Nas trilhas do cangaceiro Antônio Silvino: tensões, conflitos e solidariedades na Paraíba (1897-1914).

Abstract

Between the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, the brazilian region now known as Northeast faced the cangaço phenomena. The details of practices related to oligarchic policies of political and economical power concentration, the local mandonismo, to the struggles among parentelas, in a summary, the cultural aspects related to honor and moral, triggered numerous conflicts among social groups from that region, making poor people undertake into various forms of resistance and, among others, the cangaço overcomes for calling attention of brazilian authorities and intellectuals. This research has the objective of discussing the social relations of conflicts and solidarity established between the cangaceiro Antônio Silvino and different social groups (especially farmers, traders, police) that dwelt the countryside of Paraiba. For doing so, we used a documentary corpus that includes historical newspapers, criminal proceedings, cordel literature and Jose Lins do Rego’s regionalist literature, in order to find evidences of social practices and relationships around the cangaceiro Antônio Silvino. The analysis led us to consider that those relations, be it conflicts or solidarity, happened in a culture whose moviment was based on the expectations of each group, as well as its subjects in their own, in a way to resist/survive to daily adversities, taking advantage of opportunities as well as they appeared.