BENEATH OFFICIAL MEMORIES: CITY, IMAGERY, AND HISTORY IN THE VOICES OF PRAYER WOMEN FROM CAPANEMA-PA

Abstract

In Capanema, northeastern Pará, prayer women, motivated by photographs, weave historical narratives unfolding trajectories of Northeastern migrants to the city, producing conflicting representations of daily urban life. Through sensibilities woven in symbiosis of body, voice and images, the narrators produce reading  practices that allow questioning the conventional writing of local history, enshrined in mental games of hundreds of residents. This article, therefore, following the methodology of oral history and  dialoguing with Cultural Studies and Anthropology of Religion scholars, when comparing the reading of official images with the interpretation given by the prayers on plots and dramas on the town, under a view ";from below” and popular perspective, challenge crystallized imaginary, bringing to the writing of history other experiences and cultural landscapes, commonly placed in the folds of portraits framed by the discourse of hegemonic power.Keywords: City, memories, images.