A morte entre planos e performances: história das práticas funerárias no sertão alagoano (2000-2017)

Abstract

In the West, death, even though seen as the end, is part of daily life and human social construction. Even though there is a discomfort with the subject, since the human being is not always prepared to deal with the loss, there is a concern with "the passage", a fact that is perceptible in the occurrence of the steps and procedures taken in relation to the burials. In the passage between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, there is a vertiginous growth of people in search of organizations that are responsible for the services of undertakers. It is in this context that companies that offer increasingly complex services of assistance are transformed, and they transform local funeral practices including death in a commercialization process. In Delmiro Gouveia, in the Alagoan sertão, there have been several transformations in the funeral scenario in which funerary organizations have gained an emphasis on the budget of families concerned with "the passage" of their loved ones. The objective of this study is to understand the changes in funerary practices in the city of Delmiro Gouveia, from the arrival of the Funeral Company Renascer, which is installed in the year 2000, being the first to offer "funeral plans" to the city of Delmiro Gouveia, surrounding regions. The research had a qualitative approach, unfolding in procedures such as bibliographic study and field research, from interviews.