Political Structure and Social Banditry in Northeast Brazil

Abstract

In his pioneering works on Primitive Rebels and Bandits, Eric Hobsbawm analyzed certain forms of rural banditry as primitive social protest. Such ‘social banditry’ was distinguished from ordinary banditry primarily by virtue of its continued incorporation into the traditional peasant society, its attacks against landlords and other authorities and its ‘affinity for revolution, being a phenomenon of social protest, if not a precursor or potential incubator of revolt’. Social banditry was analyzed by Hobsbawm as a reaction of peasants to alien authorities, injustices and major social up-heavals such as war, conquest, or industrialization.