ENTRE CHEGADAS E PARTIDAS: DINÂMICAS DAS ROMARIAS ...

ABSTRACT
This thesis brings into focus devotion and diversion as seen in pilgrimages in the
current century, taking into consideration the process related to the hierarchy of
meanings. Beginning with interacting contexts found at pilgrimage scenario in
Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará, this study questions perspective for continuity and change
within pilgrimage practices. Among possibilities related to analysis of religious
movements by the Social Sciences, notions about tourism and festivity are taken as
models for interpretation of pilgrimages attaching them to narratives of experiences
by participants. There is a concern in this work to demonstrate how relations among
place, events and people involved in the pilgrimages are bound into indissociable
elements for apprehension of the phenomenon. The bulk of representations that
circulate among participants of the pilgrimage is presented by means of data
collected from interviews, questionings and observations. Analysis encompasses
identification of practices taken as legitimate values for pilgrimages, taking into
consideration relations among the founding myth, the city and the pilgrims, and
elements that point to new meanings. The upshot demonstrates that in spite of
accumulating through the years other meanings besides the religious one,
pilgrimages maintain their major remissive aspect, namely, relating themselves to the
institution of the sacred which differentiate them from other formal symbolic
repertoires to which participants turn when they desire to demarcate internal limits of
belonging. Within the universe of individuals who qualify as pilgrims of Juazeiro do
Norte the research points to aspects that indicate change and continuity
encompassing traditional practices of pilgrimages. Besides, there is formation of
different spaces in order to serve a demand of sociability and diversion among
participants and their contribution to re-signify pilgrimages.
Keywords: Pilgrimages. Devotion. Diversion. Juazeiro do Norte. Padre Cicero.