From crackland to the land of christ: an ethnography of baptist politics to combat crack in Brazil

• Grant number: 14/22454-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: April 01, 2015
• End date: May 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Urban Anthropology
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Ronaldo Romulo Machado de Almeida
• Grantee: Deborah Rio Fromm Feltran
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 15/13920-6 - Between control and care: drug policy and its interfaces with religion and crime, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

In Brazil, the proliferation of so-called cracolândias issue is currently being debated by various social actors (managers, politicians, intellectuals, journalists, etc.), which mobilizes different spheres of social life (health, social assistance, prosecution, family etc.). In the current political context, the crack has assumed a central position with respect to the control and management of populations and urban spaces. However, little has been systematically studied about the growing role of the church, specifically evangelical church, in care, evangelization and conversion of so-called noias or cracudos. In this sense, the central objective of this project is to describe and analyze evangelical politics, Baptist exclusively, geared to combat crack, through an ethnographic research in the specific context of the mission cristolândia, at the Luz region, in Sao Paulo. Specifically, we intend to: i) attend and discuss the warrior acting perspective that evangelical politics; ii) investigate their coping strategies and intervention for drug users, in order to consider the production of knowledge and technologies focused on evangelization and conversion of the target audience, as well as their ways of managing this population; iii) discuss the strong presence of territorial components in the focus of missionary activity, noting the evangelistic thrusts aimed not only to individuals and souls, but especially to the territory; iv) investigate and discuss the Baptist perspective on politics and its interfaces with the state administration, as well as the characters and entities that brings up. (AU)