A SENHORA LUZ, A SENHORA GUIA: NA FESTA O ENTRECRUZAR DA HISTÓRIA, RELIGIÃO E CULTURA POPULAR NA POVOAÇÃO DO BACALHAU - GO

Abstract

A significant cultural expression to the residents of Bacalhau Neighborhood is the Nossa Senhora da Guia Party. To understand the religious practices introduced there, we tried to perceive how and when that population arose covering social, political and economic context as bias that intercross themselves. We saw that the pioneers who came from the countryside areas were responsible for first homes, followed by other residents, whether or not seasonal, who have settled, gradually, after the creation of the board of excise in the second half of the nineteenth century. We discussed about a common political system at that time, known as Coronelismo (Colonelism), that was extended to Bacalhau Neighborhood. This was a tool of legitimization of the power of the oligarchic elites in Goiás, linked to those who stood out as important for the social formation of the village. We emphasized the contrasts between political and institutional powers, both influenced by the roman ideals, seen as sacred and erudite, opposing to the popular and profane already installed among the popular religious practices and incorporated into the political concerns of that time. In the Bacalhau Neighborhood, we found records of the strengthening of the laimen, usually belonging to the wealthy group, controlling the party and the incomes from it. This element extends the analysis of this research, since we realized that women would be leading these activities, and among them we feature Mrs. Alice Nascimento, "guardian" of the religious traditions of Bacalhau Neighborhood, in a circumstance that the not-existence of the temple could threaten the continuity of the party and local religious traditions. This party has received new social and political meanings, in the Forties of the twentieth century, bringing forth elements that make local religious identity unique.