Marriage, Knowledge, and Morality Among Catholic Peasants in Northeast Brazil
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Marriage, knowledge, and morality among Catholic peasants in Northeast Brazil Maya Miranda Mayblin London School of Economics and Political Science PhD in Anthropology 2005 1 UMI Number: U202031 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U202031 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 "777 £ f B m w i' , \> .- fcconomic awerxx; (b<c b t ° tO Abstract This thesis is an ethnographic study of marriage, religious practice, and concepts of morality among a group of peasant farmers in Northeast Brazil. It investigates how, over the individual life-course, concepts of moral accountability develop and change, and how people negotiate such changes through specific discourses on labour and suffering. Such discourses stem from a particularised Catholic ideology which grows out of the social and economic history of the region. The existential problem of living both morally and productively in the world manifests itself most explicitly in local understandings of marriage; revealing a perceived tension between the states of innocence and knowledge. The thesis shows how this tension feeds into a heightened concern over the various stages of transformation in a person’s life, particularly the transformation from childhood to adolescence. Tied to such transformation is concern about the correct moral management of knowledge, which is founded upon the gendered performance of sacrifice. However, it emphasises that the passage from innocence to knowledge is as fraught and inevitable for men as it is for women, and that while men’s and women’s physical expressions of this problem differ, they are ultimately bound and shaped by the same moral dilemmas. Thus the thesis argues that while the analysis of gender difference is an important task, it should not obscure local understandings of the relationship between the sexes that downplay concepts of difference while emphasising the basic similarity of moral concerns. In this way, the thesis offers a contrast to much of the literature on Catholic and Orthodox peasantries that has made gender difference the central focus and defining trope in understanding marriage, religious practice, and concepts of morality. 2 Contents List of Figures 4 Acknowledgements 5 Maps 9 Introduction 10 Chapter One: Background and History 26 Chapter Two: Marriage in Santa Rita 49 Chapter Three: The importance of Suffering 74 Chapter Four: Working to Sw eat 103 Chapter Five: Virtuous Husbands, Powerful Wives 131 Chapter Six: From Innocence to Knowledge 158 Chapter Seven: From Knowledge to its Moral M anagem ent 178 Chapter Eight: Conclusion 204 Plates 212 Bibliography 219 3 List of figures Maps Brazil 9 Northeast Brazil showing location of fieldsite 9 Plates 1. ‘Sofredora’, Santa Rita 212 2. ‘Trabalhador’, Santa Rita 213 3. Couple on their wedding day, Santa Rita 214 4. Children dressed up as bride, groom, 214 and priest for casamento de matuto, Santa Rita 5. Rezadeira drawing out evil through yawning, Santa Rita 215 6. Rezadeira curing patient suffering from peito aberto, Santa Rita 215 7. Woman scraping manioc, Santa Rita 216 8. A family at home, Santa Rita 217 9. View of central street of Santa Rita 217 10. Women and children gathering on sidewalk, Santa Rita 218 4 Acknowledgements Working towards this thesis has been at times lonely and frustrating, but it has also been intensely rewarding. By far the greatest reward has been the unprecedented amount of human contact and friendship it has brought about. From its inception to its completion, countless people have gone out of their way to offer me help, advice, and encouragement. To these people I am deeply grateful. My largest debt is to the people of Santa Rita, who welcomed me into their lives with patience, generosity, and good humour. I would like to thank them for sharing their lives with me, for tolerating my awkward presence and difficult questions, and for teaching me what they know. I am especially indebted to my host parents, Rita Cassia Oliveira Cadete and Jose Amaury Cadete, for taking me into their home and watching over me like one of their own. I also owe special thanks to Maria de Lourdes Alves, Manuel Cadete da Silva, Maria de Lourdes Cadete, Fabiana Oliveira Cadete Almeida, and Andre Alves Almeida for their constant companionship and contributions towards my research. Maria Lucia Silva Oliveira assisted me substantially in the carrying out of surveys and interviews. The work on this project began in 2000 at the Department of anthropology, London School of Economics. I am grateful to the ESRC for providing me with a full postgraduate research award. The final stages of writing up were helped by financial support from the British Federation of Women Graduates. In Brazil, my research was facilitated through my affiliation with the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. Thanks are due to Scott Parry, Salete Cavalcanti, Marcio Goldman and Tania Stolze-Lima for their help and advice. During my time in Brazil I was perpetually amazed by the warmth and trust which strangers showed me. I thank Father Edward Figaroa for his generosity upon my first arrival in the Northeast many years ago, and for setting me up with contacts in the interior that proved vital to my research. In the interior, many people swooped to my aid when I was lost or in need. I thank Gileno Vila 5a, Eliete Maria da Silva, Marcia de Isaac, Filipe Buckmeyer Wolff, Dimas Fereira de Oliveira and Antonio Cabral for rescuing me at various difficult times and for giving generously of their time to facilitate my research. 5 I am very grateful to Adriano Bizerra and his family for looking after me when I was ill and providing me with hospitality on countless occasions. In particular I would like to thank Adriano for helping me to find a field site, and also for his intellectual companionship and interest in my work. Dona Severina Precilia Teixeira looked after me on many occasions, I thank her in particular for nursing my wounds the day I fell off my motorbike. Upon my first arrival in the interior, Dora Cardoso da Silva took me into her house and gave up her bedroom without any expectation of return. I thank her, not only for her immense generosity but for being one of the most inspiring people I know. I would also like to thank Rigoberta and the creche workers, Rosa, Ivanulda, Martha, Mery, and Katia, for welcoming me into their fold and for tolerating my sporadic comings and goings. Very special thanks are owed to Margarida and Almir de Oliveira for feeding me and providing me with a constant source of kinship and laughter throughout my stay. Maria Luisa and Carlos Peres da Costa offered me an enormous amount of support and help in practical matters, for which I am immensely grateful. Maria Luisa’s anthropological insights and suggestions have also helped substantially in the formation of this thesis. Back in the UK, the writing of this thesis has been facilitated by the support of participants in the Writing-Up seminar. I am grateful to Johnny Parry, Mathew Engelke, Chris Fuller and Catherine Allerton for their input on various chapters. I also wish to thank Will Norman, Mandira Kalra, Robin Pharoah, Evan Killick, Eve Zucker, Florent Giehmann, Rachel Wrangham, Alice Forbess, Jason Sumich, Amit Desai, and Michelle Obeid for their valuable contributions. The writing of this thesis would not have been possible without the intellectual support of my supervisors Peter Gow and Rita Astuti. I am thankful to Peter Gow for his friendship and inspiration; and to Rita Astuti for her constant nurturance, her industry, and for the penetrating nature of her feedback. Michael Scott has also played a large and important part in the development of this thesis. I am grateful to him for his thorough and thoughtful consideration of my chapters, and for being so generous with his intellect. Hannah Mayblin, Andrea Levy, Leo Wyndham and Simon Moore have provided emotional support throughout the process of working towards this thesis. I thank them for their companionship and understanding at various times of need. I am lucky to know such wonderful people. I am deeply indebted to Magnus Course for his time and patience in proof reading the thesis. Any remaining errors are entirely my own responsibility. His unfailing love, hard work, and intellect have helped to pull this thesis together for submission. I owe much more to him than can be expressed here. Finally I would like to thank my parents Carmen Miranda and Bill Mayblin who enabled me to begin this project, and then to survive it. I am aware that in the process, I have put them through much more pain and worry than they deserve, and have demanded more from them than I can ever repay. Without their practical help, financial support, and brilliant friendship I would never have seen it through to the end. For my parents 8 ATLANTIC UYANA OCEAN NAM RENCH GI ANA COLUMBIA BRAZIL Sao Paulo de Janeiro ARGENTINA F o rtaleza ATLANTIC OCEAN CEARA RIO GRANDE DO NORTE Ju&zeiro do Norte PIAUl Salgueiro 0 Recife PERNAMBUCO Santa Rita ALAGOAS Maceib BAHIA SERGIPE/ / Aracaju Map Northeast Brazil showing the location of the fieldsite 9 ‘ So you are the girl who has come to study us people.