Cabocla Culture: a cultural identity under construction in the rural world

Abstract

This text will deal with the partial results of a research that took place at the rural area of Santa Catarina state we focused a segment of the rural population identified as “caboclos” – that will be observed from the rural context but considering the migratory process countryside-city- countryside that characterizes the dynamic of the rural population.  We will study this population from different identity categories trying to identify the criteria of these categories attributions, its political operation (to this population), scientific (to the researches) and the cultural dynamic related to the different historical processes associated to them. When dealing with the cabocla culture concept, we opted by a not essentialist vision that denies culture as a totality – distinct, homogenous, stable and atemporal (Wolf, 2003:12), trying to emphasize the cultural dynamism in its aspects, specially the religious manifestations, in a relational perspective, emphasizing  the social interactions and interconnections(Hall, 2003).