It is necessary to take into account nevertheless, that the support in times of crisis in interlinked with processes of socialization, to the personal experience of the individuals of a given society, narrated chronologically, provides the necessary information to mount the history of those people as a whole. The comparison of accounts of past experiences with present observed experiences, will demonstrate the changes that occurred in that culture, being able it inform as well, events related to this process.

The discovery of the processes of socialization utilized by a culture will inform about the norms of behavior, cultivated by its members as well as the manner in which these norms are applied and communicated among its followers.

The most important rites of passage are: birth, puberty, marriage, and death. Remembering Van Gennep, cited by Mair. He said: "A human being does not become a member of his society only by having been born; he has to formally be accepted in it, what is done is he is publicly given a name as an infant, or is presented to the relatives of the parents. The arrival of adult social age is marked by ritual, as in marriage or death. All these changes, concluded, ‘can be interpreted’- not only as passages, but morre, ‘properly, through passages’" (Mair, 1965, p. 220).

Each rite of passage is narrowly related to the transition of a social status to another, in the society where it takes place. To consider all the rites of passage as being one, we will encounter elementary outline of the social structures of that community. Potentially, this passage is dangerous. Many times it causes harm to the persons submitted to it. It is like a test a person needs to pass to be accepted as a bearer of another "status". In the passage of one between the end of the preceding and the beginning of the next state. During the threshold stage, the person begins the process of transmission in one state and ends in another.

Persons who are passing through the threshold stage have little, or no characteristics of the present state, or the posterior state. These persons are called neophytes or beginners.

Turner (1969, p. 117) "The threshold entities, like the neophytes in the rites of initiation or of puberty, can be represented as possessing nothing. They can be disguised as monsters, using only a strip of cloth as clothing or appear simply nude to demonstrate as threshold genies, that they do not possess status, property, insignias, wordily clothing or social character, position in one’s kinship, in summary, nothing that can distinguish them from their neophyte colleagues, or the process of initiation. Their behavior is normally passive and humble. They must implicitly obey the instructors and accept arbitrary punishments, without complaint. It is like they are reduced or oppressed to a uniform condition, to be shaped again and donated to other powers to enable them to confront their new life situation".

With relation to the symbol, Turner (1969, p. 19) cites: "The symbol is everything that though analogical qualities of real or figurative associations is considered by general consensus to be typical representation and natural evocation of something.

He considers as symbols: objects, activities, relationships, events, gestures, units of space, encountered in the context of the ritual.

The ritual the "menino do rancho" expresses itself in a symbolic form. The event is of the parents who will give a child to the "Praiás" payment of a promise related to a donation reached in favor of the same. Another symbolic characteristic of the ritual is a promise of marriage between the "menino do rancho" and a girl in the community chosen to be the bride, when they reach the adult age of consummation. The future marriage is an unconscious representation as a promise made to the "Praiás".

Their beliefs and their psychological influences in the behavior of the Indians, the internal Pankararu vision, the way they feel about their ritual and concepts of themselves in intrinsic form is very complex.

As is well understood, these intermediaries are obligated to keep the entire secret in regards to all that occurs in the "poró".

To exercise a psychological coercion capable of determining absolute muteness, the "Praiás" threaten to punish the violators of this with various punishments among them, sleeping in beds made of nettles.

The acquisition of these intermediaries in ancient times is what the festival, the "menino do rancho" symbolizes. Really what happens is simply the representation of the kidnapping of the boys that in the past, made the "Praiás" to have originally, servants and later, future ‘brothers’.

In accordance which the principle of reciprocity and in the exchange of information, the Pankararu offers "obligations" to the "enchanted" in exchange for the prophecies, the recipes, the news, the experiences and the diagnostics: In the ritual the "menino do rancho", the act of surrendering of a son to the mystical society of the "Praiás". On one side remember the Biblical example of where Abraham surrendered his only son Isaac to God for a sacrifice as a test and proof of love; on the other side a similar experience in another social context, of the sacrifices to Tonatium (the sun) by Mexicans, in the expectations of and to obtain blessings putting into practice the principle of reciprocity.

The myths occupy so extensively the imaginative and emotional nature of the Pankararu with uncertain elements of knowledge of the involved society, distinguishing clearly the Indian and the regional, despite the many times of encountering each other geographically very near. The Pankararu present themselves before the dominant society of the "whites" as men of complex ritual patterns - dramatized and concrete forms of their own myths.

The "menino do rancho" is one of the rituals most appreciated within the indigenous area of Pankararu. To honor the "Praiás", mythical and religious entities who represent the gods originating in the waterfalls of Itaparica, these being responsible for the influence in the social and psychological development of the community.

The festival of the "menino do rancho" destines itself to initiate the children in the secrets of a society of "Praiás", or better, make them intermediaries between these magical protectors of the village and the greatest persons of the social group. The "Praiás" form a type of secret society and when they encounter each other in the "poró" or in the sacred hut, must avoid as much as possible contact with strange persons. The initiated children are charged with providing themselves with water, fire, tobacco, etc. They nay not reveal religious secrets, for fear of sleeping in a folding bed covered which nettle. For this, they construct before anything else, the hut, and place a boy of about twelve years old in it.

The initiated one is decorated with a helmet of "ouricuri", painted white and has a shoulder belt of rolls of tobacco. Around this, the guards and godfathers post themselves armed with clubs. Then the ceremony begins, which consists of a fight between the "Praiás" and the godfathers for possession of the child; the fight ends with the destruction of the hut and the victory of the sacerdotal who, singing and dancing, take with them the future "Praiá" into the presence of another child who is female. This characteristic dance of the "Praiás" took its name. Dressed with ritual masks, whose description will be made later, the "Praiás" hold in one of their hands a rattle-type musical instrument made from a gourd (maraca), in the other a baton adorned with feathers or paper. A woman, sitting at the feet of the dancers, draws out the melancholic song. She is the ‘cantadeira’ (songstress). It is difficult to accompany all the phases of the dance. Sometimes in rows, others in pairs or in a circle, in abrupt leaps or beating rudely with the feet in the dirt, describing zigzag or leaning to the right or to the left. The "Praiás" dance for hours in succession. In certain occasions the dancers separate themselves in groups and arm-in-arm form a row towards the ‘cantadeira’ at whom they suddenly charge. The chants are always accompanied by guttural sounds or the endless "ooay’s. In the "toré" they dance with or without the "Praiás". The dancers are always in pairs or in groups of four. The conches accompany the melancholic melodies.

On the occasion of our going to Pankararu, we could evaluate the importance of the "Praiás" within the community, we will make in the following a vivid description for us:

The indigenous ritual the "menino do rancho" occurs in distinct periods, not having a specific day on which the ceremony is celebrated which can be effected by reasons of the most variety nature. One of the times when we were on the field researching, preparations for the realization of the festival were beginning, for the following reason: the chid ("menino do rancho"), shortly after he was born was having intestinal complications, occasional fever and general malaise, worrying his parents and the community for they have a very serious commitment in relation to the maintenance of the offspring. Guaranteeing in this manner the perpetuation of the race that comes resisting more than 400 years of contact and plunder.

The chid diagnosed by the medicine man, was surrendered by the parents (spiritually) to the Gods entrusted with the curing of the child and whatever would happen. Later, the parents and godfathers of the child organized together with the community, a festival to symbolically surrender the child to the "Praiás", making him belong from that day forth, to the society of the "Praiás".

In the tribal group of the Pankararu the medicine men to today, are intermediaries, possessors of supernatural faculties of hearing and conversing with spiritual entities, the "Praiás" are the sacerdotals who receive the protector spirits of the tribe.

On this occasion we could observe the organization of the ritual the "menino do rancho" involves the participation of all, principally the medicine man, seeing that he exercises the spiritual power respected by all acting as adviser in relation to the sacred subjects. It is his duty to invoke the supernatural spirits and bring them to the village. In the two weeks before the ceremony, at nightfall, accompanied by the men, who go in the direction of the waterfalls and call for their arrival, making requests and promises of good relations and good hospitality during their stay at the village.

Three fundamental role of the chief is to assume direction and organization as ceremonial host, acting leader, politician and who promotes and exercises influence over the behavior of the youngest who incorporate the mask of dance during the festivity, orienting them in how they should behave before the community and within the ritual.

Very religiously and disciplined, the followers obey the leader, not only during the collection of the benefits in the homes, which begins one day before the ritualistic ceremony, but also in the elapsing of the dance.

The night before the performance, all the offering have already been collected which can be food, beverages, even money.

On the day of the festival, the participants and organizers rise before sunrise and begin to sing in the houses, calling the people to prepare the terrace and food.

When they arrive at the terrace, the "Praiás" gather in a house constructed especially for this purpose. There we could not understand what they do. The impression was that they were drinking sugar cane sap that is made in the village and uttering chants loudly.

Three places where the ceremony occurred is localized in the center of the village, near the headquarters of indigenous post of FUNAI (Fundação Nacional do Índio - National Foundation of the Indian): is a terrace with a beaten clay surface measuring approximately 400 m2. This terrace belonged to an old Indian, matriarch of a family of large number. The houses are arranged around the terrace. The Indian, according to the informant Indians is called the "owner of the terrace".

Around the terrace exist the abode huts, in precarious estate, where the children and grandchildren of the "owner of the terrace" reside, and behind one of the huts, a cover of wood and straw where they prepare the food that will be served at the festival.

The middle of the terrace is empty, there is no movement of people, just as before the ceremony, the visitors stand around the edge, the middle is reserved for the passage of the "Praiás" and godfathers. Below a leafy mango tree is the location reserved for the songstress who draws out the songs and animates the festival, behind her and to the side are the visitors and tribal people.

When entering the terrace, taken as a reference pit the entrance of the "Praiás" after gathering of the provisions, the songstress is on the right side and the "poró" is on the left. The "poró" is also called "rancho", a hut made of palm leaves and tree branches, and is there that the boy stays during the ritual.

The girl or bride who will be promised to the "menino do rancho" walks about the terrace, there is no marked place for her to watch the ceremony:

It is important to note that she is accompanied by the mother and two godmothers during the development of the ceremony.

Following the entrance of the "Praiás", led by the songstress, the organizer and part of the community form a large circle and dance caring the baskets of food.

The women of the village go to prepare the food that will be offered to the "Praiás". All of them eat, the "Praiás" eat in the "maloca" (small hut) and the rest of the people spread out around the terrace. We were the visitors, being invited to participate and have our meal together with the community.

The food was prepared there, large clay pots and large basins were full of food.

What was served was an abundance of goat stew, rice, beans and stuffing. In spite of the situation of need among the Indians, the "plenty" in times of festivals is remarkable.

Everything was well organized, women, children, elderly, visitors were all attendant to.

After awhile the songstress sits on a footstool under the mango tree and sings the melody and the "Praiás", in rows, leave the hut in direction of the terrace, when the dance is then initiated.

It is something inebriating, infects the soul, we feel that we are being induced to participate. They dance a good rhythm. In the interim, the boy is in the hut constructed for this, at the side of terrace - he stays in it during the entire ceremony.

Surrounding the terrace are all who are past of the Pankararu community, visitors, guest and part of the neighboring community, the regionals.

The girl (who comes to be the bride) , all decorated with crepe paper, is in the terrace accompanied by the mother and two godmothers.

The "Praiás" and the godfathers, provided with winches, with the melody and the animation, fight as thought in corporal combat attempting to knock one another down.

The number of "Praiás" is more or less 30 (thirty) and the godfathers of the same number. There is a lot of dust and in this dispute, run to the hut with the intention of kidnapping the boy. The "Praiás" won and brought the boy to meet the feminine figure, thus ending the ceremony.

The event of bringing the boy and joining him with the girl symbolizes the marriage of these children, to be consummated in the future.

The choreography consists of maneuvers with clubs, symbolizing a combat between the godfathers of the boy and the "Praiás".

During the entire dance, they sing and play a variety of instruments: drums, tail-of-the-armadillo, as well a whistles, boxes, conches, maracas, etc.

The godfathers wear simple pants, barefoot and bodies painted white: they are nude from the waist up.

The "Praiás" wear their characteristic clothiers which are a full-face mask and a skirt made from fibbers of a plant called "caroá" (palm tree). On the head they have a colored cloak and a small rod adorned with feathers from birds of the region.

Of great communicational value. as much cultural and social form as material and spiritual, passing on the values of the indigenous group, the ritual "menino do rancho" a ceremony that strengthens the organization of a tribe.

The myths and rituals, pertinent to the indigenous communities of the Northeast (Brazil), specifically in the semi-desert of Pernambuco, Bahia, Alagoas are centered at the core of the social dynamic of the indigenous communities. The comic similarities that exist in these tribal groups are a cultural and social product probable of the secular interaction established between them in this area of indigenous socioculture.

In our society there are innumerous occasions that attire themselves as being of great importance through what they represent: baptism, marriage, funeral.

Among the Indians too, these occasions symbolize their way of thinking about bit, marriage, sickness and death. And how they are extremely sensitive to all the events that refer to a person, orating innumerous ceremonies to celebrate these event, engaging them with importance and dignity. They are the rites. The birth of child is attired in ritualistic actions.

The rites of passage are considered the most important in the tribal life: the ritual "menino do rancho" is a ceremony that marks the passage of an individual from one status to another, as well as a cosmic or social world to another.

The whole ritual is prepared as one would treat a ral combat with shouts, provocations and threats: just that the fight is a representation exercised by the "praiás" and godfathers. After the destruction of the hut, they leave dancing, the "Praiás" surrounding the boy.

From here they have to defend with bodily movements, symbolizing entrance of the boy into the magical world of the "Praiás".

All this ritual repeats itself independent of the calendar and the characteristics maintain themselves, with the clear intention of preserving the customs.

When analyzing the ritual, we not only account for the symbols that are present in them, but also a sequence of events in time and space that complete the ritual process as a whole.

In the analysis of the ritual "menino do rancho", are highlighted among others, two principal forms occurring with the actualization of the ceremony. They are:

The first has the character of passage evidencing the integration and continuity between the two worlds, in the Pankararu cosmogony. In becoming a "Praiá", he participates in two worlds, as we recorded in the narratives of the Pankararu informants. In life they incarnate people who already died being the representatives of these entities ("Praiás") in earthly life, This is an ancient custom that they consider a game, to promise a boy and a girl about the age of ten years.

These hypotheses are confirmed in the following narratives of the Pankararu (Indian) informants:

"We have that live faith. In our work we have faith. It is God in heaven and the heathen on the earth, in the instant in which a person does the work. Ha, the enchanted ... the enchanted are not dead. They are alive, they are our predecessor who are in the realms of the enchanted. They are not dead, have already left. They are alive, justly already are the realm the enchanted that we see. We have passages that we see. We see him walking, walking, (you) can be sure". (inf. Pankararu).

"The frolics of the Indian is the festivals of the village, it is good to be many people, it is good when we have people from the outside at the village. The games can be with anyone who wishes to participate". (inf. Pankararu).

"My father was very sick and before he worsened, called me and said to me: my daughter, I will move, I was still really very small, but don’t recall well. He said that the enchanted were calling him, that they needed him to do service for the Indians. Then after, he disappeared. Now he is descending, asks how the children are and cries a lot. I think that he is homesick for us, but he now is in the realm of the enchanted. He is sick homesick for us, but he now is in the realm of the enchanted. He is sick with asthma, lack of respiration is caused when he descends, is tired and crying". (inf. Pankararu).

We observe the reference to the manifestation of fatidique, at the descending, objectively to demonstrate that, after death, the heathen remains the same person who he was before dying, maintaining the physical characteristics, the same voice and speaking in the same manner he always apogee.

"In the olden days it worked out right. The parents did the game and it worked out right. It is still done today, the game, though with less use. There are times it works out right and other times that it doesn’t work out. In the festival of the "menino do rancho" children are promised to each other. It is a game. They say that those children will marry when they grow up, because it pleases the parents", (inf. Pankararu).

"The quack doctor lives next to the terrace and her house is always full, she is old but the faith is big, and she cures everyone who goes there. Whatever pain, pulling or torment." (inf. Pankararu).

"One time, my uncle was very sick , had these pains in the mouth of the stomach, he was small still, my grandfather gave him tea and prayed over him, promised him to the enchanted, you know? At the "Praias" he became very good, never more had nothing, good that could be seen. Therefore, my grandfather made a festival for the "Praiás", the game to surrender him in the festival "menino do rancho" and after promised that he would marry a cousin. This may not happen but my grandfather made the festival. Everyone went to the terrace, had much stew. And so it happened that they married when they were fifteen." (inf. Pankararu).

A practice that occurred in the relatively recent past of the Pankararu society was the marriage between cousins, independent of being crossed or parallel. The marriage between first cousins, constituted an extremely valued ideal, and because of this very thing, that should be reached, in the bosom of Pankararu society, probably still like a residue of the ancient pattern of tribal marriage with a prescription of preferred spouses.

The generation of those wed through the promises of the ritual "menino do rancho", is of middle age; among the Pankararu of now, it is last generation that will put into affect marriages between consigns of the same generation as a socially preferred model. When this occurred the reaction was great.

The large majority of the marriages are endogamous and in the past the community closed itself to this, not permitting marriages between Indians and the civilized. Inter-ethnic marriages were prohibited.

We verify practice through the following narrative:

"For fear that the female Indians would be old maids, because they were only able to marry the civilized, the people were marrying others who were not Indian. In the olden days this was prohibited, could not, no way, marry with the whites, we went becoming part weak, little thing, a very little thing, Now no problem more, to merry with the civilized. This was only in the past... in the olden days." (inf. female Indian married to white).

"My daughter married a cousin but it did not work out because he did not stay at home, only wanted other girls, I myself said to her, daughter marry someone else, even if he is not Indian, we will not question it, but it seems it was worse, she had two children and a husband, who was not Indian, left her alone after." (inf. Pankararu).

Here the Indians marry whom they like, consign with consign. There is no problem anyone being related, consign or closed relative. It is better for us. I myself am a consign to my husband. We ourselves are consigns. Now, it is the pretests who do not like this. They do not let, or want to marry when the brides people are consigns". (inf. Pankararu).

This prohibition came from the Catholic missionary priests who were in Petrolândia. The integrated of the past generations refer to the custom of marriages within the family with a certain longing for the return of the good old days. And they agrees with informants that the priests are responsible for this break in the custom. The Pankararu still submit themselves spontaneously to this restriction. In some very sporadic cases young people who are distant relatives appear wanting to marry each other. It is unlikely as in our society to have marriages between legitimate cousins of the same generation. The custom was abolished and it happens today, is purely a case without any material or psychological determination.

This type of existing prohibition automatically weakened the commitment of marriage promised in the realization of the ritual "menino do rancho. Being more likely to take place when the promise existent within the family itself, as exist common interests. The likelihood of (the marriage) happening was much greater.

Although there is no longer a real commitment of promise of marriage between the children, the choice being optional later. The ritual comes expressing each time more strongly the promise of marriage happening in symbolic form within the beliefs.

Today marriages take place between integrates of the Pankararu community and between these and the regional, principally habitants of the city of Petrolândia form whites, negros, and mestizo.

"Have had marriages of male Indian and female Indian with female white and male white, and of male Indian and female Indian with female black and male black, and from this have a mixture. All is "dizzy", today the families are all "dizzy", it is "dizzy" whites white dark-complicated persons, is "dizzy" of the dark-complicated with the half-breeds, it is all like this, but only who takes part of the game the "menino do rancho" is Indian. The whites may watch, no problem". (inf. Pankararu)

"Every Indian who concerns himself with the culture of the Indian wants to make the festival of the "menino do rancho" because through this have more "praiá" and more religion". (inf. Pankararu)

Which these narratives we can observe that the ritual the "menino do rancho" is seen among the Pankararu as a frolic or game, as is shown in the narratives, although have a religious character evident in the mythical figures of the "Praiás", each having his name, representing the enchanted masters, being symbols of respect and those responsible for the social organization in which the Pankararu society structured itself in the past. Today in its totality, we can characterize uniformly the divisions occurring, but they are not significant. The influence of the "Praiás" is observed in the past which more efficacy, but effective in the general dynamic of this society, finding much more efficiency today in the ritualistic area than in the socio-political influence of the community.

We faced the mythological world of the Pankararu and penetrated the essential elements of the beliefs, religions and customs, trying to discover the intention of the ritual, revealing its representation.

In this last moment, we will make an exposition about the resulting impressions of the developement of the previously commented research, when supported in theory, we try to demonstrate the creation and the processing of a myth (Praiá), through a determined ritual of communication.

We perceive from the importance of the rituals in the indigenous group studied, that the world of representations and consequent social relations developed by the Pankararu Indians originate in the ritual practices represented, incarnated in the forefathers.

The present study of the indigenous ritual the "menino do rancho"of the Pankararu Indians, is far from complete. If it is true that certain practices and beliefs can be reconstituted with details, there are others "nevertheless, that are only know imperfectly. In this work, we tried to fill such gaps with studies from authors of culture, communication and anthropology.

The existing analogies between rites and mythology of the Indians and the rites and mythology of their remote ancestors are in fact, surprising in the way that they allow us to explain and/or complete the ancient texts and existing works.

The "Praiá" is a transformation element in the Pankararu tribal society, from the beginning of acceptance of the myth, the ritual characterizes itself in real terms as a form of communication between the mythical-religious entity and the elements that make up the Pankararu society.

Whit the actualization of the religious ceremony the "menino do rancho", the Indian sees himself enveloped by mechanisms that scope his power of decision, the actions do not accrue isolated within the community, so being the ritual practices which strengthen the organization of the form of organization of the community:

The first is the communication of the myth "Praiá", establishing forms of behavior, being the holder of power, directing the spiritual and social order of the Indians;

The second is the response to the community by the myth, through the established organization of agreement with the norms oriented in the ritual practices. The information directed to the Indians belonging to the community, are ascertained by respect for these entities and satisfaction in relating with the myth.

The ritual establishes forms of behavior through the myth.

We sketched a picture of the religion practiced by the Pankararu. Only fragments of the religious practices studied, are known, incapable of serving to form a synthesis. We stopped at the ritual the "menino do rancho", trying to add to the literature, the description of the ritual and analysis of the processing of the myth, recording the circulation of exchange of information within the community, strengthening its identity through its religious practices.

The myths, in this particular instance, gave satisfactory results. We noted that in general, the correspondence is especially frequent in this community, uniting by certain historical laces, the elements that belong to a current ethnic.

The beliefs, the myths, and certain rites of the Pankararu show an air of singularity that prove a cultural unity of the group in its ancient times.

The old beliefs of the Pankararu being preserved and assimilated by the generations, will always remain known by all.

The dance represents an importance aspect in the actualization of the ritual, it is the sketch of the indigenous ultra, for men and women are initiated in them since childhood. In the ceremony of passage of child to adolescent, the dance represents a festive, war-like commemoration in this dance the adults demonstrate the combative spirit of the "Praiás".

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