Pensamento e práticas descoloniais na construção identitária de trabalhadoras rurais: um caso da Associação de Mulheres Descendentes de Quilombos de Lajedo de Eurípedes

Abstract

This dissertation explores decolonial thinking and practices in the identity construction of rural women workers, with a focus on the Association of Women Descendants of the Quilombos of Lajedo de Eurípedes, located in Lapão, in the interior of Bahia. The research is based on post-colonial studies, articulating de(s)colonial feminisms and discussions on identity construction, political identity and epistemologies of the South. In this scenario, the Association emerges as a space for unity and learning where women find support and the means to develop projects and objectives, strengthening their autonomy and action in the community. The research methodology is based on thematic analysis, identifying analytical categories such as understanding the countryside, hierarchical relations in the family and the countryside, and associative and community ways of coping. The study shows that, even without theoretical appropriation of de(s)colonial concepts, which are not relevant to their experiences, the women of the Association build their own ways of coping and resisting, which are understood here as decolonial practices. The women's narratives reveal the persistence of dominant discourses, but also their denial and resistance to them, showing an identity in continuous transformation. In addition, the narratives also reveal tensions between the internalization of patriarchal, racist and capitalist values and the displacements produced by the organizational and political experiences in the association, which cause changes in their perceptions of identity, self-image, the valorization of women's rural work and the reconfiguration of social roles. Therefore, from the research, it was possible to understand that, at the same time as resisting the colonial logic through their coping strategies marked by decolonial thinking and practices, the women rural workers of the Association of Women Descendants of Quilombos of Lajedo de Eurípedes are located in the colonial difference, acting from the fractured locus, being subject to colonial thinking and practices that were presented through some elements in their narratives and in their interactions.