Based on an anti-essentialist and ‘monist’ framework, this thesis deals with the epistemological potentialities of interpretative anthropology in the study of ‘nature’. Influenced by post-structuralist political ecology, this ethnography of a Brazilian Amazonian natural reserve - inhabited by a community of afro-descendents - tries to experiment with theoretical formulations that overcome the traditional ‘nature-culture’ dichotomy. The category ‘hybrid identity’ applied to ‘nature’ suggests its relational and situational character, a by-product of the interrelation between practice and discourse, as well as symbolic and material dimensions. The case-study highlights the coexistance of different paradigmatic configurations of ‘nature’ in the same ethnographic context: a pragmatic nature experienced in everyday life through the incorporated practices of the roça, example of swidden agriculture; a contested political-managerial nature, discursively constructed through the relation between local community and government institution that controls the Reserve; finally, a “magical/spiritual” nature, domain of invisible entities – known as encantados – invoked on occasions of specific sicknesses that harken back to the world of pajelança rituals. Combining an actor-oriented methodology with a reflexive and reflective approach, the thesis also problematizes the logocentric attitude of anthropology in order to valorize the role of researcher’s body in the field work

(2009). Le identità ibride della natura: pratiche, discorsi, corporeità. Un’etnografia della Reserva Extrativista Quilombo do Frechal (Maranhão, Brasile). (Tesi di dottorato, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2009).

Le identità ibride della natura: pratiche, discorsi, corporeità. Un’etnografia della Reserva Extrativista Quilombo do Frechal (Maranhão, Brasile)

TASSAN, MANUELA
2009

Abstract

Based on an anti-essentialist and ‘monist’ framework, this thesis deals with the epistemological potentialities of interpretative anthropology in the study of ‘nature’. Influenced by post-structuralist political ecology, this ethnography of a Brazilian Amazonian natural reserve - inhabited by a community of afro-descendents - tries to experiment with theoretical formulations that overcome the traditional ‘nature-culture’ dichotomy. The category ‘hybrid identity’ applied to ‘nature’ suggests its relational and situational character, a by-product of the interrelation between practice and discourse, as well as symbolic and material dimensions. The case-study highlights the coexistance of different paradigmatic configurations of ‘nature’ in the same ethnographic context: a pragmatic nature experienced in everyday life through the incorporated practices of the roça, example of swidden agriculture; a contested political-managerial nature, discursively constructed through the relation between local community and government institution that controls the Reserve; finally, a “magical/spiritual” nature, domain of invisible entities – known as encantados – invoked on occasions of specific sicknesses that harken back to the world of pajelança rituals. Combining an actor-oriented methodology with a reflexive and reflective approach, the thesis also problematizes the logocentric attitude of anthropology in order to valorize the role of researcher’s body in the field work
MALIGHETTI, ROBERTO
Nature, environment, body, practices, mapping, space, place, territory, identity, extractive reserve, quilombo, Frechal, Brazilian Amazonia, encantados, pajelança, socio-environmentalism, post-structuralist political ecology, environmental anthropology
M-DEA/01 - DISCIPLINE DEMOETNOANTROPOLOGICHE
Italian
27-mar-2009
2008/2009
Antropologia della Contemporaneità. Etnografia delle diversità e delle convergenze culturali
Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca
(2009). Le identità ibride della natura: pratiche, discorsi, corporeità. Un’etnografia della Reserva Extrativista Quilombo do Frechal (Maranhão, Brasile). (Tesi di dottorato, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2009).
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/46247
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