As elites se divertem: identidades, sociabilidades e associativismo no Ideal Clube (Manaus, 1903-1920)

Abstract

Manaus, at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, went through its process of “modernization” and “progress”. As a reflection of this moment, several clubs emerged in the city with the aim of promoting a recreational life for its participants. According to the research carried out, at least two hundred recreational associations emerged between the period 1854 to 1920. With this process, this work intends to understand the formation, objectives, actions and dynamics of the clubs and recreational associations founded. Among the analyzes that we intend to forward, these entities are observed as a space for organization and social mobilization, considering that groups, such as local elites, chose these spaces to affirm their interests as a class and to execute a bourgeois sociability. The analysis of this research intends to answer questions about who these elites were and how, through their individual trajectories or in a group of members, it was possible to establish associative strategies in Ideal Clube. In this way, Ideal, founded in 1903, presents important organizational dynamics that made 51 directors present characteristics in common such as their professional commitments and public posts, birthplaces and recreational, sports, mutualist, partisan, fraternal, ethnic and educational ties that demonstrate the bonds created through their experiences. Among the objectives, there is also an investigation into the social practices that consecrated recreational activities to their ideological and symbolic value for the prestige, charisma, status and power of the local elites. In this work we use local journals, statutes, biographical dictionaries and memorial works that offer us news about clubs, recreational activities and how the elites that made up politics, the legal sphere, commerce and military ranks. It is important to point out that this work is based on discussions and contributions on the Social History of the Amazon that supports the experiences of agents and social relations as essential for us to interpret the city, the organization of its groups in recreational entities and the dynamics of local policies.