To be and to make: notes on street circus in Amazonia

Abstract

The streets are meeting points. We often see people at the traffic lights in many Brazilian cities - cleaning car windows, begging or selling food, newspapers, magazines, etc. - recreating the street for different purposes. - recreating the street for different purposes. They are stimulated by their personal motivations and by the passers-by who, many times, become their eventual clients. Among these people are the jugglers who take circus practices to the traffic lights. Based on ethnographic experiences carried out in the Amazon in 2017, this article discusses the triad of being, being and doing in the street, with emphasis on (i) the conceptions that these people have about the activities developed in public places, and (ii) the consequences and peculiarities of making the street a circus stage.