Último suspiro: as práticas e representações da morte em Brejo do Cruz-PB.

Abstract

Our main objective in this work was to identify which practices and representations of death were common in the Brejo do Cruz-PB during the twentieth century. We also seek to understand the changes that the funeral rites began. We use the methodology of oral history, conducted some interviews with seniors who have lived most of their lives in this town. In contact with the sources, we find evidence of concern that many seniors have had and still have with the salvation of his soul and that of your loved ones. When analyzing the interviews and wills, we noted that, until the mid-twentieth century people had a whole caution in performing the funeral rites, because they believed that following certain practices was crucial to the fate of salvation of the dead. In this paper we emphasize the differences between older and younger concerning the practices and representations of death, pointing out the ways in which both understand the grief. We also seek to understand how the death of children was considered, the specificities of the rites of those who died in infancy. From this research we were able to understand that in Brejo do Cruz death does not appear to be silenced, because while older people seek to maintain in use practices that have learned to value the young people invented other practices to express their feelings, these being associated with honor the dead.