Honra, migração e memória em Matão-PB.

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the construction and reproduction of life of a quilombola group in their territory, focusing on the way everyday relationships intertwine elements traditionally built and brought to the site by quilombola agenda. The research was conducted at Quilombo do Matão, located in Gurinhém, Agreste region of Paraíba state that has a history marked by the quest to survive and ensure the occupation of their territory. Initially, it is the descendants of a common ancestor that marks the legitimacy of occupation and residence in this territory. An essential element accessed to tell the life story of these families is that the migration was, and still is, an important source of income for the group. Also, it allowed the access and the job on the remaining land and open space to think that labor relations and kinship and representations of the past and present. Faced with the challenges found for reproduction of the group and maintenance of its territory, as the process of cattle breeding which decreased household access from Matão to lands job, prejudice, lack of education and employment, we examine the everyday life, the patterns of sociability and kinship relations to understand how they construct and reproduce their lives in this place. A look on daily life unfolds the way in which the group sets up and plays its life and assured, over the years, its permanence. We elaborate analysis from two main axes: the honor, through which one can see the construction of places, positions and discourses within the definitions of life and family roles and the relationship of Matão with the quilombola agenda through social movement and discourses and representations constructed of community life. Traditional standards of honor, morality, sexuality, kinship, are crossed by new elements, such as meetings, jobs, trips, needed to conduct the quilombolas claims. The quilombola question crosses this group, questioning some relationships and establishing new ones. The discourse of the "Quilombola Community" encompassing a single family works perfectly at times, showing the equality of all before the claims and public policy. On the other hand, in so many other times, the idea of "families", leaving clear differences, is brought forth to aggregate or separate everyday life.