"the largest popular culture movement in the Western world": intellectuals and Gaúcho Traditionalism in Brazil

Abstract

In this article, I examine the Gaúcho Traditionalist Movement, which, with an active participation of two million people, claims to be the largest popular culture movement of the Western World. Based on the cult of the Gaúcho in a specific cattle ranching area of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil's southernmost state), the Gaúcho Traditionalist Movement was created by nonacademic intellectuals, generally from the urban middle class. The movement eventually spread to more than two thousand "Centers for Gaúcho Traditions" in all areas of the state, other parts of Brazil, and abroad. I analyze how and why — made this three‐stage distancing from its original point of reference, becoming a translocal and even transnational phenomenon. I discuss the role of intellectuals' nostalgia for rural life in creating this form of popular culture. I show that traditionalist intellectuals have operated as intermediaries between knowledge produced in academia and popular culture movements, actively creating a popular culture that is frequently but mistakenly seen as being the product of the masses, [tradition, popular culture, national and regional identity, transnational movements, intellectuals, Brazil, Gaúcho]