Hierotopografia: a dimensão sagrada do espaço geográfico e os arquétipos para os "montes" de oração em Manaus-AM

Abstract

The paper in question is an investigation in the field of Geography of Religion that basically aims to understand the existence of prayer mounds in the metropolis of Manaus. Thus, this research starts from the empirical finding that there are specific locations used by evangelical groups in Manaus - especially Pentecostal - which are termed as “prayer mounds”. The paper discusses the basic tension that exists between the toponymic denomination given to these localities by religious individuals in contrast to a more general characterization of geomorphological science about the Manaus relief. This endeavor is initially based on the establishment of the theoretical bases of this Hierogeography, thus approaching the adopted scientific methodology, which starts mainly from the theoretical assumptions of the work of Eric Voegelin and Herman Dooyeweerd, which results in the proposal of methodological triangulation between hypothetical-deductive instants. phenomenologicalhermeneutics and structuralists. Based on this proposal of triangulation, the research initially unfolds, characterizing historically and culturally the importance of the mountains and their symbolic relationship with the religious phenomenon and comparing this background with the context of the study area focused on the research, ie the metropolis. Manaus and more specifically the seven jagged prayer mounds. The presentation of the study area highlights the tension between the denomination “monte” given by the religious groups and the geomorphological characterization of Manaus. It has been evidenced that such a denomination of “hill” resides on another characteristic that not necessarily the geoform, the research approaches the core of the phenomenon by collecting and working the reports of religious individuals who organize and participate in the “hills” prayers in Manaus. This stage evidenced the affective, but also symbolic nature of the “hills” which came to be seen as proper places of the hierotopographic phenomenon linked to other factors such as the dynamics of land occupation by the political and economic agents of the manauara metropolis. Realizing the need to clarify the characterization of the “mounds of prayer”, the research proceeds to the investigation of the structure that sustains this phenomenon in spite of the difficulties - natural (flat relief) and social (soilcommodification) difficulties. In this sense, the presence of psychological factors linked to the archetypes of the collective unconscious involving the figure of the mountains, the Pentecostal dogma of continuism and its search for the supernatural experience in the hills and, finally, the human action of resignification of space from symbolic conformation. Finally, these three structural tissues establish the total structure of the phenomenon investigated (prayer mounds in Manaus) so that the final reflections and considerations show that such a hierotopographic phenomenon results from the intersection of the spatial sphere and the belief mediated by others. spheres that, in short, make up what is here called the sacred dimension which resides in its archetypal elements. Finally, the prayer mounds in Manaus are spaces in which the sacred manifests itself both in spite of the material locus and because of the sacred dimensional structure described.