ABSTRACT
Batuques as seen by the Government have one meaning, while viewed by the people of Bahia they have a very different one .... The Government looks at the batuques as an insensitive and mechanical act forcing the blacks every eight days to renew their ideas of reciprocal hostility, which have been natural to them since birth, but which, however, begin to be effaced little by little through their common disgrace. These ideas can be considered the most powerful guarantee of security for the big cities of Brazil. Well, then, to forbid the only act of disunity among the blacks is the same as the Government promoting indirectly, unity among them, a possibility I can only view as embodying terrible consequences [Rodrigues, 1945].
