No Rancho dos Hervanos - Cachoeiras de Macacu/ RJ - jamais fomos modernos: nem nós, nem eles

Abstract

This research defends the thesis that "we were never modern" based on the study carried out with the Hervanos – a community located for at least 200 years in the municipality of Cachoeiras de Macacu, RJ. Initially, "looking from Sirius", were observed problems that, in modern eyes, should not exist in the 21th century, such as a lack of access roads and electricity in the locations where the group resides. By adopting the theoretical-methodological framework of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) it was possible to write "risk reports" and weave the socio-technical network of Rancho dos Hervanos, realizing that their daily lives corroborate Bruno's proposal Latour that "We were never modern", neither us nor them. In this way, the text, based on the assumptions of ANT, especially in the work of Latour, it is composed of five chapters that describe how the research developed, from the first contact with the community, in 2009. The thesis also intends to contribute with new perspectives and reflections on anthropological research, extending the composition from collectives to humans and the "things" they “fait-faire”. Thus, following the actors and sniffing on the paths the elements that are part of their cosmologies, it was possible announce that they, the Hervanos, are neither archaic nor modern, they are, simply, the Hervanos, and that, through the composition of a common world, we can all inhabit the Earthen. In the end, the provisional conclusion obtained is that the modern paradigm "made water", because in addition to not contemplating the proposal for "happiness" that promised humanity from technological advances, was evidenced, in reports about the composition of worlds, that there is no duality proposed by modern Cartesian thought and that such an idea is a fiction.