Abstract

REESINK, Mísia Lins. When to remember means to love: time, space, memory and saudade in the catholic funeral rituals. Etnográfica [online]. 2012, vol.16, n.2, pp.365-386. ISSN 0873-6561.

Death and the “catholic funeral ritual complex” are events that may inspire ethnographic reflections about the relations between death (particularly its ritual dimension), time, space, memory and saudade. Here I want to explore some of these possibilities by looking at the events occurring after the death of catholic people in the Casa Amarela neighbourhood of Recife (Brazil). It seems to be possible to establish a structural-temporal relationship between these dimensions and hence to construct different times / types of memories based upon, on the one hand, an affective dimension (particularly saudade), and, on the other, a ritual dimension (as in the Day of the Dead), in the production of the “beloved being”.

Keywords : memory; saudade; death; catholics; time-space; Recife.

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