Indigenous people and ancestrality of the patron's festival in Parintins, Amazonas

Abstract

In the city of Parintins, in the Lower Amazon, a festival is held in honor of the patron saint Our Lady of Carmel. This devotion dates back to the 19th century, and was introduced by a
missionary of the Order of Carmelites. The participation of devotees, pilgrims, promise-payers from the region and other Brazilian states transform the tributes to the saint into a great event awaited with joy, faith and devotion. This article aims to discuss the relationship between the indigenous people and the ancestry of the patron saint's feast in Parintins, Amazonas, also emphasizing the process of romanization carried out by the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions (PIME) missionaries and the symbolism of the bell in the relationship between Mother Earth and the Mother of Jesus. The research assumed the theoretical-methodological contribution of the Human and Social Sciences, in a dialogizing and interdisciplinary aspect, especially between Philosophy, Sociology, Anthropology and History, having as field support my doctoral thesis defended in 2019. The locus of this research comprises the parish of Our Lady of Carmel belonging to the Diocese of Parintins, located in this municipality. At the end of this article, we found that the devotion to Mary, hybridized with elements of indigenous culture and the Mother Earth archetype, contributed to the strong devotion and belief in the existence of a female spirit that governs the Amazon and to the spread of Catholicism in that region
region. the spread of Catholicism in that region.