Nas Fronteiras do Além

A secularização da morte no Rio de Janeiro (séculos XVIII e XIX)

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7791052
AutoresManuella Meyer (Yale University, autor correspondente)
Ano2007
Volume87
Fascículo4
Páginas751-752
Data de publicação2007-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoHispanic American Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0018-2168 • E-ISSN: 1527-1900
EditoraDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00182168-2007-055
OpenAlexW2038361917
IdiomaPT
Citações recebidas9

Claudia Rodrigues’s Nas Fronteiras do Além examines the secularization of death in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Rio de Janeiro. While the study is predominantly confined to Rio de Janeiro, she also briefly mentions and explores the secularization of death in other Brazilian cities. Drawing upon wills, ecclesiastical materials, and notarial records, along with the public discourses of civil and religious authorities, this ambitious project chronicles the transformation of ideas about death and its management in a rapidly changing society. Rodrigues argues that death, initially the domain of ecclesiastical authorities, gradually fell under the control of a secular state. Furthermore, ideological currents such as positivism and liberalism, which influenced independence in 1822 and the creation of the republic in 1889, affected cultural attitudes toward death.This project is organized along two thematic lines of inquiry. The first consists of a cultural mapping of death and dying. Exploring the religious-based social landscape of Brazil, Rodrigues asserts that dying could be a matter both learned and taught. Moreover, a death could be characterized as “good” or “bad” based on a given set of prescriptions dictated by religious authorities. Using Portuguese Catholic manuals on how to prepare for death, the clergy counseled and instructed the moribund on the proper ways to die. In order to have a good death, the moribund had to profess their faith and devotion to God. Next they had to denounce sins committed during their lifetime and request pardon and forgiveness from God. For the faithful, this process ensured the salvation of their souls in the afterlife. Using an impressive sampling of wills (277 in all), the author shows how individuals made sense of these church teachings. These wills provide a unique glimpse into the lives of city residents. The author posits that central to the notion of a good death was a “pedagogy of fear.” The discourse of purgatory instilled fear in the laity’s perception of death and dying. In turn, this fear ensured that the living prayed, gave alms, and attended masses so that happiness would be secured in the afterlife. The church also encouraged the laity to become more familiar with death through the ritualization of funerals and the sacralization of cemetery space.The second thematic line of inquiry looks at the management of public cemetery space. A host of sanitary reforms swept Rio de Janeiro during the latter half of the nineteenth century as state and public health officials attempted to mitigate the effects of epidemic diseases. Public cemeteries were one target of reform. The supposed unsanitary disposal of the dead was believed to be a leading cause of hazardous, disease-spreading miasmas. When state authorities attempted to place bans on church internments, ecclesiastic interests feared the measure would deprive parishes and resident priests a steady source of income. Maintaining a virtual monopoly on such burial services, church functionaries attempted to protect them from the reformist inclinations of state authorities.Another point of contention was the burial of non-Catholics (or nonpracticing ones) in public cemeteries. Often, state bureaucrats would urge that these individuals be buried in grounds blessed by the Catholic clergy. The case of General José Inácio de Abreu Lima exemplifies tensions between church and state authorities over public spaces. A career military man, Lima was well known among the elite due to his impressive military service. Having served at the side of Simón Bolivar during the South American wars of independence and having fought in Pernambuco’s Praieira Revolt in 1848, he was highly respected and revered. During his lifetime, he often publicly defended freedom of religious expression and praised Protestantism. After his death in 1869, the ecclesiastic authorities of Recife buried him in the cemetery reserved for English citizens. This punitive act caused great uproar in the national press. The burial of this respected general and native son in a cemetery reserved for foreigners shed light on the excesses of ecclesiastical control over the dead. Various legislative measures were passed into civil law during the late nineteenth century granting municipal authority over public cemeteries and affirming that the state was the primary arbiter of power in the earthly realm.The book’s exploration of the cultural constructions of death and dying could have offered the opportunity to engage nonelite perspectives of death. While the author relies heavily on ecclesiastical records and theoretical works on Catholicism, these materials could have been fruitfully read alongside works on different forms of religiosity that circulated among the popular classes. Narrative extracts that focus on various members of the popular classes portray them as faithful Catholics. Given the large population of Afro-Brazilians and the great impact of various elements of African cultures in the country’s cultural landscape, a discussion of cultural practices about death transferred from Africa to Brazil could have enriched our understanding of the myriad ways everyday actors perceived death. Nonetheless, this insightful and thoroughly researched book will be of great interest to scholarly audiences interested in religious history and discourses of nation-state formation, as well as the social and cultural history of urban Brazil during the long nineteenth century

Faith · Ideology · Independence (probability theory) · Political science · Politics · Positivism · Secularization · Sociology · State (computer science) · Theology · History · History of Colonial Brazil · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society in Latin America · Religious studies · Urban and sociocultural dynamics