Pacoval, an Amazonian Mocambo: A Trip Revisited

Abstract

In 1989 a group of young researchers from the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi undertook a trip to Alenquer district, State of Pará, to conduct the first fieldwork in bioanthropology among the quilombolas of the community of Pacoval. In this article the trip is revisited and analyzed, 30 years after, to take a glimpse at how it was then and how it is to be a quilombola today. Three decades after that fieldwork, when the Unified Brazilian Health System (SUS) also completes 30 years, and the National Policy of Integral Health of the Black Population makes its 11 th anniversary, the health situation in Pacoval and in most other mocambos remain precarious, and the Black population of Brazil has little to commemorate, as it continues to fight against structural racism and for the right to full citizenship.