In Urucuia (Northern Minas Gerais), the local concepts of "fundamento" and "sistema" refer, respectively, to the similarities and differences between the feasts held in a festive circuit. Starting from a description of the movement of devotees from feast to feast, I analyze the narrative and festive uses of these notions in order to highlight how they relate to processes of production and to the contestation of sacred experience grounded on notions of unity and wholeness. According to devotees, the various feasts are at the same time one and several, enduring and changing, serving community and individual interests. They use ritual markers aiming both to confirm the "folias" atemporal totalizing power and to allow its possible dissolution.
Sacred; Rituals; Movement; Community; Folia
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