On the trails of the elders: knowledge practices and mapping techniques on the Ribeira Valley

• Grant number: 17/02557-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: July 01, 2017
• End date: March 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Anna Catarina Morawska Vianna
• Grantee: Alessandra Regina dos Santos
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 19/16385-5 - Life and Death Movements around the waters of the Ribeira river: bodies, lands, and fights between the riverine quilombolas of the middle Ribeira Valley-SP., BE.EP.DR

Abstract

This project aims to investigate the crossing of distinct mapping practices and modes of production of knowledge, from ethnomapping experiences in self-called quilombolas people that lives on the watershed region of the Ribeira de Iguape river. It's a critical reflection about the etnocartography as a way of dialogue between a multiplicity of actors and epistemologies; experiences in which the various actors involved - like quilombola sages, academic researchers, and technical experts - engage themselves on the mapping act, both politically and peceptively, composing meshworks of relationships, power flows, and ontologically tensioned dialogues. The focus of this research rests on the diverse proceedings which take place on the building of an ethnomap: mapping and narrative writing workshops, the expeditions and guided hiking, and the usage of technologies (GIS, GPS, and ArcGIS). From the elaborated cartographic materials - the ethnomaps - the self-called quilombola people weave ways of a politic making which is permeated by diverse objectives, like the fight for guaranteeing the ownership of the territory so they can continue in movement through the world. That's what this research proposal aims to explore: how those quilombola collectives put forth their own everyday life logic into the mapping efforts which are ruled by the representation logics and socio-environmental perspectives from the State and from non-governmental organizations? (AU)