Abstract
Through the analytical description of the constitution of an ancestor of an extended family, based on the celebration of a mass dedicated to the memory of a man who died in the 1850s in the Pernambuco backlands (sertão), I look to show one of the ways in which families in the region make their own history. Some of the elements of their methods of making history, told in the form of genealogies and legitimized by the existence of a founding father, frequently blend with the political and administrative history of the local municipality. Families, like countries, seek to make history using instruments such as monuments and celebrated figures – in the sertão called troncos, trunks – and their own ritual celebrations.
Keywords
The dead; celebration; politics; family; sertão