The Mental And Social Representation Of Cabanagem In The Municipality Of Acará In The State Of Pará (Brazil): Narratives Of The Past To Understand The Present

Abstract

Justification: Representations are the figurations of the environment, which occur through symbols, values, norms, knowledge, beliefs, among others, which are presented in a real or ideal way through social interrelations, in a way that they are ethnocentric or relativized in individual memory (Mental Representation), collective (Collective Representation), or social (Social Representation), are created and recreated, destroyed and reconstructed, materializing themselves through communication and language. In view of this, it seeks to understand the present of the city of Acará through the Social and Mental Representation of the Cabanagem Movement to understand the current problems of the population. Methodology: Semi-directive interviews were conducted with residents of the municipality of Acará in the state of Pará (Brazil) , and six interviews were selected, including interviewees with the following profiles: a teacher, a senior citizen, a community leader, a person who worked in social assistance, and two people who did not fit any of the previous profiles, chosen at random. It is worth mentioning that the interviewees were assured anonymity using, when necessary, an alphanumeric code. The most significant narratives were selected to analyze the Mental and Social Representation of Cabanagem and to understand how they reconstruct this history, and how their present fits into these Representations. Objetive: to identify how Cabanagem is represented in the memory of the population of Acará in the State of Pará in Brazil, how they construct, destroy and reconstruct the narratives of Cabanagem and how these communications occur. Conclusions: The study of Mental and Social Representations enables not only the search for history from the perspective of the population, where official history has often erased traces of heroism and dignity, but also the understanding of how people see and communicate their social condition and how they reconstruct facts that have reached them orally through relatives, friends or popular leaders, and thus can identify what they think about their current society, government projects, among others. Identifying their needs provides the elements for developing social projects that truly meet the needs of those populations