A cor das relações: corpo, idade e afetividade na experiência de mulheres negras em um bairro de Natal/RN

Abstract

This dissertation is the result of an ethnographic research on affective experiences of Brazilian black women, more precisely inhabitants in the city of Natal / RN. From the dialogues, conversations, accompaniments and several listening exercises with six interlocutors, the work explores how the expression of affections and the construction of bonds with other signifiers are related to the racial dimension. The interlocutors are black women living in a neighborhood considered peripheral in the city and are in the age group of fifty to seventy five years of age. The dissertation intends to contribute with the reflection on a subject which has not been deepened in the studies that take like core the subject of the race in Brazil; namely: Affectivity. Thus, the affective dimension crosses the text and the reflections proposed here about body, health, beauty, love, old age. At the same time the research aims to contribute to the reflection on the complexities of race relations in contemporary Brazil. Most studies on race in Brazil recognize the contemporary effects of the colonial system on the life of the black population in socioeconomic and political matters. This text subscribes in the line of works - less abundant - that the black population was also denied the freedom to express their emotions, their affective subjectivity and the opportunity to establish and maintain ties and family. That is, it recognizes that the affective dimension also carries the marks of the history of domination and subalternization of the black people in the country. Thus, the following pages seek to understand to what extent some experiences of the interlocutors, informed by race, gender, class, sexuality and generation intersect and impact on the construction of affective bonds.