Urban development and modernity unfinished: A reading of the phenomenon of lynching in Brazilian society, based on the work of José de Souza Martins

The present work analyzes the phenomenon of lynching in Brazil, using, mainly, the data supplied for the empirical research that lasts about 20 years, of José de Souza Martins. The cases of lynching are characterized by a sudden reunion of individuals, in an unexpected and unplanned way, violently attacking another subject who committed some kind of antisocial action. From the analysis of the brazilian cases, it was noticed that, although they are also the result of a failed State system, they have significant differences compared to those occurrences in other countries. The predominance of occurrence of the phenomenon in urban areas, especially in marginal neighborhoods of great metropolis, and the character of ritual and sacrifice that happens with these facts, isn’t found in other societies. The development model utilized to reach the Brazilian modernity and its consequent “unfinished modernity”, unequal, imposed from privileged classes, much of modernity's "appear to be" than "being", is shown as largely responsible for this return of irrational manifestations of violence, deriving of fear and uncertainty arising from the social changes which affects everyone, but that not everyone take benefits.