Protagonismo feminino na comunidade quilombola nossa senhora das graças, em Óbidos/PA

Abstract

This study analyzes the leading role of local women at the Quilombola community of Nossa Senhora das Graças in the municipality of Óbidos, state of Pará, Brazil. Its research sought to understand the place occupied by women in different periods of this community’s history. The memories from the early days of its occupation refer to women who played decisive roles in its foundation, in the establishment of its social cohesion and in the making of the ethnic identity recognized by its contemporary members. Since ancestral women did occupy prominent positions during the stages of formation and consolidation of the group which is now the community’s nucleus, this research also looked into the persistence of such role of leadership in the present. To attain this aim, it focused on gender as its analytic category and examined the activities of women at key social settings of the rural life of Nossa Senhora das Graças: its church, its school, the Association of Quilombola Descendants of the Community of Nossa Senhora das Graças do Paraná de Baixo (ARQCONSGPAB), the local Santa Maria festivities and the family-milieu. A result of this study is the understanding that the women of Nossa Senhora das Graças occupy a strategic locus of speech, which enables them to exert influence on the decisions of the community.