Encontro de memórias: as mulheres Arturos

Abstract

This thesis aims to study the history of women in the black community of Arturos, located in the city of Contagem, near Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais. By evoking memories of Carmelinda Maria, who is the wife of the founder of this familiar group, her daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters recreate fragments of this woman s life history at the same time they weave their own lives. In this sense, past and present meet through memory, composing the narratives of these women s lives, who present their traditions and relationships experienced inside and outside the community; the female and the male; the family relationships; the working relationships; racism, the congado, and the changes influenced by urban space and time. By considering some ethnographic data combined with the theory of memory, we tried to comprehend the existing transformations and continuities among different generations of women in Arturos, mainly between the youngest and oldest generations, taking into account the changes in behaviors, customs, values, and worldviews that are presented according to the historical and social process experienced by them. In relation to older generations, the young people express changes in their perceptions and relationships with the world and their own community. All these issues involve a web of meanings defined through these female narratives in this research work