Lápides pioneira

os epitáfios, as lajes e o mármore como elementos constitutivos e sociais no Cemitério Campo da Esperança, em Brasília

Abstract

The Campo da Esperança Cemetery, the main necropolis in Brasília, has specific features that make it a sui-generis case within the country's cemeteries. Founded simultanesly with the Capital, it has a spiral shape, very low tombstones and was originally conceived as a garden cemetery. The cemeteryhouses within its area are two autonomous sub-cemeteries, one being Israeli and the other Islamic, with exclusive burial areas for pioneers and authorities. It is from this geospatial and, therefore, social stratification that the case study of six chosentombstones and their epigraphic inscriptions and epitaphs unfolds, in graves analyzed between Praça das Autoridades and Quadra dos Pioneiros. From the analyzed epitaphs, it is possible to observe a narrative, almost hegemonic, originated from the imaginary of the pioneers and trailblazers of the sertões of Central Brazil, in addition to the silences and the pleas for indulgences in the post-mortem future. This article is the essay of a research on epitaphs, memory and migratory narratives to the sertões ofthe old limits of the State of Goiás in the first decades of the Federal Capital.