Spanish Flu times: the 1918 pandemic and the case of Porto Alegre

Abstract How to define 1918 pandemic times, that interrupted the rhythm of the beginning of the 20 century and introduced the death temporality? Maybe it was an intermission in the radical notion of progress - a real myth in the Western Culture of that time. For three months the calendar, almost stopped to move. This was the death time, in a society that was not prepared to deal with it. The present time that prevents to think about the past and the future. The waiting time, the doubt time, the trauma time that are frequently silenced, but also the learning experience time. This article intends, therefore, to explore the pandemic temporality as a social marker, and to stablish parallels with the contemporary context of Covid 19. Porto Alegre appears as a case study. (This article was originally a talk to the Anthropology Department of UFRGS, that is why it keeps an essay genre.)

摘要：如何定义1918年大流行病时期？这一事件打断了20世纪初的发展节奏，催生了裹挟死亡的时间性体验。它或许是进步这一激进观念的一段插曲——而在当时的西方文化中，进步观念本就是一则不折不扣的神话。整整三个月，日历仿佛几近停滞。彼时社会全然未做好应对准备，这段时光便成了死亡笼罩的岁月。这种当下状态令人们既无法回望过去，也无从展望未来。这是一段等待的时光、疑虑的时光、创伤的时光——这些记忆常被缄默掩埋，却也是一段可供汲取经验的时光。因此，本文旨在探讨作为社会标记的大流行病时间性，并将其与当下新冠疫情（COVID-19）的语境展开平行对照研究。阿雷格里港（Porto Alegre）作为本研究的案例对象。（本文最初为在南里奥格兰德联邦大学（UFRGS）人类学系所作的演讲，因此保留了随笔的文体风格。）