Appreciation of historical, cultural and scientific heritage is one of the objectives of a new research group

Ruins of São Miguel das Missões. One of the group's outcomes will be a book on the jesuit reductions in Rio Grande do Sul

The need to value and preserve the documents and monuments related to the Brazilian history, and the importance of the scientific knowledge produced on memory and cultural history to reach the Brazilian population, including school curricula, are the main motivations of the newly created research group on Time, Memory, and Belonging, approved by IEA's Board on June 21.

The proposer and coordinator of the group is IEA's senior collaborating professor Marina Massimi, a retired professor of the Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters (FFCLRP) at USP's campus in Ribeirão Preto. The group will address four sets of issues:

• inherent actions and actors in the fields of memory and the preservation of the country's cultural, artistic and scientific heritage;
• the processes of appropriation, and the transmission of knowledge and practices in Brazil over time in the perspective of cultural history (especially with regard to psychology and human sciences,) political history and law;
• the processes of appropriation and the transmission of science in Brazil over time in the perspective of cultural and political history;
• the relations between experiences of belonging and the constitution of the Brazilian society.

According to Massimi, the importance of the group's work themes is evident due to the "urgency of a policy of preserving the country's historical and cultural memory," given the situation of archives and libraries in Brazil. "Another critical issue is the preservation of the cultural and historical heritage of groups of oral tradition, such as indigenous nations."

The second aspect related to the scientific and social impact of the project is the concern about the need for "scientific knowledge produced on the memory and cultural history of Brazil to be disseminated to the Brazilian population and better informed by school curricula in order to provide the empowerment of young generations as to the inheritance handed down by previous generations."

The activities will be attended by around 20 invited guests at events, including researchers from USP's School of Medicine in Ribeirão Preto, USP's Institute of Psychology, Brasiliana Guita and José Mindlin Library (BBM-USP), UNICAMP, PUC-PR and Companhia de Jesus.

The group intends to produce the following scientific works:

• a dossier entitled "Slavery of Souls and Slavery of Bodies" and two articles ("Immigration and Belonging" and "Difference and Belonging") to be submitted to IEA's journal Estudos Avançados;
• a book on the jesuit reductions in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul;
• the edition of the jesuitical manuscript In studiosos adolescentes oratio paraenetica de laudibus humaniorum litterarum;
• the edition of Marina Massimi's book "Roots of Psychological Knowledge in the History of Brazilian Culture;"
• an article by Annette Hoffmann on the conception of the master-disciple relationship in Miguel Rolando Covian's correspondence with Bernardo Alberto Houssay;
• a bilingual (English-German) edition by Annette Hoffmann to Claire Lange's memoirs, diary and correspondence.

Photo: Renato A. Costa