SOCIAL AND POWER RELATIONS IN THE RUBBER MANAUS THROUGH THE STUDY OF HISTORICAL REMEDIES

Abstract

Interdisciplinary studies in Archeology seek, through artifacts understood as bridges to cultural phenomena, to build inferences on social, cultural, economic ways of life, symbolic and power relations, among others. Thus, as the three brands of medicine marketed in Manaus during the late 19th century and early 20th century (belle époque) are delegated, this work presents theoretical statements about symbolic power and power relations, as well as those that they relate to material culture and that manifest themselves socioculturally through processes of production, legitimation, reproduction and definition of symbolic meanings inserted in the local context of the sociocultural shocks of “modernization” in the field of representation, linked to the three brands of medicine studied: “Tiro Mortal de Lemos”, “Phillips' Milk of Magnesia”, and “Lab. Francisco Giffoni”. From the considerations raised, it is possible to glimpse a possible symbolic and cultural system linked to the artifacts, which would allow the maintenance of a non-harmonious daily reality, where an attempt was made to deny a real past of use of local health practices (indigenous/caboclas), and demanded the adoption of a system of State and commerce legitimized by the idea of official medicalization.