This article examines the participation of Gauchos in the self-named Brazilian Folkloric Movement (Movimento Folclórico Brasileiro) between the 1940s and 1960s. Local participants are divided into two categories of folklorists: traditional folklorists and the group of intellectuals and artists from the State Folklore Commission (Comissão Estadual de Folclore - CEF), official representative of the National Folklore Commission (Comissão Nacional de Folclore - CNFL) in Rio Grande do Sul. Unequal in authority and social position, the asymmetry of the two groups in the regional and national spheres of mutual recognition is the basis on which the authors distinctly see their ancestrality, professional activities, and the social purpose of folklore studies.
Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil); folklore; historiography