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By recognizing the pluriethnic and multicultural feature of Brazil, the Constitution of 1988 departs from the previous representation of the Nation, which exalts the figure of the mixed race person as an ideal. From now on, the State will claim that the reduction of inequality can only be achieved by the promotion of “ethnic ” and “racial ” groups until then marginalized that is to say, Indian and Black people. Thus, social groups are encouraged to submit themselves to a process aiming to disentangle various genealogies or “roots ” mainly “white ”, “indigenous ” and “black ”. This paper intends to use an Amazonian example to analyse how the Brazilian State’s orientations are locally elaborated, examining more precisely two questions. What is the symbolic place attributed to the genealogies which the groups eventually adopt – but which are not necessarily elected as the main reference? What happens to the cultural and/or religious practices as soon as they are considered as features of specific and differentiated “ethnic identities? ” In Mazagão Velho, the inhabitants lay claim on a double, or even a triple inheritance: Portuguese with the celebration of São Tiago, Black with the Marabaixo’s danse and Indian with the Sairé’s.