OS MORTOS, A MORTE E O MORRER EM TEMPOS DE EPIDEMIA: O CASO DA PROVÍNCIA DA PARAHYBA DO NORTE (1850-1860)

Abstract

This work aims to understand the changes and permanence in death and in the funeral rituals in Parahyba (1850 - 1860), observing the process of reorganization of the place of death, through the creation of extra-wall cemeteries. To reach the result, several sources were mobilized: the reports of the President of the Province; the reports of the Public Health Inspectors; the minutes of the table and the reports of the Ombudsman of Santa Casa de Misericórdia da Paraíba; period newspapers; wills, among others. Based on the historiography on death, the dead and dying and having Cultural History as a theoretical reference, we seek to understand the social, political, economic and health context of the Province, taking into account the main diseases and their etiology. We seek to analyze the creation of extramural cemeteries, which took place in the Capital of Parahyba during an epidemic context. We realized that the context of the yellow fever (1850) and cholera (1856) epidemics accelerated the process of expelling the dead from the world of the living, as well as surveillance over funeral rituals and the bodies of the dead. We tried to understand which funeral rituals should accompany the good death and what a bad death meant.