Pacto e promessa no sertão do São Francisco

Abstract

This dissertation, through an ethnographic approach conducted in the city of Januária, located in the northern region of the state of Minas Gerais, aims to explore two seemingly distinct resources, albeit circumstantially related, namely the pact and the promise. To this end, through an experimental exercise in ethnographic comparison, we will delve into the lives, stories, and subjectivities of two men: Edmilson, who made a promise to Santos Reis for the prosperity of his butcher shop; and Alberto, who is accused of having made a pact with the Devil for the prosperity of his hotel. Through these two characters and their relationships with the entities invoked, we will traverse the history of their families, their devotions, their dramas, grievances, as well as the achievements and dilemmas arising from their commercial enterprises. Considering the analysis of the data obtained, it is concluded that in the São Francisco hinterland, the apparent distance between the pact and the promise is called into question as the motivations, methods, and consequences of the relationships established with saints and devils materialize, giving rise to a holistic conception of "pact-promise."