The feelings of collectivity and belonging experienced in the Canudos community: historical-phenomenological study

Abstract

The war of Canudos was an important historical event in the history of Brazil, but for decades the studies about it have remained biased by the positivist look of the contemporary scholars to the phenomenon. In addition to that, there is also an absence of adequate historical contextualization for a better understanding of such an event, in a way that its representation in the textbooks of national history is insufficient and simplistic. However, there is a recent movement to rescue its collective memory, which provided contact with another side of this phenomenon, narrated by the survivors who participated in it, making accessible the relationship that was established between the Canudenses and their leader, Antônio Conselheiro. Thus, the objective of this research is to contribute to the understanding of this relation, adopting as objects of study the texts of Antônio Conselheiro and the narratives referring to the community experience of Canudos he led, made available by the researchers who interviewed the survivors. The method of analysis of the documents collected will be focused on the phenomenological approach: the main text used to analyze the relationship studied will be "Individual and Communities" by Edith Stein. In this text, the philosopher describes the different experiences of different types of social relation, and this description will be used by us to analyze if the relationship established between the Canudenses and their leader was a relation of mass, or a relation of community. (AU)