Parochialization as a geopolitical phenomenon and biopolitical strategy in the process of the formation of the Republic in Brazil
Abstract
The article aims to understand the geopolitical process of the constitution ofthe Brazilian Republic starting from the technologies of pastoral, disciplinary and normalizingpower adopted by the Catholic Church. Methodologically referring to MichelFoucault’s studies on security, territory, population, it is assumed that it was necessaryto reactivate and redefine pastoral power as a technology of power and to assign to theCatholic Church the task of reorganizing the spatial distribution of the Brazilian territoryas a condition for the multiplication of the disciplinary devices in society and forthe normalizing control of the population and its bio-social prevention. The study analyzedecclesiastical documents, pastoral letters, annuals and statistical censuses, and itconcludes that, more than the creation of dioceses, the proliferation of parishes becamethe most effective geopolitical machinery of the early times of the Republic. The constitutionof these territories depended not only on the will of the ecclesiastical hierarchybut was part of the very dynamics of the Republic’s oligarchic political system, whichrequired extensive consultation with local and regional lay leaders.Downloads
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