Valdetário Carneiro: a múltipla face da condição humana

Abstract

Born in Caraúbas, Rio Grande do Norte, Valdetário Carneiro (1959-2003) became one of the best known names in the state, as a precursor of the so-called "Novo Cangaço", a type of organized crime characterized by besieging inland towns and looting their bank branches. As a method, this dissertation assumes a descriptive character by detailing biographical data and facts through journalistic articles, interviews with biographers, family members and some residents of the Caraubense lands. The theoretical basis of the research is the Complexity Sciences, by which the awareness of contradictions is conceived as an important foundation for the understanding of social phenomena, and an indispensable condition for an education capable of producing pertinent knowledge. Beyond his criminal record, there is the figure of a man who overcomes stigmas and reveals the complexity of living in his multiple belongings. Valdetário, the marginal strategist, turned life into a stage on which he staged a multifaceted drama and constituted one of those expressions that, although tragic, carried deep meanings about what we are and can be as humans, as well as demonstrated political, sociological, and cultural aspects of an era. In this way, the present work aims to go beyond insular bibliographical studies and to advance in the sense that, by talking about the life of a man significant in different directions for his city and State, to contribute to the understanding of the historiography of the Potiguar West and about its modes of social organization of relations and thought.