Almanacs of cordel: the fascination of reading for the making of the deed, another field of research

Abstract

The present article analyzes the existence of astrological almanacs aimed at farm workers in Brazil. These books, although not very popular, provide knowledge and specific discourses which articulate Astrology, the occult, popular medicine, religious knowledge and observation of nature. The countryside almanacs are produced by independent editors and, from the editorial point of view, they are very similar to cordel booklets. A tradition brought to Brazil by the settlers, the countryside almanacs allow questions on the relation which the editors establish between nature and culture, producing cosmology and discourses based on traditions that keep elaborating networks of meanings about of the world.