Presentes e invisíveis: os kardecistas em Parintins e a trajetória do Centro Espírita Anna Prado

Abstract

Parintins is a town located in the mid-lower region of the Amazon river, and like many others, still holds a strong catholic identity. According to the 2010 Demographic Census, there are only 54 individuals who declare themselves kardecian spiritists in the location (0,05% of the total population). There are, however, strong indices that this doctrine has,in the past, had a significant number of adepts. This study sought to understand how a group composed by the local elite – which was even responsible for the existence of a local spiritist newspaper, entitled O Semeador –, was dissolved without leaving any sort of institutional long-term remembrance. Through the few sources that talk about the pres-ence of spiritists in the region, we sought to understand how kardecian spiritists began to reorganize themselves from the year 2000 onwards, initially as a study and prayer group, once again called “Amor e Caridade” and, after 2008, as a duly registered philanthropic association with a central office – the Centro Espírita Anna Prado. Keywords: Religions; Parintins; Spiritism; Anna Prado.