Canudos: a utopia entre Deus e o diabo (Bahia - 1893-97).

Abstract

This work proposes to analyze the political-religious elements of internal and external social practices, fundamental in the construction of an alternative project in Canudos, in the Sertão da Bahia - 1983 - 97. The social movement of Canudos in a single time, movement of nature religious and political life. on the one hand, presents the extraordinary charismatic figure of Antônio Conselheiro as the main leader, responsible to the groups for the direction and organization of religious production, on the other hand, this movement also seeks to affirm itself while refusing the current social order. It refuses to express itself as resistance beyond social oppression, in the utopian desire for identity and personal and collective liberation, intermediated in the everyday by the achievement of more immediate goals of the present groups. The social representations inform that the overcoming of the immediate situation, refers to the possibility of a social transformation from the individual transformation in the collective. Transformation is realized by the religious imaginary, by which social groups elaborate, organize and exercise their beliefs and their representations of the world. Utopia here means this ongoing possibility of a social and "divine" world that is yet to exist, but which presents itself as "hope" in the Blochian concept. The waiting for the Canudenses was a time of spiritual preparation, remembrance of the religious rapture of approach or union with God. And here lies the bonding of religious practices and local political institutions. To achieve the proposed objectives, three chapters have been developed. In the first one, it was sought to observe the pertinent social relations in the local socio-political context - that of the Canudos sertão, considered of fundamental importance for the understanding of the antecedents of the movements. In the second chapter, the central concern was to highlight the crucial aspects of the antonio Conselheiro's tormented itinerary, whose participation determined the politico-religious referents of the Canudan community. Finally, in the third chapter, an analysis is made of the universe of social practices that justify its objectives and gave political-ideological support to the movement in question. The general conclusion reached, places Canudos as a socio-political movement of resistance against power, with local repercussions and surrounding regions, in favor of an alternative project of popular autonomy in front of the institutions of sertaneja society.