‘I'm Black, poor, and from the sticks. It's a lot for just one person!’: violence, resistance, and forms of struggle among young women in the Bico do Papagaio region of Tocantins, Brazil

Abstract

The diverse conditions and ways of living for women in Bico do Papagaio, Tocantins, in northern Brazil, span issues related to land and production, family, sexuality, gender, and belonging to the rural space. Within this context, this article investigates how the construction of identities and women's participation in decision-making processes intersect with the dimensions of race and generation. The analysis is based on the results of an extension project conducted in 2019 entitled Participatory Diagnosis of Youths from Bico do Papagaio/TO which directly involved young people from this territory. The project involved surveying primary and secondary data on the region and its demographics, and found many different manifestations of the sexual division of labor, as well as how aspects of gender, racism and prejudice associated with a rural background comprise a matrix of inequalities that invent and reinvent rural and urban relations amid the objectivity of invisible borders. By observing young and older women, particularly from the Interstate Movement of Babassu Palm Nut Breakers (MIQCB), and how they express and perceive forms of control over their bodies, work relationships, and dynamics of circulation within the territory, we were able to uncover the persistence of violence intertwined with power relations in a patriarchal, racialized, and heteronormative society. We were also able to capture resistance and coping strategies, which were equally multifaceted.