The moral order of a Rio de Janeiro favela

The purpose of this article is to describe some aspects of the “moral order” of a group of favelas in the Maré complex in Rio de Janeiro. This term refers to the set of values and ethical principles that serve as norms and guides for members of a given group in their individual and collective behaviour. In the context of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, it is a composite order constructed from the life habits of members of the working class of rural origin, the material constraints of an environment marked by great poverty, violent social control exercised by drug traffickers and the moral rigour that accompanies the growth of evangelism in these neighbourhoods. Thus, there is a clash between a great freedom of behaviour promoted by young offenders and the traditional moral demands of older people and pious families. We postulate that these contradictions are, however, mitigated by a common weave of inter-recognition, small accommodations with legality, rejection of the police and attachment to the community that create an original way of life shaped for decades by the situations of marginalization of the favelas by the authorities and the middle classes. In this sense, the city does create ‘moral zones’ that characterise the urban experience.