O escotismo e a morte em Portugal: a construção do imaginário “eterno acampamento”

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Abstract

This article analyses the relationship of Portuguese boy-scouts associations with the concepts of “death” and “eternal scout camp” from the decade of 1910 till 1930. As one of the main youth movements in the twentieth century, scouting was created under the ideals of its English founder Robert Baden-Powell. It stood that young people could aspire to an active and productive citizenship, through camping and pedagogical practices in challenging orographic contexts. Soon there were internal disagreements over the movement´s civic, social, moral and religious purposes. This discussion reached the five continents. The Portuguese case presents yet another debate: the problem of the metaphysical fate of the Boy Scouts´s afterlife: once they died, where did their souls go? Analysing the Portuguese associative press, it can be watched that the “eternal scout camp” is much more than a common place. Its construction and use in Scout slang came to be a point of convergence in the conflicts of religious interpretation about the final destination of all these young citizens.
Original languagePortuguese (Brazil)
Pages (from-to)109-124
Number of pages16
JournalRevista M. - Estudos sobre a morte, os mortos e o morrer
Volume5
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Jul 2020

Keywords

  • Boy-scouts
  • Portugal
  • Eternal scout camp
  • Protocol
  • Youth

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