A luz das candeias do divino: a espetacularização da fé e as memórias afetivas em alvarães/AM

Abstract

This study aimed to unveil the sociocultural complexes that guide the festival of the Divine Holy Spirit in the city of Alvarães/AM, with an emphasis on the spectacularization of faith and affective memories. Specifically, to discuss the historicity of the Festival of the Divine in Alvarães, as well as the symbolic webs and their meanings for the constitution of the identity of the population of Alvarães; to examine the process of spectacularization of religiosity in the festival of the Divine in Alvarães/AM, as well as to analyze the affective memories of the protagonists and builders of the event of the festival of the Divine in Alvarães/AM. The problem of this study comes from thinking about these symbolic webs constructed in this festival that takes place in a small and peripheral city in which we bring to the stage reports and memories of people who were previously seen as marginalized by scientific knowledge. We justify that the interest in creating this written craft was based on the researcher's affective memories of the festival's faith and devotion, which we weave from a perspective of the strangeness of the familiar. And this cultural manifestation is held annually in the municipality of Alvarães/AM, where the interweaving of sociocultural, symbolic, ritualistic and artistic elements occurs. This research is interdisciplinary and rhizomatic in nature and was supported by Geertz's (2008) ethnographic method of “thick description” and semi-structured interviews, in addition to documentary analysis. These methodological approaches enabled an interpretative analysis of the signs and meanings that are articulated in this event that attracts the attention of several people from the municipalities of Amazonas and riverside communities. Therefore, the main theoretical references of this research were: Amaral (1998), Loureiro (1995), Bachelard (2008), Durand (1988), Geertz (2008), Canclini (2006), Holanda (2019) and others that were extremely relevant to the theoretical constitution of this epistemic work. Thus, we understand that the celebration of the Divine of Alvarães is permeated by a web of meanings woven by the subjects who take part in the event or are involved in it. Therefore, the study we designed about the changes and continuities that have historically occurred in this celebration and reflect its relevance for the society of Alvarães and the Amazon.