Pau de arara comes and goes pilgrimages ethnographic : a study of transport in the municipality of Canindé

Abstract

It is hoped that this paper contribute to the development of studies on the informal passenger transportation sistem, nicknamed “Pau de Arara” or “Carro de Horário”, quite used in North and Northeast of Brazil. This essay examines this practice in the city of Caninde, located in the Brazilian Northeast. The limitations that Ceará backwoods suffers with their distances, slopes, poorly maintained back roads and lack of access in infrastructure are well known. The only option left is a transportation that is both exclusive and inclusive by taking everything and everyone, anywhere. The Pau de Arara is adapted to carry passengers between rural and urban area, to festivals and also to transport loads without minimum security conditions. For the investigation, it was used methods such as literature, documentary investigation, field diary, interviews, questionnaires, ethnography and participant observation on measures of national public transport systems.