The Brazilian peasantry: from the political struggle to the ritual of "mystique"

Abstract

This text shows, in its many stages, the dynamic of the several expressions of religiosity, observed by the author since 1988 in various settlements of the state of São paulo. The analysis was made out in three levels: individual/familiar, through interpersonal interviews that allowed to collect life projects and the several religious believes on which these projects are grounded; communitarian, based on observation of collective activities and initiatives generated by some settled groups, and socio-cultural, with the participation in ecumenical celebrations and rituals of several religions. This journey through years makes evident the settled groups' incessant interweaving among the religious and political camps. On the other hand, one can observe in this universe that can already be qualified by "rurban" - in a society presumed more and more individualistic and broken up - the strong wish from the majority of the members of the group to renew or reconstruct communitarian ties and to promote religious tolerance, quite affected through the last twenty years in urban milieus.