IGREJA E CEMITÉRIO NA PROVÍNCIA DO RIO GRANDE DO NORTE: interações entre o sagrado e o profano (the church and the cemetery in the province of rio grande do norte: interactions between the sacred and the profane)
Abstract
Baseado no estudo de uma dúzia de cidades do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte, este artigo trata da análise da relação físico-espacial entre o cemitério e a igreja e dos significados simbólicos desta relação. Durante todo o período colonial, o cemitério ocupava tradicionalmente o mesmo sítio da igreja e, às vezes, extrapolava os limites físicos desta de modo a ocupar, também, o seu entorno imediato. Contudo, ele começou, notadamente a partir de meados do século XIX, a se separar fisicamente dos espaços de culto. Se a coincidência de localização entre os dois não era algo fortuito, pois remetia a profundos significados de natureza cristã, a separação paulatina entre os dois se revestia, também, de intensos significados, às vezes contraditórios, pois ao mesmo tempo em que este processo expressava determinadas concepções que estavam de acordo com a perspectiva católica da cristandade, ele também denotava o despontar de valores seculares da sociedade, que aos poucos começavam a se impor.
Palavras chave: Igreja, cemitério, sagrado, profano.
ABSTRACTBased upon a study of a dozen towns in the State of Rio Grande do Norte/Brazil, this article deals with the analysis of the physical relations found between the cemetery and the church and the symbolic meanings involved in these relations. Throughout the colonial period, the cemetery used to occupy the same site of the church and extended, sometimes, beyond the physical limits of the latter, reaching its immediate surroundings. It started, however, to separate physically from worship places particularly from the mid-19th century onwards. If the physical coincidence of their location was not accidental, once it pointed to deep Christian meanings, the progressive separation etween the two was also filled with deep significations, sometimes contradictory, since while this process expressed certain conceptions that were in accordance with the Catholic perspective of Christianity, it also denoted the emerging secular values of society which started to impose slowly at that time.
Key words: Cemetery, church, sacred, profane.
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