Editors’ notes

Editors’ notes

H istória Ciências Saúde - Manguinhos sets off to publish special issues, bringing together in this edition articles originally presented in the seminar ‘Canudos 100 Anos’ (Canudos’ Centennial).

The choice of subject matter is particularly relevant. To focus on the Brazilian backlands (‘os sertões’) is part of the tradition of scientists who are dedicated to studying the country and to seeking improvements in health and educational conditions as appropriate responses to that which historically has been viewed as an obstacle to the process of nation building. The scientific expeditions undertaken by the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz at the onset of the current century participated in this more encompassing movement, having brought to the fore an abandoned and forgotten country, where, to use the well-known comparison made by Euclides da Cunha, Brazilians felt "like foreigners in their own homeland".

Articles in this issue reveal the interdisciplinary nature of the debates carried out during the Canudos War Centennial, as well as their rich variety. Professionals from different disciplines, such as history, sociology, comparative literature, literary theory and criticism, anthropology, political sciences, geology, systematized their observations or tried out new interpretations of the larger meaning of that tragic chapter in the social, political and cultural history of Brazil. The papers published here deal with themes of current relevance: the persistent social inequalities, the land monopoly, violence and the exclusion of the majority of Brazilian citizens from the world of freedom and rights. And they accomplish this — it must be stressed — without anachronisms, without for that attributing contemporary experiences and questions to other contexts and social agents.

The historiographical revision of the Canudos War, including the community organized by Antônio Conselheiro, does not constitute the central theme of this selection of papers. This sort of revision was carried out in other events and publications that came out of the Centennial event itself, thereby consolidating a research trend that finds its most significant articulation in the work of historian José Calasans, to whom we pay homage in this issue. The central idea of the Canudos Centennial seminar consisted in examining the episode as a tragic expression of the conflicts that arose out of the encounter between civilizational values postulated by the Republic and the day-to-day experience of the back land inhabitants who, as health-care agents Belisário Penna and Arthur Neiva stated, "only knew about governmental administrations because of the taxes they had to pay on oxen, horses and donkeys" (‘Viagem científica pelo Norte da Bahia, Sudeste de Pernambuco, Sul do Piauí e de Norte a Sul de Goiás’. Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, vol. 8, no 30, p. 121, 1916). For this issue’s contributors Canudos represented a privileged perspective for reviewing some interpretations of which Brazil has been the object.

An interesting parallel with other events may be drawn. Antônio Conselheiro was the most important historical figure to have been recovered in 1997, as evidenced in the ‘Mais’ supplement of Folha de S. Paulo daily newspaper on the eve of the Canudos leader’s death centennial. All articles published therein undertook to revise stereotypes of madness, fanaticism and lost political causes, mostly originated in the interpretations that Euclides da Cunha formulated in his Os sertões. As for the Canudos Centennial seminar, emphasis here was placed on striking a dialogue with da Cunha’s important contribution to the development of a theory about Brazil. Euclides da Cunha, as it is well-known, represented the early instance of a dualistic reading of the nation that spawned the image of a society split between two poles: one backward, located in the interior or backlands, where there could be found a basis for a nationality; and the other ‘civilized’ though made up of ‘scriveners’, i.e. of political and intellectual elites who looked to Europe for guidance while turningtheir backs on the nation. Emphasis here is placed on the key role that an intellectual work played in the (re)construction of a historical fact and in the interpretation of its significance. From this perspective, it is worthwhile noting that other Republican era revolts with characteristics similar to that of Canudos were not so well-known nor did they become landmarks in the history of the country.

As the result of a collective effort that brought together a number of professionals and institutions of different areas under the coordination of Casa de Oswaldo Cruz and Museu da República, the Canudos Centennial seminar was part of the more encompassing ‘Brasil ser tão Canudos’ event, within whose scope a large number of associations between scholarly and artistic activities took place. Thus, once more, the city of Rio de Janeiro fulfilled its role of promoting the encounter of scientific and cultural manifestations, having, in this event, brought together conferences, a photographic exhibit, video and film presentations, and a show given by ‘Em cima da Hora’ Samba Club. It was a pleasure to have shared the responsibility of the seminar’s organization with Maria Alice Rezende de Carvalho, from Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro (Iuperj), and Mario Chagas, from Museu da República. We also counted on the participation of Museu da República’s director Analise Pacheco, in the role of general coordinator of the ‘Brasil ser tão Canudos’ event.

This special issue of História Ciências Saúde brings to its readers most of the papers presented in the Canudos Centennial seminar, as well as essays by Cícero Almeida and Berthold Zilly, both written for the ‘Imagens’ department, and dedicated to photographs by Flavio de Barros, who participated in the last military expedition to Canudos. The absence of Walnice Nogueira Galvão from the seminar is made up for with the publication of a statement that she gave us. With the purpose of remaining faithful to the encounter between scholarly and popular manifestations that characterized the event, we reproduced some woodcuts by Joel Borges.

The papers we submit to our readers focus on the relationship between history and fiction; on the decisive role played by Euclides da Cunha’s work on shaping an image of Brazil; on the way the consecration of this writer came about; on the several meanings imparted on the word ‘sertão’ (backlands) and on the interpretations that it has been the object of in Brazilian social thought; on the effects of contrasting Canudos backlanders with subsequent conflicts in Brazil and with the new individual characters issued out of the current ‘country’ culture. As a whole, the papers deal with the tensions that are part of the modernization process undergone by Brazilian society. They confirm the contemporary relevance and the national scope of the tragedy that played itself out in the backlands of Bahia at the end of the nineteenth century, suggesting that readers ought to keep Canudos in mind so as to better think about Brazil.

Nísia Trindade Lima

Simone Petraglia Kropf

Ricardo Ventura Santos

Guest editors

As xilogravuras que ilustram esta edição compõem o álbum Via sacra de Antônio Conselheiro,

do artista Joel Francisco Borges, que autorizou sua reprodução.

Rua Galdino Gedeião, 25 — Bezerros, Pe 55660-000

Os originais foram gentilmente cedidos pelo Museu de Folclore Edison Carneiro/Centro Nacional

do Folclore e Cultura Popular/Funarte Rua do Catete, 179 — Rio de Janeiro RJ 22220-000

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  13 June 2006
• Date of issue
  July 1998