Between Conflict and Negotiation: an Ethnography at the Most Evangelical City in Brazil

Abstract

This article is based on a research conducted in the city of Abreu e Lima, well known as the most evangelical in Brazil. We choose the school environment as a field of observation from the fact that different researchers have pointed to it as a space where students have contact with religious diversity (Giumbelli 2011) that can lead them to question certain attitudes—such as participation in the June’s parties in the case of non-Catholics (Silva 2011; Campos 2009)—and as a field of specific moral requirements, regarding gender behavior (Perosa 2006; Ribeiro 2006). The initial idea of the research project was to think about the conflict held by Pentecostal girls at school in order to claim a right to demonstrate the characteristics and constraints of their religious choices. If the initial goal of the investigation was to find the conflict generated in this process, the field showed that the path to follow was different. Therefore, our research is committed to understanding the negotiations, understandings and performances carried out by students in the activation, or not, of their religious affiliations in the school. At a time when Brazilian society sees itself as secular and believes that there is a battle between these ideals and “conservative evangelical activism” (Machado, 2012; Campos et al., 2015), it is important to know what is happening in the most evangelical city in the country. Moreover, it is necessary to know how and if these children are being trained to become these activists.