Religião e Cangaço: a devoção ao cangaceiro Jararaca, o delinquente convertido em santo popular na cidade de Mossoró-RN

Abstract

This research seeks to understand the transformation of a cangaceiro into a saint, whose object of investigation is José Leite Santana, as known as Jararaca. This young country man after defecting from the army for having participated in a military insurrection against the command of the barracks where he served, in the sergipana capital, to provide his own subsistence, he engaged in the cangaço, becoming head of one of Lampião's subgroups. Jararaca participated in the attack on the city of Mossoró (RN), where he was wounded, arrested, indicted in a police investigation and finally, on June 19, 1927, at the age of 26, summarily murdered and buried still alive by police forces. After his death, which raises more than one version, he became the object of religious devotion on the part of the faithful, who claim to have achieved miracles through him or who believe they will reach them through promises on the edge of his grave, in the Cemetery São Sebastião, in the city of Mossoró, place of great visitation, devotion and delivery of ex-vows, especially in the celebrations of All Soul’s day. In view of this succession of facts, this research is guided by the following problem question: how did the death of the cangaceiro and the facts linked to it, such as violence and martyrdom, lead to devotion, feeding it to this day? The theoretical discussion is based on two classic works of anthropology, from Marcel Mauss – Ensaio sobre a dádiva; Sobre o sacrifício – and from Henri Hubert.