“Nem tão escravos, mas também nem tão libertos”: a memória no processo de luta e resistência na defesa do lugar

Abstract

The present study aims to ethnograph memory as an organizing element of social unity in the process of identity affirmation. Therefore, its specific objectives are to investigate how the memory of the social unit is included in the processes of struggle and resistance in the claim for rights, to understand the dimension of time in the action of memory in the defense of place and to analyze the processes of updating memory. The research was carried out in the Raiz community, in the Vale do Jequitinhonha region, Minas Gerais. The study followed the trajectory of the Pai Véio and Mãe Véia family in the struggle to defend the place, the politicization process for self-recognition as an ever-alive flower-picking community and as a quilombo remnant. The methodology used was ethnography, being in the community, the field diary, interviews, observations and also workshops with the interlocutors were used. The interviews and observations sought to get closer to the daily practices and values of the place, while the timeline workshop sought to bring back memories of the entire family trajectory and the New Social Cartography workshop tried to build a map of the places of memory, containing the history of construction and territorial conflicts. In this path, the native categories emerged allowing the understanding of the Raiz community's way of life, as well as the history of handicrafts and the visibility of the community's struggle. It was also possible to understand how these categories are politicized, becoming an instrument for the legal categories that are triggered in the self-recognition process. The study made it possible to understand the importance of religion for community members as faithful to the Christian Congregation in Brazil and how this condition permeates the struggle for rights. It was also found that the formal and informal leaders of the community focus on women, both in their internal activities and in connection with the outside world. The dimension of affection allows in the Raiz community the emergence of memories of struggle and construction of the place, in the same way that it enables the strengthening of ties for political mobilization. Memory is a political instrument triggered for the search for rights through the external world that causes transformations and at the same time the maintenance of the world of Root.