Resignifications of arpillera embroidery in the lower Xingu and uper Ribeira

• Grant number: 16/18776-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: April 01, 2017
• End date: May 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Antonio Augusto Arantes Neto
• Grantee: Ralyanara Moreira Freire
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Groups of women in different regions of Brazil have been transforming patches of cloth, needles and thread into narratives of daily life. Their needlepoints adopt the language of the arpilleras, created in Isla Negra, Chile. They denounce experiences of sexual exploitation and violence, as well as socio-environmental losses, both direct one and those indirectly provoked by the construction of large dams. By coming together to embroider, these women reflect on their new reality, they strengthen their cohesion as a group and feed the awareness of their condition of gender. These processes add to the embroidery, as forms of expression, the sense of a political tool for feminine denunciations. In light of this reality, this project proposes to study the new uses and meanings of the embroidery known as arpillera, as practiced by women affected by dams in Brazil. The hypothesis is that the appropriations and resignifications of this form of expression, disseminated by the Movement of those Affected by Dams (MAB) express experiences of loss, at the same time as they feed and strengthen senses of identities and territorialities, empowering women in the context of gender relations, in particular, in relation to local conjunctures. To do so, the study will focus on the creation of the arpilleras in the context of the daily life of the women in Altamira, Pará, State, located in the region of the lower Xingu River, and in Iporanga, in São Paulo, state in the Upper Ribeira, as well as the circulation of these embroideries beyond the locations where they are created. The study will use participant observation and be based on the pertinent anthropological bibliography, with comparison as an analytical perspective.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

FREIRE, Ralyanara Moreira. Darning the social tissue: resignifications of Arpillera Embroidery and the life of those affected by Belo Monte. 2021. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas Campinas, SP.