Chronicle of a routine that had almost
read a book last year remains in my memory is called "Life in Brazil" and was written by a guy named Thomas Ewbank.
Ewbank was an American who spent some months in Brazil in 1866. His notes on the daily Court turned into a book, whose subtitle is "Diary of a visit to the land of cacao and palm trees."
For some reason, "Life in Brazil" is not a book remembered with enthusiasm by the likes of Gilberto Freyre and Sérgio Buarque de Hollanda, the inventors of Brazil. There are few references to the work of Ewbank in his main books. They prefer other travelers, like Saint-Hillaire and Debret (although Freyre make reservations in principle to other French, who tend to exaggerate and lie in their reports). This gap is attracting more attention on "Mansions and the Shanties," Freyre's book that deals specifically with the period in which Ewbank was in Brazil. They mention "Life in Brazil" in his works, of course. But it's always sparingly, illustrating secondary themes and incidental way. It
a penalty. Ewbank's book is a fantastic tale of everyday country's capital in mid-nineteenth century. It's the kind of book that could be written by a foreigner, for whom everything seems normal and obvious is strange and different. It is precisely by not being inserted into everyday life, for not being accustomed to see everything every day has always little things you get their attention.
That was an important moment in the history of Brazil. The nineteenth century was the reeuropeização the country. After two centuries of isolation, in which we establish the foundation of our national identity by merging elements Europeans, blacks, Indians, and, incidentally, Asian - Heritage Portuguese seafaring tradition - the island Brazil back into contact with European civilization. And quickly changed their habits, customs and adopting entirely new concepts - such as replacing the beer aluá, the almost ubiquitous black frock coats and whole wheat bread that cassava would put aside. Ewbank may not be aware of this ongoing process, but to tell what he saw, provides important data for your understanding.
The best "Life in Brazil" is the result of the shock front Ewbank of the religious traditions of Brazil. Slavery, for example, does not it seem dreadful, after all, he was a country that had freed blacks had their shortly. That is why, with the exception of statements made almost in passing, is not the regime of slavery in Brazil that draws your attention the fact that a state accepts the servitude of a man. If something is not exactly the revolt legal system: there are abuses within that system. Only at the end of the book is a somewhat more forceful condemnation of slavery - but addressed primarily to slave owners who exploit them in excess, specifically the North (which, interestingly, also show clear memories of the Revolt of evils, in his almost respect for the Muslim slaves) and not regarding the legal regime that allowed a person possessed another.
If, for example, mentions the fact that they Benedictine monks who pray the most beautiful Masses of Brazil had hundreds of slaves on their farms, not exactly by indignation against slavery, but note the irony and contradiction in the religious discourse . Your goal is not to slavery: is Catholicism. This does not, however, he noted the physical deformities that forced inflicts on blacks, nor the beauty of slaves, or even if not astonished by the punishments inflicted.
If the fact be created within a tradition that tolerates slavery makes you complacent about the exploitation of Brazilian slaves, religion is another conversation. Ewbank was created in a country defined by the Puritan tradition.
That is what makes your book really interesting: his astonishment at the Brazilian Catholic tradition - the ritual, hypocritical, sensual and exuberant - and how it fits in an almost ubiquitous in daily life of Brazilians. Catholicism homeland, mainly because it has theatrical and obscurantist, fascinates Ewbank: absolutely everything is exotic to him. And the U.S. is shrewd enough to realize the extent of influence of the Church in the definition the national character. Ewbank ends up making an accurate account of the relationship with the Brazilian religion and society.
Those were different times. Processions succeeded as well as parades, and people kissed and banners with devotion or, more likely, relates to a social climate. Alms boxes were scattered in the streets. In all churches, people could take their measurements of the saints and devotion to pretend that there already, similar doses of mixed faith, hypocrisy and opportunism. The priests who were not outside with their faithful had a massive part in their communities. Superstitions which still survive today had an almost unimaginable force.
Ewbank was in Brazil when he began to worship here Priscilliana. He describes in great detail the process that created artificially in his view, a new object of worship. Does not hide his indignation at what he thinks, rightly, be a big hoax, but would point rather to describe what is happening.
It is obvious from the first pages of the book, the look of Ewbank is not impartial. He is definitely an American Protestant. In Rio de Janeiro in 1866, Ewbank could pass for a perfectly good English, with their dark clothes and his inability to mix with the locals, even showing a certain horror at the barbarism he witnessed the same time is influenced by Brazilian hospitality. Definitely, the Brazilian Catholicism was not "clean" as American Puritanism. How good Anglo-Saxon, Ewbank showed total lack of that plastic quality that enabled it that Portuguese is the most successful European civilization in the tropics.
But even partial, or perhaps because, Ewbank ran a look accurate. Man of good classical culture, is able to perceive the origins in eastern traditions such as Brazilian carnival, which would lead to the carnival. The colonial architecture private - that moment of growing urbanization began to disappear, with bearings and shutters on the windows giving way to windows and shutters - it draws attention, and gain in comparison with the Northern love of wood and plaster to. But even assuming the superiority of Brazilian architecture, it does not cease to horrify us with one of the key traits of our culture: the total disregard for the street, with the community. One trait that defines the personality of the Brazilian and easily understood by Ewbank, noting that while the Americans had brought the gutters that the rain water from roofs to the sidewalks, the Brazilian houses just toss the water on the street, and passersby how could it turn to.
When he returned to the United States, Ewbank took with him a sloth. The animal died during the trip. It may well have died of thirst: sloths do not drink water. And that simple fact might indicate the nature of a relationship north / south that continued until the present day. Ewbank was able to see what lay ahead, but was unable to understand, really. Still, the book he wrote from his experience in the land of palm trees is an important statement of the routine in the capital of the Brazilian empire. And, perhaps most importantly, allows a reasonably accurate comparison and provides elements important to understanding a past that still remains in modern Brazil. Originally
published on May 22, 2007 @ 0:00
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