Abstract
This essay intends to analyze the sociological perspective of Eidorfe Moreira (1912 – 1989) on the traditional Catholic procession Círio de Nossa Senhora de Nazaré, which takes place annually in Belém, Pará, Brazil. In his work the author establishes dialogues between human geography and sociology in an attempt to explain the landscape of the festivity and the participation of the population. Moreira considers this Catholic procession in terms of human geography as the most expressive phenomenon of the dynamic Amazon landscape. From a sociological perspective, he analyzes Círio as a social fact, considering it as the culmination of a transhumance or, in other words, the climax of a periodic migration, with a religious background. This involves a phase of pilgrimage, with pilgrims from the interior to the capital, and another, liturgical phase, in the urban area. This article starts by outlining the theoretical categories used by Eidorfe Moreira in a particular historical period – the decade of 1970 – and applies them to the present in order to determine the vitality of Eidorfe Moreira’s thinking.
Religious procession; Social fact; Transhumance; Cultural struggle