Brazilian Quilombos’ Heritage, Memory and Identity

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Table of Contents

Overview of the Culture
Slavery and Discrimination
Pottery Making
Legal Protection of Cultural Assets
Main Research Question
Difficulties of Conducting the Research
References

Overview of the Culture

The book is devoted to discussing the issue of the quilombolas discovering their construct of identity and heritage. The term quilombola is used to refer to members of communities of African descent dating back to enslaved Brazilians who escaped and formed resistance communities known in Brazil as quilombos. These communities’ cultures can be described as maintaining a solid connection with their history and heritage. They strive to preserve the customs and culture of their ancestors. Even today, the representatives of this population have distinct cultural features such as traditional carnivals, capoeira, and candomble.

Slavery and Discrimination

Initially, the community was prone to slavery persecution. Even after the elimination of slavery, there were significant problems in formulating quilombo’s heritage policies, including the recognition and land titles. The Afro-Brazilian activists strive to achieve the economical and cultural inclusio0n of the population. Slavery is one of the crucial inquiries of the cultural heritage of the quilonolas history (Kenny, 2018). Anthropologists call this heritage inclusive due to the significant effect of transatlantic slavery and land acquisition on the cultural formation process. The preservance of cultural heritage is aggravated by the physical location of the described population. People reside in one of the most dangerous neighbors of Santa Luzia, which is noted as full of violence and foments social problems (Kenny, 2018). The issue of slavery has significantly affected the culture of the quilombos. The cultural heritage, kinship, and historical experiences are based on color, racism, and discrimination. Despite suffering from discrimination, even this population has the class distribution seen in the cultural manifestations. For example, the batuque dance responsibilities were segregated based on the criterion of the race (Kenny, 2018). Therefore, the cultural identity of the quilombolas is shaped by inequality inquiries.

Pottery Making

Most of the representatives of the quilombolas are integrated into working in the sphere of pottery. Pottery making has significantly changed these people’s life, culture, and identity. This direction allowed Quilobolas, despite the economy’s decline and racism, to find an accessible income method. The daily life of the quilombolas is shaped by the pottery creation process. The pots preserve the kinetic memory of the previous generations, which unites the culture and history of the people. Moreover, the difficulties of creation due to the lack of technologies require uniting the efforts of the quilombolas. The pot creation process has not changed from the method applied a century ago (Kenny, 2018). Such a situation is described as the basis for preserving the ancestors’ culture. From the perspective of the indigenous population, the mechanization of the process because it diminishes the role of people in the creation itself.

Another reason why pottery making is the primary focus of the community’s activities is the anti-racism response. White people often accuse quilombolas of being lazy and incompetent to economic changes, including innovation integrations. However, quilombolas believe in preserving the primordial method of pottery, and they rebel against such a perception. The population proves that the creation process may be free of economic influence. Despite the rejection of mechanization, people there are not separated from the innovative perspective. They have the gadgets, use many social networking sites and actively participate in the world’s worldwide innovation-centered movements. Therefore, their actions can be described as a protest against the stigmatization of their culture.

Legal Protection of Cultural Assets

Through the enormous attempts of the Afro-Brazilian activists, the heritage policies provided the legal basis for shaping the population’s identity. The shared history of the population was accepted as significant in terms of analyzing the contemporary forms of inequality (Kenny, 2018). As it was mentioned above, the culture of qiolombola is associated with territorial inquiries. Therefore, the justification for receiving lands signalizes preserving the cultural peculiarities.

Main Research Question

The primary research question of the author can be formulated as follows: hows the history and culture of slavery affect the formation of quilombos and the concept of contemporary inequality? The author strives to analyze the chosen population from the perspective of the key anthropology questions. The issues of the history, geomatics, and territorial peculiarities. Cultural heritage, occupations, and political and social phenomena affecting population formation are described. The researcher also focused on describing the current situation and position of the population based on the legitimacy of the heritage and the issues of slavery. The research also strives to define customary segregation due to color and class. It is considered natural for this population based on eh social, political, and economic divisions. The ethnography of the quilombo is presented from both perspectives: local and governmental.

Difficulties of Conducting the Research

The significant challenges the author encountered were related to his race. Exploring the cultural heritage of the Brown people raises many questions when white men conduct the research. The author mentions such challenges as reinforced suspicion and scrutiny (Kenny, 2018). The problem was also related to various biases issues that occurred during the study and publications. Another problem occurred during the first steps of integrating into the community. Well-established stereotypes about white people’s cruelty towards black communities are imprinted on the author’s status (Kenny, 2018). The indigenous people treated him as one of the potentially dangerous white people. Only throughout a particular amount of time did the author gain the community’s trust.

Another issue encountered by the researcher is that the cultural heritage of the population was constructed primarily in the context of the political and social climate. In other words, the scope of the investigation included significant research rooted deep in the history of discrimination. The culture formed based on the political context was challenging to analyze due to the author’s race. Many prejudices were associated with his work. The concept of friend and foe was a significant obstacle in conducting the in-depth analysis of cultural heritage. Such characteristics as kinship, settlement patterns, language, and regional identity separated the population and researcher.

The purposeful scientific observation that the author applied required extraordinary adequacy and impartiality. First of all, the description obtained from the results of the fieldwork and the analysis of the data collected must take into account the fullness of the social and cultural context, that is, the conditions in which the study was conducted. This approach is called holistic and suggests that to explain any single phenomenon important for research, it is necessary to understand what connections it is with other sensations. The main issue here is the complexity of the gaining information process. Despite the author’s significant preparation, some integration difficulties can be seen throughout the research. The expectations and perception of the author regarding the culture faced the stigmatized opinions of the indigenous people.

References

Kenny, L. (2018). Deeply rooted in the present: Heritage, memory, and identity in Brazilian Quilombos. University of Toronto Press.

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