Vale of Tears: Revisiting the Canudos Massacre in Northeastern Brazil, 1893-1897The massacre of Canudos In 1897 is a pivotal episode in Brazilian social history. Looking at the event through the eyes of the inhabitants, Levine challenges traditional interpretations and gives weight to the fact that most of the Canudenses were of mixed-raced descent and were thus perceived as opponents to progress and civilization. In 1897 Brazilian military forces destroyed the millenarian settlement of Canudos, murdering as many as 35,000 pious rural folk who had taken refuge in the remote northeast backlands of Brazil. Fictionalized in Mario Vargas Llosa's acclaimed novel, War at the End of the World, Canudos is a pivotal episode in Brazilian social history. When looked at through the eyes of the inhabitants of Canudos, however, this historical incident lends itself to a bold new interpretation which challenges the traditional polemics on the subject. While the Canudos movement has been consistently viewed either as a rebellion of crazed fanatics or as a model of proletarian resistance to oppression, Levine deftly demonstrates that it was, in fact, neither. Vale of Tears probes the reasons for the Brazilian ambivalence toward its social history, giving much weight to the fact that most of the Canudenses were of mixed-race descent. They were perceived as opponents to progress and civilization and, by inference, to Brazil's attempts to "whiten" itself. As a result there are major insights to be found here into Brazilians' self-image over the past century. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1994. The massacre of Canudos In 1897 is a pivotal episode in Brazilian social history. Looking at the event through the eyes of the inhabitants, Levine challenges traditional interpretations and gives weight to the fact that most of the Canudenses were |
Contents
| 11 | |
The Backlands | 67 |
New Jerusalem | 121 |
The Conflict | 153 |
Conselheiros Vision | 193 |
Canudos as a Millenarian Experience | 217 |
NOTES | 247 |
| 303 | |
GLOSSARY | 327 |
| 337 | |
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agricultural Antônio Conselheiro attack backland Bahia Baron of Jeremoabo Belo Monte brasileiro Brazil caboclo Canudos Canudos's Catholic Catholicism Ceará church cited coastal conflict Conse conselheiristas coronéis culture Diário drought economic Editora elite Estado Euclides da Cunha Euclydes da Cunha faithful families fanatics fazenda federal feira forces Fortaleza Francisco História holy Inhambupe Itapicurú jagunços João Jornal José Calasans Juazeiro labor land landowners lheiro's lived Luiz Maciel Maria military millenarian missionaries monarchist Monte Santo Moreira César movement município Nina Rodrigues nineteenth century Northeast northeastern Notícias Núcleo do Sertão Padre Cícero Paulo Peasant Pernambuco police political popular population Portuguese priests Rebellion Recife Recôncavo region Relatório religious republic república republican residents Revista Rio de Janeiro Rui Barbosa rural saints Salvador São Francisco River São Paulo Sergipe sertanejo sertão Sertão Archive sertões settlement Silva slaves social soldiers tion town traditional troops University Press urban Vianna visão do litoral women
Popular passages
Page 27 - ... detailed analysis of episodes which belong to a higher realm of history. The foregoing lines were written with one object in view, namely, to call attention in passing to a certain similarity between the scene in the Rua do Ouvidor and a disturbance in the caatingas, one equaling the other in savagery. Backlands lawlessness was precipitately making its entrance into history; and the Canudos revolt, when all is said, was little more than symptomatic of a malady which, by no means confined to a...
Page 1 - Brazilian soil, the people, and the country, such as has never since been achieved with equal insight and sociological comprehension. Comparable in world literature, perhaps, to The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, in which Lawrence describes the struggle in the desert, this great epic, little known in other countries, is destined to outlive countless books that are famous...
Page 4 - Europe so as to obtain a cross with the indigenous race, for only European blood can keep the level of civilization . . . from sinking, which would mean regression, not...
References to this book
The Continuum History of Apocalypticism Bernard McGinn,John J. Collins,John James Collins,Stephen Stein No preview available - 2003 |