title: [Ethics and the severina condition in the mangrove swamps of Capibaribe].
abstract: João Cabral de Melo Neto's poem "Morte e vida severina" focuses primarily on the satisfaction of human needs and on the condição severina--i.e., the poverty, hunger, joblessness, injustice, and early death that characterizes much of life in Northeast Brazil. In two episodes of the poem, human life is presented as a value ideal: during the dialog between the master carpenter and the protagonist Severino (a retirante, or migrant fleeing drought-stricken areas of the Northeast) and likewise during the birth of another Severino, on the banks of the Capibaribe River in Recife.
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Saúde Pública (NUSP), Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Rua Nunes Machado, 119/603 - Soledade, 50050-590 Recife, PE, Brasil. djalmaf@truenet.com.br
authors.forename: Djalma Agripino
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: de Melo Filho
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D004989:Ethics / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D011037:Poetry as Topic / Q000266:history*; D011203:Poverty / Q000266:history; D014171:Transients and Migrants / Q000266:history*