Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T18:53:40.441Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Peasants, Prophets, and the Power of a Millenarian Vision in Twentieth-Century Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Todd A. Diacon
Affiliation:
University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Extract

Flood lights illuminated the southern Brazilian night as thousands of railroad workers struggled to meet their daily trace construction quotas. Brazil Railway Company foremen shouted their orders so as to be heard above the din of massive steam-powered earth movers. These machines, a novelty for the region in 1910, were the North American-owned company's newest ally in its push to meet the rapidly approaching construction deadline. On December 17, 1910, a gayly decorated train crossed the Santa Catarina-Rio Grande do Sul border, thereby inaugurating Brazil's newest railroad line. The company had succeeded in connecting the agricultural south with Brazil's rising industrial star, the state of São Paulo.

Type
People, Power, and Revolution
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 O Libertador (Campos Novos, Santa Catarina), 03. 9, 1910.Google ScholarBrazil, , Ministéio da Viaçāo e Obras Públicas, Relatório 1911, p. 251.Google ScholarThome, Nelson, Trem de ferro: história da ferrovia no Contestado 2d ed. (Florianópolis: Editora Lunardelli, 1983), 73.Google Scholar

2 A Noticia (Lages, Santa Catarina), 09. 28, 1912.Google ScholarA Folha do Comércio (Florianópolis, Santa Catarina), 09. 28, 1912, and 10. 2, 1912.Google ScholarCatarina, Santa, Governador, , Mensagem do Governador Vidal Ramos, 1913 1822.Google Scholar

3 Peixoto, Demerval, Campanha do Contestado: episódios e impressóes (Janeiro, Rio de, 1916), 630–1, 636, and 765.Google Scholard'Assumpçāo, Herculano Teixeira, A campanha do Contestado 2 vols. (Belo Horizonte: Imprensa Oficial do Estado de Minas Gerais, 1918), II, 387–8.Google Scholar Cost figures come from a speech by Carvalho, General Setembrino de, head of the federal expedition, cited in A Folha do Comércio 07 22, 1915Google Scholar. This and all subsequent dollar figures, which are shown in United States dollars, are calculated from exchange rates found in Holloway, Thomas, Immigrants on the Land (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980), 181.Google Scholar For a further treatment of the military history of the rebellion, see Diacon, Todd A., “Capitalists and Fanatics: Brazil's Contestado Rebellion, 1912–1916” (Ph.D. disser., Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1987).Google Scholar

4 One still encounters the voices of the Contestado Rebellion. A few survivors, most in their nineties, live in the interior reaches of Sata Catarina and Paraná. That their views and remembrances grace these pages is due to the work of film makers Enio Staub, Jurandir Pires de Camargo, Sergio Antonio Flores, and Dario de Almeida Prado Jr. (hereafter Irani Prouçóes). It was with their help that I met, and interviewed, these former soldiers and rebels.

5 The Canudos Rebellion, in which the messianic leader Antonio Conselheiro and thousands of followers fought the Brazilian army from their “holy city” in the interior of the state of Bahia, owes its fame to Euclydes da Cunha's classic work Rebellion in the Backlands (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944).Google ScholarNovelist Mario Vargas Llosa's recent fictional account, The War of the End of the World (New York: Avon Books, 1985), has brought renewed interest in the Canudos affair.Google Scholar

6 Piazza, Walter F., Santa Catarina: sua historia (Florianópolis: Editora Lunardelli, 1983), 653–77.Google Scholar

7 Ibid.169–74, 362. Queiroz, Mauricio Vinhas de, Messianismo e conflito social 3d ed. (Sāo Paulo: Editora ática, 1981), 21–2. For documents which date the creation of ranches in the region, see Paraná, Secretaia de Obras Públicas e Colonizaçāo, “Mediçāo das terras…,” Arquivo Público de Paraná (hereafter APP).Google Scholar

8 Lloyd, Reginald, Feldwick, W. and Delaney, R. T., Twentieth Century Impressions of Brazil (London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, 1913), 614, 622, 785, 788, 933Google Scholar, and 1043. Molitor, Frederick A., Report on the Railway Properties in Southern Brazil Leased, Owned, or Controlled by the Brazil Railway Company (privately printed, 1915).Google Scholar A copy of Molitor's report is housed in the Baker Library of Harvard University (hereafter BL). Merrick, Thomas W. and Graham, Douglas H., Population and Economic Development in Brazil: 1800 to the Present (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1979), 31, 119.Google ScholarCunha, Idaulo José, Evoluçāo econômico-industrial de Santa Catarina (Floriaiópolis, 1982), 37.Google Scholar

9 Piazza, , Santa Catarina 336.Google ScholarMolitor, , Report 20.Google ScholarCunha, , Evoluçāo 8283. Molitor and Cunha obtained their industrial figures from the Centro Industial do Brazil, yet neither explains what is meant by the term “industry.” One can assume, however, that the criteria used are internally consistent and appropriate, therefore, for comparative purposes.Google Scholar

10 Paraná, , Secretaria de Obras Públicas e Colonizaçāo, “Mediçāo das teras de José Antonio Carneiro,” 10. 29, 1898.Google Scholar Paraná, “Mediçāo das teias requeridas por Abasalāo Antonio Carneiro e outros,” 05 23, 1900Google Scholar, APP. The “longtime resident” claim comes from an interview with Cypriano Rodrigues de Moraes (age 75 in 1985)Google Scholar, Fraiburgo, , Santa Catarina, 04. 26, 1985.Google Scholar

11 For a detailed look at agregados, see the various “Mediçāo das terras” documents located in the Arquivo Público de Paraná. In one such document, a state land survey of a private holding, Joāo Simeāo Carneiro claimed four agregados (and their families?) lived on his 5,000-hectare “Rio do Peixe” holding. Paraná, Secretaria de Obras Públicas e Colonizaçāo, “Mediçāo das terras requeridas por Joāo Simeāo Caneriro e outros,” 06 16, 1900, APP.Google Scholar

12 In 1914 the Contestado patrāo (patron, boss) Manoel Fabrício Vieira and his agregados murdered José Lyro Santa and seventeen of his men during a land dispute near Viera's “Chapéu do Sol” fazenda. See O Diario da Tarde (Curitiba, Paraná), 12. 1115, 1914.Google Scholar In another example, this time from 1900, the Cardoso brothers and their clients, all of them “armed to the teeth,” prevented a government land survey near their “Fazenda do Senado.” See Santa Catarina, Directoria de Viaçāo, Terras, e Obras Públicas, “Requerimentos de concessóes de terras públicas,” vol. 74, 02. 1900, 121–3, Arquivo Público de Santa Catarina (hereafter ASC).Google Scholar

13 The best starting point for an examination of the patron-client literature is Schmidt, Stefen W., Scott, James C., Lande, Carl, and Guasti, Laura, eds., Friends. Followers, and Factions (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1979).Google Scholar For a review of this literature, see Diacon, , “Capitalists and Fanatics,” 8186.Google Scholar

14 A Noticia 01. 13, 1912.Google Scholar

15 Lemos, Zelia de Andrade, Curitibanos na história do Contestado 2d ed. (Curitibanos, Santa Catarina: Empressora Frei Rogério, 1983), 149–50.Google Scholar

16 A photograph of the Pacheco home appears in A cidade e o município de Rio Negro (Curitiba, Parana, 1924).Google ScholarPhotographs of Rio de Janeiro plantations are found in Stanley Stein, Vassouras: A Brazilian Coffee County, 1850–1900 (Boston, 1958; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983).Google Scholar

17 Queiroz, Maria Isaura Pereira de, “Messiahs in Brazil,” Past and Present 31 (07 1965), 6970.Google Scholar

18 Monteiro, Duglas Teixeira, Os errantes de novo século (Sāo Paulo: Livaria Duas Cidades, 1974), 3749.Google ScholarThe information on Henrique Rupp comes from an interview with Rupp's grandson, Sobinho, Joāo Rupp (Campos Novos, Santa Catarina), 05 9, 1985.Google Scholar

19 A Noticia 07 20, 1912.Google Scholar

20 A Vanguarda (Campos Novos, Santa Catarina), 08. 15, 1908.Google Scholar

21 Queiroz, Maria Isaura Pereira de, “O coronelismo numa interpretaçāo sociologica,” in O Brasil republicano Fausto, Boris, ed., Tomo III, vol. I, 3d ed. (Sao Paulo: Difel editorial, 1982), 171.Google ScholarSouza, Amaury de, “The Cangaço and the Politics of Violence in Northeast Brazil,” in Protest and Resistance in Angola and Brazil Chilcote, Ronald H., ed. (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1972), 116.Google Scholar

22 Llosa, Vargas, The War of the End of the World esp. 189–92.Google Scholar

23 Querioz, Vinhas de, Messianismo 2831.Google Scholar

24 Gongora, Mano, Origen de los inquilinos de Chile central (Santiago: Universidad de Chile, 1960), 3642, 74, 99102, 113–7.Google Scholar

26 Percival Farquhar, “Resumo do Programa Percival Farquhar ao organizar a Brazil Railway Company,” (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Arquivo Farquhar, AP21-Caixa 1, Arquivo Nacional [hereafter AN], 1942). For more on the career of Percival Farquhar, see Gauld, Charles A., The Last Titan Percival Farquhar: American Enterpreneur in Latin America (Stanford: Institute of Hispanic American and Luso-Braizlia Studies, Stanford University, 1964).Google Scholar

27 Information on the military benefits of a southern line comes from O Trabalho (Campos Novos, Santa Catarina), 12. 3, 1910Google Scholar; and Molitor, , Report 132.Google ScholarInformation on the government concession comes from the Brazil Railway Company, Annual Report 1912 (London, 1913), 10Google Scholar; Brazil, iinistéio da Viaçāo e Obras Públicas, Relatório 1908 339–43Google Scholar; Molitor, , Report 8586Google Scholar; and Thomé, , Trem 59, 95.Google Scholar

28 A Regiāo Serrano (Lages, Santa Catarina), 11. 28, 1909.Google ScholarThome, , Trem 95.Google Scholar

29 The Farquhar quote is from Farquhar, “Resumo,” 11. Information on colonization comes from Forbes, W. C. to Joint Bondholder Committee [of the Brazil Railway Company], 01. 21, 1916, vol. 21Google Scholar, Forbes Collection, BL; “Brazil Development and Colonization Company,” date unknown, vol. 18, Forbes Collection, BL; Molitor, , Report 431–2Google Scholar; and Gauld, , Titan 212.Google Scholar

30 Author unknown, “Southem Brazil Lumber and Colonization Company,” vol. 18, Forbes Collection, BL. Paraná, Secretaria de Obras Públicas e Coloiizaçāo, “Mediçāo do terreno ‘Sāo Sebastiāo do Bom Retiro’ por the So. Brazil Lumber Company,” 1910, APP.

31 Parnaá, Secretaria de Obras Públicas e Coloiizaçāo, “Mediçāo das terras no logar ‘Lageado do Leaózinho’ concedidas a Companhia de Estrada de Ferro Sāo Paulo-Rio Grande,” 05 8, 1911.Google ScholarParaná, , “Medicāo das terras no logar ‘`Rio Uruguay’ concedidas a Companhia de Estrada de Ferro Sāo Paulo-Rio Grande,” 05 23, 1911.Google ScholarParaná, , “Mediçāo das terras no logar ‘Rio do Peixe’ concedidas a Companhia Estrada de Ferro Sāo Paulo-Rio Grande,” 01. 2, 1912, all APP.Google Scholar

32 Peixoto, , Campanha 71.Google ScholarPariiá, , Secretaria de Obras Públicas e Colonizaçāo, Relatório 1913 4041.Google Scholar

33 The company document is quoted in Silva, Rosagela Cavallazzi da, “Terras públicas e particulares: o impacto do capital estrangeiro sobre a institucionalizaçāo da propriedade privada (um estudo da ‘Brazil Railway Company’ no meio oeste catarinense)” (Tese do Mestrado, Universidade Federal de Sata Catarina, 1983), 6162.Google Scholar

34 Quoted in Ibid. 62.

35 Brazil Railway Company, Annual Report 1919 (Paris, 1910), 43.Google Scholar

36 The Brazilian Constitution of 1891 turned all federally owned lands over to the states.

37 Catarina, Santa, Collecçāo de leis do estado de Santa Catarina (Floianópolis: Imprensa Oficial do Estado, 1895), 4852.Google Scholar

38 These figures, the estimated total hectarage, and the estimated number of residents involved are found in Diacon, “Capitalists and Fanatics,” 176–8.Google Scholar

39 Catarina, Santa, Viaçāo, Directoria de, Terras, e Obras Públicas, “Requerimentos de concessōes de terras públicas,” vol. 159, p. 49, ASC.Google Scholar

40 Ibid. vol. 156, p. 16.

41 Ibid. vol. 114, book 113, pp. 221–7.

42 Paraná, , Governador, , Relatório do Governador Augusto Machado d'Oliveira, Sept. 15, 1884. For more on the history of racial thought in Brazil, see Thomas E. Skidmore, Black into White (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974).Google Scholar

43 Paraná, , Governador, , Relatório do Governador Joaquim d'Almeida Faria Sobrinho 1888 26.Google Scholar

44 Paraná, , Secretaia de Obras Públicas e Colonizaçāo, Relatório 1907, 5660Google Scholar; Relatório, 1908, 23Google Scholar; Relatório, 1909, 2528Google Scholar; Relatório, 1910, 2128.Google Scholar

45 parará, , Secretaia de Obras Públicas e Colonizaçāo, Relatório 1906, 2021Google Scholar; Relatório, 1908, 19Google Scholar; Relatório, 1909Google Scholar; Relatório, 1912, 2728.Google Scholar

46 Martins, Romaio, Quantos somos e quem somos (Curitiba, 1914), 107, 114–5.Google Scholar

47 Ibid.Brazil, , Ministéio da Viaçāo e Obras Públicas, Relatório 1910, 222–48.Google ScholarParaná, , Secretaia de Obras Públicas e Colonizaçāo, Relatório 1909, 133–4.Google Scholar

48 Paraná, , Secretaria de Obras Públicas e Colonizaçāo, Relatório 1906, 2122.Google Scholar

49 The “Arak Xo” quote comes from Paraná, Secretaia de Obras Públicas e Colonizaçāo, Relatório 1913 43. The Antonio Olyntho quote comes from A cidade e o municipio de Rio Negro.Google Scholar

50 Brazil, , Ministéio da Viaçāo e Obras Públicas, Relatório 1910 229, 248.Google Scholar

51 Pariá, Mensagem do Governador Dr. Calvacanti de Albuquerque, Fevereiro 1, 1913 1920. O Trabalho Oct. 23, 1909. Gauld, The Last Titan 216.

52 This information comes from a compilation of Rupp land deals registered in the Campos Novos, Santa Catarina, Cartóio Registro de Imóveis, livro 3A (1908–1924).

53 Negro, Rio, Paiaiá, , Cartório de Registro de lmóveis, livro 3, no. 72, 06 5, 1908, p. 29; no. 83, 03. 10, 1909, p. 32; no. 102, Aug. 24, 1910, p. 37.Google Scholar

54 Negro, Rio, Paraná, , Cartóio de Registro de Imóveis, livro 3, 10. 23, 1907; nos. 93, 97, and 98, 01. 15, 1910, pp. 3537; no. 103, 11. 14, 1910, p. 38; no. 114, 04. 22, 1911, p. 42.Google Scholar The Farquhar quote is from Gauld, The Last Titan 216.Google Scholar

55 Brazil, , Ministéio da Viaçāo e Obras Púbúlicas, Relatório 1912 102. “A Companhia E. Feno S. Paulo-Rio Grande quer prorogaçāo de prazo para a construcçāo da linha S. Francisco,” Arquivo do Ministéio de Transportes, Maco 202, 10275, 1913, AN. Peixoto, Campanha 9.Google Scholar

56 Wachowicz, Ruy, “O comércio da madeira e a actuaçāo da Brazil Railway no sul do Brasil,” 314 (Photocopy copy located in the Arquivo Público de Santa Catarina).Google Scholar

57 Diacon, , “Capitalists and Fanatics,” 271–82.Google Scholar

58 Monteiro, , Os errantes 43.Google ScholarWachowicz, , “O comércio.”Google Scholar

59 Negro, Rio, Paraná, , Cartóio de Registro de Imóveis, livro 3, no. 91, 01. 15, 1910, p. 35; no. 96, 08. 24, 1910, p. 36; no. 111, 11. 7, 1910, p. 40; no. 119, 06 7, 1911, p. 42; no. 138, 04. 1, 1913, p. 47.Google Scholar

60 “Edital,” A Vanguarda 11. 3, 1910.Google ScholarO Libertador 01. 24, 1910; 02. 9, 1910; and 05 9, 1910.Google ScholarDiacon, , “Capitalists and Fanatics,” 195–7, 213–9.Google Scholar

61 Catarina, Santa, “Oficios dos juizes de direito” (Campos Novos), 1909Google Scholar, ASC. O Libertador Nov. 9, 1909.Google ScholarThorne, , Trem 96.Google Scholar

62 Diacon, , “Capitalists and Fanatics,” 284–8.Google Scholar For a similar argument concerning threats to labor broker control, see Mallon, Florencia, “Murder in the Andes: Patrons, Clients, and the Impact of Foreign Capital, 1860–1922,” Radical History Review no. 27 (1983), 7998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

63 For a detailed examination of these changes see Diacon, “Capitalists and Fanatics,” ch. V.

64 Vinhas de Queiroz, , Messianismo 7778.Google ScholarA Regiāo Serrana 12. 15, 1912. A historia do Imperador Carlos Magno e os doze pares de França (Sāo Paulo, n.p., n.d.). This is the version José Maria read to his followers.Google Scholar

65 Queioz, Vinhas de, Messianismo, 114.Google ScholarSr. Rurnno,” quoted in Monteiro, Os errantes 161.Google Scholar

66 Interview with Benjamin Scoz (Lages, Santa Catarina), 04. 24, 1985.Google ScholarQuerioz, Vinhas de, Messianismo 108–11.Google ScholarMonteiro, , Os errantes 107–11.Google ScholarMaria Isaura Pereira de Queiroz, O messianismo no Brasil e no mundo 2d ed. (Sao Paulo: Editora Alfa-Omego, 1976).Google Scholar

67 D'Assumpçāo, , A campanha do Contestado, II 295.Google ScholarIrani Produçóes, videotaped interview with Rosa Paes de Farias (Lebon Regis, Santa Catarina), 1985.Google Scholar

68 Geertz, Clifford, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York, 1973), 116–7.Google Scholar

70 Steve, J.. Stern first suggested the application of the ethos-world view system by Geertz, to the study of millenarian movements in “On the Social Origins of Millennial Movements: A Review and a Proposal” (n.p. 1974).Google Scholar

71 In addition to the sources previously mentioned, several works deal with millenarian movements associated with colonization and capitalism. See, for example, Stem, Steve J., Peru's Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest (Madison, 1982), 5170.Google ScholarWallace, Anthony F. C., “Revitalization Movements,” American Anthropologist 58:2 (04 1956), 264–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarNavarro, Moises Gonzalez, Raza y tierra: la guerra de castas y el henequen (Mexico City: El Colegio de Mexico, 1970).Google ScholarAdas, Michael, Prophets of Rebellion (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979).Google ScholarDiacon, Todd A., “Millenarianism as Siiial Rebellion: The Maji Maji Rebellion” (n.p. 1984).Google Scholar

72 I first explored the concept of an “external-internal continuum” in Diacon, Todd A., “The Contestado Movement and the Caste War in Yucatan: Secular and Religious Responses to Crisis Situations” (M.A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1983). By a secular movement I mean one which seeks to defend a society without calling for a transformation of religious life or the local lifestyle.Google Scholar

73 For more on millenarianism and the internal crisis of values, see Stem, “Social Origins;” and Diacon, , “The Contestado Movement,” 1320.Google Scholar

74 For more on millenarian imagery, see Cohn, Norman, The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystic Anarchists of the Middle Ages 3d ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970).Google Scholar

75 In my dissertation I employ interviews, land records, army documents, and other sources to detail the importance of co-godparent relations in the Contestado. See Diacon, , “Capitalists and Fanatics,” 112–22.Google Scholar

76 Mintz, S. W. and Wolf, E. R., “An Analysis of Co-Godparenthood (compadrazgo),” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 6:4 (1950), 341–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

77 Ibid., 353–354.

78 Antonio Augusto Arantes Neto, “A sagrada familia-uma análise estrutural de compadrio” (Tese de Mestrado, Departamento de Ciências Sociais, Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras, e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de Sāo Paulo, 1970);Google ScholarGudeman, Stephan, “Spiritual Relationships and Selecting a Godparent,” Man no. 10 (1975) 221–37Google Scholar; Gudeman, Stephan and Schwanz, Stuart B., “Cleansing Original Sin: Godparenthood and the Baptism of Slaves in Eighteenth-Century Bahia,” in Kinship Ideology and Practice in Latin America Smith, Raymond T., ed. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984), 3558Google Scholar; Bloch, M. and Gudeman, S., “Compadrazgo, Baptism, and the Symbolism of Second Birth,” Man no. 16 (1981), 376–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

79 Bloch, and Gudeman, , “Compadrazgo,” 106.Google Scholar

80 For more on the ideas of the “moral economists,” see Scott, James C., The Moral Economy of the Peasant (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976)Google Scholar; Thompson, E. P., “The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century,” Past and Present, 50 (02 1971), 76136CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wolf, Eric, Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century (New York: Harper and Row, 1969).Google Scholar

81 For more on these leaders, see Diacon, , “Capitalists and Fanatics,” 319–28.Google Scholar

82 Pessar, Patricia, “Unmasking the Politics of Religion: The Case of Brazilian Millenarianism,” Journal of Latin American Lore 7:2 (1981), 266.Google Scholar

83 A história do Imperador Carlos Magno e os doze Pares de França.

84 Diacon, , “Capitalists and Fanatics,” 305306.Google Scholar

85 Zaluar, Alba, As homens de deus (Rio de Janeiro: Zahar Editores, 1983), 5879.Google ScholarPessar, , “Unmasking,” 260.Google Scholar See also, Diacon, Todd A., “The Search for Meaning in an Historical Context: Popular Religion, Millenarianism, and the Contestado Rebellion” (Paper presented at the Fifteenth International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, 4–6 12, 1989, Miami, Florida).Google Scholar

86 Iiterview with Rosália Maria de Castro (Sāo José de Timbozinho, Santa Catarina), 04 25, 1985.Google Scholar

87 Irani Producóes, videotaped interview with Manoel Batista dos Santos (Timbó Grande, Santa Catarina), 1985.Google Scholar

88 For more on the meaning behind these and other rebel actions see Diacon, “The Search for Meaning,” 1314.Google Scholar

89 Soares, J. O. Pinto, Guerra em sertoés Brasileiros (Rio de Janeiro, 1931), 95.Google ScholarO Diário da Tarde 10. 23, 1914, and 01. 5, 1915.Google ScholarA Folha do Comércio 12. 28, 1914.Google Scholar

90 Molitor, , Report, 45. for more on rebel military activities see Diacon, “Capitalists and Fanatics,” ch. I.Google Scholar