Gender, memories and materialities of interaction/confluence: indigenous and afro-descendant women in the historical archaeology of São Paulo

• Grant number: 24/04746-1
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants
• Start date: October 01, 2024
• End date: September 30, 2029
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Archeology - Historical Archaeology
• Principal Investigator: Marianne Sallum
• Grantee: Marianne Sallum
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Carolina Machado Guedes ; Cláudia Regina Plens ; Daniela Balanzategui ; Fabiana Raquel Leite ; Julieta Flores Muñoz ; Louise Ribeiro Cardoso de Mello Biggie ; Lucio Menezes Ferreira ; Maria Mercedes Martinez Okumura ; Renata Maria de Almeida Martins ; Stephen Walter Silliman ; Tania Manuel de Oliveira Alves Sequeira e Casimiro
• Associated research grant(s): 25/02833-7 - Atlantic & Pacific Connections: Communities of Practice, Gender, and Colonialism, AP.R SPRINT
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/02823-1 - Indigenous and Quilombola Materiality and Language in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo, BP.IC; 25/04109-4 - Genealogy of Indigenous, African, and African-descendant Women in São Paulo, 16th-18th Centuries, BP.IC; 24/20602-0 - Gender, Memories and Materialities of Interaction/Confluence: Indigenous and Afro-descendant Women in the Historical Archaeology of São Paulo, BP.JP

Abstract

This project with an approach from the Archaeologies of Gender and Feminist investigates the interactions and solidarity networks among Indigenous and Afro-descendant women in the Atlantic Forest, southeast region of São Paulo (16th century - present). It is a research of historical and community archaeology about food sovereignty, materialities, and languages in communities of the Ribeira Valley and the Peruíbe-Itanhaém area. The theme emerged from the communities' interests in highlighting, strengthening, and rescuing traditional practices. The proposal is to establish new interpretations of persistence strategies that are being compared with similar practices of two communities from Ecuador and the United States, broadening an ongoing international debate, carried out by the proponent, researchers, and representatives of the referred communities. About the interactions in São Paulo, there is a vast amount of little-investigated information in archaeology, with the potential to reveal new perspectives on ancestral knowledge, intergenerational knowledge transmission, agency, and sociabilities. The research will have an interdisciplinary approach in the analysis of data from archaeology, oral history, genealogy, historical linguistics, art, geosciences, isotope and lipid analysis, divided into five axes of investigation: 1) networks of kinship and affinity; 2) sustainability ecologies; 3) participatory mapping; 4) historical memory; 5) comparison of female persistences with other places on the continent. The project is expected to consolidate new knowledge about the role of women over the long term and show the results of the contribution of the community representatives involved, contributing to renew aspects of the history of São Paulo. (AU)