Yesterday we ate badly. And today even worse: food, conflict and reciprocity in times of scarcity in the Vila Nova occupation, Belo Horizonte (MG)

• Grant number: 23/05055-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2023
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Urban Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Adriana Gracia Piscitelli
• Grantee: Isabelle Caroline Damião Chagas
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/16990-4 - Food Circulation in Networks of Care, Aid, and Reciprocity: Theoretical-Analytical Dialogues, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

A study of food circulation in exchange networks in an urban occupation in Belo Horizonte (MG), deeply affected by the Covid-19 pandemic at a time when hunger became a pressing concern in daily life, is the subject of this study. As an ethnographer, I am interested in exploring the social dynamics, marked by gender as it articulates with other differentiation markers, that are produced and revealed through these exchanges, locally referred to as aid, with particular attention given to reciprocity, conflict, hierarchies, and inequalities. As a researcher and resident of Vila Nova, I am also a participant in the relations I wish to analyze and have been conducting fieldwork since 2018. Since Vila has existed for over 30 years, it has been home to around 300 families (900 people), most of whom are single-parent families, which women mothers, grandmothers, and aunts manage. Through an ethnography of the occupation's daily life and in dialogue with theoretical references on gifts and reciprocities, Brazilian urban anthropology of the popular classes, contributions from intersectional feminism and postcolonial critique, this project aims to advance the debate on exchanges and exchanges in popular sectors, exploring how notions of help may contribute to thinking about its configurations, which are characterized by intersectionally conformed hierarchies. (AU)