Yara de Cássia Alves, a graduate of the Postgraduate Program in Social Anthropology at the University of São Paulo (PPGAS/USP), received the Lélia Gonzalez Award for the best doctoral thesis defended in the area of Social Anthropology in the years 2022-2023.
The award ceremony took place during the 34th Brazilian Anthropology Meeting, from July 23 to 26, in Belo Horizonte, at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). The thesis entitled “In the tracks of the past: seams of time in the construction of kinship and sociality among quilombolas in the Jequitinhonha Valley, Minas Gerais” has as its central objective to explore the notion of “trace,” which broadly seeks to revive the past in the present, expressing itself in different ways in spaces, festivals, bodies, etc.
“The thesis has an ethnographic approach and was written after approximately six months of fieldwork, divided into different stays that were related to specific events that take place in the local calendar, such as the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Black Men, the time of politics, the time of the waters. During these stays, I lived in houses in the four quilombola communities researched, which had been happening since 2009, when I began research in the region, mainly in the Pinheiro community. Therefore, the experience acquired over thirteen years contributed significantly to the deepening of the central questions of the research, which are directly related to the themes of kinship, politics and the construction of memory”, explains Yara.
Currently, Yara is a professor at the State University of Minas Gerais (UEMG) and is an associate researcher at Métis, a thematic project funded by the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (FAPESP), with the general coordination of Professor Fernanda Peixoto.
“The main results of the thesis showed me that the quilombolas of the region are always seeking references in the past to understand the present and direct themselves towards the future, something similar to the African philosophy of Sankofa, which teaches that it is necessary to look back to move forward. Broadly speaking, kinship, politics and religion are built with a strong base in the territory they occupy, mainly in the houses, known as root houses. From this, the figure of the mother emerges as central, being recognized for the respect she inspires and the strength she gains from everyday challenges. Motherhood goes beyond the field of kinship and emerges as a point of reference for understanding politics, for example. Therefore, the female work of raising children is fundamental for us to understand a series of factors that are not directly associated with kinship”, comments the researcher about the results in relation to the thesis.