Darning the social tissue: resignifications of Arpillera Embroidery and the life of those affected by Belo Monte

Author(s)

Ralyanara Moreira Freire

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2021-06-07

Examining board members

Antonio Augusto Arantes Neto; Jane Felipe Beltrão; Ana Paula Cavalcanti Simioni; Maria Suely Kofes; Isadora Lins França

• Advisor: Antonio Augusto Arantes Neto

Abstract

Groups of women in different regions of Brazil are creating "testimonies" of daily life through threads, needles, scissors and fabrics. Their embroideries adopt the arpilleras’ language created in Chile. When gathering to embroider, women reflect on losses, forced displacement and new living conditions; they strengthen cohesion as a group and nurture awareness of gender, race and ethnicity. These processes add to the embroideries, as objectification of their way of expression, the sense of feminine denunciation. In the face of this reality, this research deals with the creations, uses and meanings of arpillera embroidery, as practiced by women impacted by dams in Brazil. The appropriations and resignifications of this form of expression, disseminated by MAB (Movement of People Affected by Dams), reveal experiences of loss, while allowing the (re)elaboration and expression of the point of view of each of the women and their families, empowering them in the context of gender relations, particularly in addressing emerging problems in the local conjunctures. Therefore, this research focuses on socio-cultural and political processes related to the creation of arpilleras in the daily life of women in Altamira, state of Pará, located in the middle/lower Xingu region, as well as the circulation of these embroideries beyond the specificities where they are created. The anthropological study was carried out with women expelled from the Xingu and compulsorily displaced to Collective Urban Resettlements - neighborhoods built on the outskirts of the city by the utility company of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant, Norte Energia. The creation of arpillera embroidery makes up the think-know-do anthropologies and research, so that the pieces were used as a methodology for conducting the study and as constituting the processes of creating the thesis (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 16/18776-3 - Resignifications of arpillera embroidery in the lower Xingu and uper Ribeira
• Grantee: Ralyanara Moreira Freire
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate