THE CONDEMNATION OF SPIRITISM: THE PENAL CODE OF 1890 AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN THE CONTINUITY OF RELIGION IN MACEIÓ (1890–1940)
Spiritism, religious field, power relations.
the city of Maceió, at the time of the development of Kardecist ideas, lived, like the rest of the country, a period of political and social changes. Spiritism went through the end of slavery and the Empire, accompanied urbanization, the expansion of cities, the beginning of the Republic and political and social struggles, such as abolitionist defenses and disputes by agrarian oligarchies for local leadership. Its members, mostly elitized, would be part of these diverse movements and, based on the group's prosopography, we sought to understand who were the subjects responsible for the development of Spiritism in Alagoas, as well as the power relations involved in their insertion as an option in the local religious field. . In addition, following the trail of interactions between these spiritists and their practices of intervention in public health, condemned by the Penal Code of 1890, the research attempts to contextualize, through questions about the current legislation and the official control instruments, which impact the supporters of Spiritism would suffer in their practices and what strategies they would use in maintaining their right to freedom of worship.