Rituais funerários no Vale do Jequitinhonha: a vivência popular do catolicismo e as transformações nas atitudes dos homens frente a morte

Abstract

Starting from reflections about the relationship among society, it's religiosity and the finitude of men, this work intends to approach the attitudes of the living in face of death. In Catholicism death is understood as a passage from one world to another, establishing obligations between the living and the dead, the latter being in a moment of liminarity. It is the living's responsability to prepare a rite of passage which grants a tranquil transition of the dead; it's soul must, then, move towards it's final ending, towards another life, another border. Empirically, this matter will be observed from the observation of funerary rituals in the city of Presidente Kubitschek, in Vale do Jequitinhonha, and from the apreciation of Jubileu de São Miguel das Almas in the Cemitério do Peixe, both in Minas Gerias, Brazil. Thus, from the Ethnographic method, this research will clarify the existing rites of passage in the experience of popular Catholicism and the possible transformations in the attitudes of men towards death – these reffer to the relationships established among the living, and among them and the dead and the souls. Such link is constituted before, during and after the death rituals. It was verified that the moment of death outstands in the popular experience of Catholicism, where the collective rite has the uttermost importance, for it is the link among family, neighbours and friends. It is concluded that these precise moments, when everybody is together, are the ones that makes rite a moment of sociability, solidarity and festivity.