Between roads and veredas: messianism in the hills of the State of Rio Grande do Norte (1898-1899)
Messianism. Fanaticism. Religiousness. History of Sertões.
This work aims to discuss the backlands as spaces for the construction of messianic movements in Brazil, taking as its object the Messianic Movement of Serra de João do Vale, led by Blessed Joaquim Ramalho in the late nineteenth century in Vila do Triunpho, Estado do Large northern river. The issue arose from a scarce historiographical production on the movement at a regional and national level. Initially, they were evidenced in the writings of Luís da Câmara Cascudo in an article published in the Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico do Rio Grande do Norte (IHGRN) and in the newspaper do Commercio do Rio de Janeiro in 1941. For a better analysis, we look into works such as “The messianism in Brazil and in the world” by sociologist Maria Isaura Pereira de Queiroz and “Readings of "religious fanaticism" in the Brazilian hinterland" by Cristina Pompa. We adopted the approach of Discourse History and Oral History, from authors such as Eni Orlandi and Verena Alberti for the analysis of the sources, namely: articles in newspapers and magazines, private archives, drawings created from oral reports of Serra residents by João do Vale, books and interviews. At the end of this work, the speeches that constituted and named the Messianic Movement of Serra de João do Vale will be verified.