Based on an extended fieldwork, the paper discusses the construction of identity in a Brazilian quilombo - a term originally used by the Portuguese authorities to juridically define the flights of the Brazilian slaves. Appealing to a Constitutional Article granting the property of the land to the descendant of the fugitive slaves, the people of Frechal (Maranhão) obtained - after complex events overshadowed by tension and violence - the expropriation of the land bought by an entrepreneur of São Paulo with the precise intent to forcibly expel the local population. Founding their right on an idea of cultural authenticity and mobilizing a symbolism capable of legitimating their claims and of giving them a legal weight, they transformed themselves from object of slavery, discrimination and racism to ethno-political subjects. Proceeding from the analysis of this paradigmatic case, the article shows how the term quilombo can be "re-semanticized" in order to be applicable to the contemporary situations of the Afro-Brazilian population. The actuality of the word, transferred from its original juridical meaning of colonial matrix, is founded on the idea that the quilombos are not isolated survivals of the past to honor in the memory of the heroes that fought against slavery. Rather they represent true projects of a new political order, nuclei of the contemporary resistance founded on the collective property of the land. As such the quilombos are considered as real counterpoints to the neoliberal expansion in the rural areas.
RESUMO: O artigo analisa comparativamente os mecanismos do pensamento colonial e as suas resistências nas políticas públicas contemporâneas através das fragmentarias ideologias e práticas multiculturalistas. Mostra como agindo seletivamente sobre os mecanismos indenitários, promovem ações especiais e emergenciais que superam o Direito e fagocitam as contradições políticas e econômicas estruturais. Discute a centralidade dos grupos marginais para ultrapassar as epistemes dicotômicas de matriz colonial (identidade/alteridade, homogeneidade/diferença, hegemonia/subalternidade, centro/periferia, desenvolvimento/subdesenvolvimento). Convida a individuar como os povos colonizados e escravizados, migrantes e refugiados, prófugos e clandestinos, indígenas e indigentes possam articular a superação das dramáticas desigualdades socioeconômicas e da aquisição formal de direitos já definidos com a redefinição e o reconhecimento de novos direitos.Palavras-chave: Descolonização. Identidade. Violência. Multiculturalismo. Cidadania. Anthropology for education: for a decolonization of thought ABSTRACT:The article makes a comparative analysis of the colonial thought mechanisms and their resistance in the contemporary public policies through the fragmentary ideologies and multicultural practices. It shows how, by acting selectively over identitary mechanisms, they promote special and emergency actions which disregard the Law and feed upon the political and economical structural contradictions. It discusses the centrality of marginal groups in overcoming the dichotomic episteme of a colonial nature (identity/ alterity, homogeneity/difference, hegemony/subalterneity, centre/periphery, development/ underdevelopment). It invites us to describe how the colonized and enslaved, migrants and refugees, fugitives and clandestines, indigenous people and indigents can articulate the act of overcoming the dramatic * Artigo escrito originalmente em português com revisão técnica de Sebastião Moreira Duarte (UFMA).
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