Violence and afraidness on Brasilians State and Nation building process

Abstract

This paper deals with the boundaries between tradition and modernity in the Brazilian process of nation building. Based on the reports of the speeches made by 1823 Constituent Assembly deputies, it is possible to capture the foundational myth which reveals the mutableness and rectify the faith, pacifism, the cordiatity and the generosity of the Brazilian people are the principles that constitute the unity of population and nation. However, it allows us to affirm that the Brazilian tradition, aversive to any radicalism, in fact presents a duality. The political memory had a primordial function in the construction idea of the identity. On the othe hend this construction illustrate how much the violence increases the idea of an inexistent pacifism. Key words: State and Nation building; identity; tradition; modernity; foundational myth.