Revista Brasileira de Educação do Campo
The Brazilian Scientific Journal of Rural Education
THEMATIC DOSSIER / ARTIGO/ARTICLE/ARTÍCULO
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.2525-4863.2018v3n4p1221
Tocantinópolis
v. 3
n. 4
p. 1221-1248
sep./dec.
2018
ISSN: 2525-4863
1221
Este conteúdo utiliza a Licença Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities
Deiviani de Oliveira
1
, Luan Eudair Bridi
2
, Miriã Lúcia Luiz
3
, Regina Godinho de Alcântara
4
1, 2, 3, 4
Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo - UFES. Departamento de Educação, Política e Sociedade / Departamento de
Linguagens, Cultura e Educação. Avenida Fernando Ferrari, 514, Goiabeiras. Vitória - ES. Brasil.
Author for correspondence: deivianioliveira@gmail.com
ABSTRACT. This article aims to understand the trajectory of
peasant women in Espírito Santo from the period of 1930 to
2017, in the search for an understanding of the ways in which
they lived/live and perceived/perceive their childhood, personal
trajectories, insertion processes as workers and participants in
the social spaces of their communities, as well as the meanings
that schooling assumes throughout their lives. It uses as
theoretical and methodological support Carlo Ginzburg's (1988,
1989, 2002, 2007) thinking, based on the assumptions of
microhistory and the indicial paradigm, in cooperation with
Mikhail Bakhtin's (2003, 2004) work, taking the narratives as
concrete statements. As a source, it analyzes the narratives of
four peasant women, born in Espírito Santo, materialized in the
Cadernos da Realidade (Notebooks of Reality) of graduation
students in Countryside Education/UFES. The analysis indicates
continuities and discontinuities in the trajectories of these
women in the period of investigation. As permanencies, it stands
out that women still occupy domestic spaces, mainly exerting
herculean activities, devoid of economic value. In addition, the
patriarchal model of family/society is presented in the narratives
and in the records of women from different generations.
Evidence of discontinuities also emanate from the documents,
such as: insertion as a child in the schooling process, the role of
women in domestic services, community and wider spaces in
society, such as the University.
Keywords: Peasant Women, Notebook of Reality, Espírito
Santo, Permanence’s, Discontinuities.
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities...
Tocantinópolis
v. 3
n. 4
p. 1221-1248
sep./dec.
2018
ISSN: 2525-4863
1222
Trajetórias de mulheres camponesas no Espírito Santo:
permanências e descontinuidades
RESUMO. Este texto visa compreender a trajetória de mulheres
camponesas no Espírito Santo no período de 1930 a 2017, na
busca pela compreensão dos modos como viveram/vivem e
perceberam/percebem sua infância, trajetórias pessoais,
processos de inserção como trabalhadoras e partícipes dos
espaços sociais de suas comunidades, bem como os sentidos que
a escolarização assume ao longo de suas vidas. Privilegia como
aporte teórico-metodológico o pensamento de Carlo Ginzburg
(1988, 1989, 2002, 2007), com os pressupostos da micro-
história e do paradigma indiciário, e o de Mikhail Bakhtin
(2003, 2004), tomando as narrativas como enunciados
concretos. Como fonte, analisa os discursos/narrativas de quatro
mulheres camponesas capixabas materializadas nos Cadernos da
Realidade dos estudantes da Licenciatura em Educação do
Campo/UFES. As análises indiciam permanências e
descontinuidades nas trajetórias das mulheres capixabas no
período investigado. Como permanências, destaca-se a mulher
ocupando os espaços domésticos, sobretudo, exercendo
atividades hercúleas, desprovidas de valor econômico. Ademais,
o modelo patriarcal de família/sociedade presentifica-se nas
narrativas e nos registros de mulheres de diferentes tempos
geracionais. Emana dos documentos indícios de
descontinuidades, tais como: a inserção ainda criança no
processo de escolarização, o protagonismo das mulheres no
âmbito doméstico, comunitário e nos espaços mais amplos da
sociedade, como a Universidade.
Palavras-chave: Mulheres Camponesas, Caderno da Realidade,
Espírito Santo, Permanências, Descontinuidades.
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities...
Tocantinópolis
v. 3
n. 4
p. 1221-1248
sep./dec.
2018
ISSN: 2525-4863
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Trayectoria de las mujeres campesinas en Espírito Santo:
permanencias y discontinuidades
RESUMEN. Este texto pretende entender la trayectoria de las
mujeres campesinas en Espíritu Santo, durante el período de
1930 a 2017, con el objetivo de comprender los modos como
vivieron/viven y percibieron/perciben su infancia. Así como las
trayectorias personales, procesos de inserción en el trabajo y
participación en los espacios sociales de sus comunidades, al
igual que el sentido que la escolarización asume a lo largo de
sus vidas. Se privilegian los aportes del pensador Carlo
Ginzburg (1988, 1989, 2002, 2007), en relación a la micro-
historia y el paradigma indiciario, además de los referentes de
Mikhail Bakhtin (2003, 2004), donde se toman las narrativas
como enunciados concretos. Como objeto de estudio, se
analizan los discursos/narrativas de cuatro mujeres campesinas
nacidas en Espírito Santo materializados en los Cuadernos de la
Realidad de los estudiantes de Licenciatura en Educación del
Campo/UFES. Los análisis indican permanencias y
discontinuidades en las trayectorias de las mujeres nacidas en
esta provincia, durante el periodo investigado. Como
permanencias, se destaca a la mujer ocupando espacios
domésticos, sobre todo, ejerciendo actividades hercúleas,
desprovistas de valor económico. Además, el modelo patriarcal
de familia/sociedad se exterioriza en las narrativas y en los
registros de las mujeres de diferentes tiempos generacionales. Se
derivan de los documentos, indicios de discontinuidades, como:
la inserción infantil en el proceso de escolarización, el
protagonismo de las mujeres en el ámbito doméstico,
comunitario y en los espacios más amplios de la sociedad, como
la Universidad.
Palabras-clave: Mujeres Campesinas, Cuaderno de la Realidad.
Espírito Santo, Permanencias, Discontinuidades.
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities...
Tocantinópolis
v. 3
n. 4
p. 1221-1248
sep./dec.
2018
ISSN: 2525-4863
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Introduction
The Licentiate in Countryside
Education at the Federal University of
Espírito Santo (hereinafter LEC/UFES),
with qualification in Human and Social
Sciences and Languages, is intended for
the training of teachers whose teaching
functions should be practiced in the final
years of Elementary School and Secondary
Education, as well as in other spaces in
which the graduates' degree is recognized.
The LEC/UFES is a classroom course that
takes on the Pedagogy of Alternation as a
methodological reference, highlighting, in
that way, according to the course's PPC,
the pretension of "... contributing, in the
diversity of pedagogical actions, to the
accomplishment of the countryside
education as a human right and a tool for
social development". (PPC/LEC/UFES,
2015, p. 04).
Therefore, the referred course,
bearing in mind the interlocution of the
scientific knowledge with the knowledge
arising from the peasant communities,
endeavours the further development of the
issues related to the countryside education
through the joint reflection, dialogic and
dialectic with the academic production
from the perspective of the emergency of
the complexity that, recently, affects the
peasantry.
We underscore the pioneerism of the
state of Espírito Santo in the introduction
of the Pedagogy of Alternance in Brazil,
through the Movimento Promocional do
Espírito Santo (Espírito Santo's
Promotional movement) (MEPES) in the
city of Anchieta. This pedagogy takes a
prominent position regarding the
problematization to be voiced in the
training spaces of the graduating students
because, as exhibited by Caliari et al.
(2013, p. 38-39, author notes), "we're
convinced that the Pedagogy of
Alternation, by talking to its reality, the
developed activities and its role in
knowledge organization, must have affinity
and a clear expression of activities in this
own reality ... “.
Consequently, we comprehend that
point out and problematize the know-how
created with/by the peasant women
through the Pedagogy of Alternation
becomes effectively relevant, since the
materialization of the speech reproduced
by them made through the Notebooks of
Reality allows us to reach not only the
linguistic, but also the historical, social,
cultural and ideological aspects that
permeate them.
As a didactic-methodological
resource, the Notebook of Reality
constitutes the Pedagogy of Pedagogy of
Alternation as the materialization of direct
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities...
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2018
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mediation of reality in dialogue with the
theoretical contributions accessed.
Therefore, its existence and use
allow the direct access of theory in
practice, facilitating the realization of
praxis in a given context. From this
conception, we bring, again, Caliari et al.
(2013, p. 50-51) evidencing the Notebook
of Reality as a “...opportunity for the
student to reflect on their daily life and
how much is bound with their environment
...” and, in addition, portray “...the history
of their family, their social context, the
geophysical and economic understanding
of the environment in which they live …”.
Consequently, given its specificity of
undercovering the paradoxically strange
reality and/or new discovery that
constitutes the daily life of the student, the
Notebook of Reality becomes, in this
sense, a document, a sort of dossier of
precise or, sometimes, circumstantial,
information allowing us, therefore, to
pursue tracks, threads and traces which
help the vision/action on the existence
detected, in the possibility of reflecting and
acting with and before it, approaching us to
the credible, through an indirect, indicial
and conjectural knowledge (Ginzburg,
2002). From this perspective, we
understand that the primary link between
school content and the student's social
reality becomes evident through mediation
provided and materialized in and through
the Notebook of Reality.
Based on these considerations, we
understand that investigating the trajectory
of peasant women in the state of Espírito
Santo between 1930 and 2017, in the
perspective of verifying permanence’s and
ruptures relating to social, family,
educational (schooling) aspects through the
Notebook of Reality and the narratives of
these women, becomes not only relevant
but fruitful, once the materiality of the
discourses produced there goes back to a
specific look and, consequently, an already
problematization and/or reflection
regarding the dialogue between theory and
socio-historical context.
With this understanding, to meet the
greater purpose of this paper
i
, explained
above, this text aims, more specifically: a)
to understand the ways in which peasant
women in Espírito Santo live/lived and
perceive/perceived their childhood and
their personal trajectories; b) to investigate
the processes of insertion of these women
in the work and in the social spaces of their
communities during the period
investigated; and c) understand the
meanings that schooling assumes for these
women, throughout their life trajectories.
Aiming at the proposed goals and in
the sense of defining our analysis, whose
corpus consists of the discourses/narratives
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities...
Tocantinópolis
v. 3
n. 4
p. 1221-1248
sep./dec.
2018
ISSN: 2525-4863
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of four women, materialized in the
Notebooks of Reality, we brought as a
theoretical-methodological reference the
studies of Ginzburg (1988, 1989, 2002,
2007) and Bakhtin (2003, 2004), guided by
the need to look at the multiplicity of
sources and the interrogation of documents
for the production of the historiographical
narrative as well as the consideration of the
Notebook of Reality as concrete statements
and, in this sense, as discursive genres. We
also show contributions of Cordeiro
(2007), Paulilo (2009) and Neves e
Medeiros (2013), considering the main
theme of our paper, the trajectories
experienced by peasant women. We also
think that these documents constitute
vestiges, threads, and traces (Ginzburg,
2007) for the understanding of the
singularities that characterize the
trajectories of the women from Espírito
Santo in the period under analysis.
For the organization of the text, we
list three axes/categories which emerged
from the cited sources and guided our
research, namely:
- Peasant women from Espírito
Santo: memories of childhood and their
personal trajectories;
- The work, challenges and social
insertion of peasant women in Espírito
Santo;
- The schooling processes of Espírito
Santo’s peasant women.
These axes/categories follow the
objectives of the research. Therefore,
aspiring to the organization, clarity and
objectivity of our study, then, we show
some studies that brought the peasant
woman as a focus; in a later section, we
seek the potential of the research topic,
through a deepening of the theoretical-
methodological referential announced;
later, we give samples of the discursive
corpus composed by the texts materialized
in and by the Notebooks of Reality, which
are analyzed and discussed as statements,
immersed in the discursive dynamics to
which they were produced.
Peasant women in literature: the
thematic field of the articulation
between gender and peasantry
Historically, the conception of
women in the Brazilian context has
undergone different modes of
understanding and idealization, both
domestically and socially. In colonial
Brazil “...the indigenous considered the
woman a companion, finding no reason for
differences in educational opportunities.
They did not see, as the whites warned
them, the peril that could represent the fact
that their women were literate ... ", besides
that, "... the work and pleasure of man, like
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities...
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those of the indigenous woman, were
considered equitable and socially useful
...". (Ribeiro, 2011, p. 80)
ii
.
Sexual exploitation at the time of the
colony was intense and abundant. The
Portuguese, supported by evident
patriarchalism and force, came to Brazil
without their families and abused
indigenous and enslaved black women. In
Brazil colonial period, the sixteenth-
century man dominated and decided the
course of the domestic and social life of
the family. According to Holanda (1995),
the word family originates from the
expression famulus, of Latin origin, which
means: domestic slaves of the same lord.
Therefore, it is understood that this word
and/or expression refers to obedience to a
patriarchal lord, my husband, lord, my
father, lord.
In this context, when women had
their first menstruation, by the age of 11 or
12, they were ready to marry. These girls
were guarded at all times by their father
and brothers to protect their virginity. The
woman was described as dependent and
subordinate, which was subject to the
domination of the father or the husband,
having domestic duties as a single
obligation and removed from important
economic decisions. The woman of this
time, therefore, always dedicated herself to
the private space. Work for her was only
related to household chores (Ribeiro,
2011). Reflecting on the history of women
in Brazil inevitably addresses the ways
they lived in the countryside, for until the
early nineteenth century, Brazil was a huge
rural country. The dominant elite's lifestyle
in Brazilian society was marked by
influences from the imaginary of the
Portuguese aristocracy, from the day-to-
day of commoner farmers, and from the
social differences and interactions defined
by the slave system and determined by
total patriarchalism. The so-called
Brazilian patriarchal family, commanded
by the father who possessed enormous
power over his dependents, clans and
slaves, inhabited the great house and
dominated the senzala (D'Incao, 2004).
We know the challenges of writing
about the history of women, both because
of the strong sexism that prevails in our
society, and because of the secondary
social place that women have occupied
and, not infrequently, still occupy in many
communities. Thus, dealing with the
history of women is already a necessary
effort and, because they are peasant
women from the state of Espírito Santo,
this task is even more fruitful, since the
historiography of this state has been the
focus of current research, but it still
demands a lot of historiographical effort in
the sense of groping the semi-invisibility
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities...
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n. 4
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2018
ISSN: 2525-4863
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of Espírito Santo’s history (Simões &
Franco, 2004).
We add to these challenges the fact
that we cover the trajectory of peasant
women, a theme that has occupied the
place of social invisibility in research
(Neves & Motta-Maués, 2013). According
to Neves e Motta-Maués (2013), among
the common places in the interpretations of
many authors who deal with women's
forms of action in the peasantry, there is
the exaltation that they perform Herculean
tasks, play a fundamental role in the
position of defense of land tenure or even
movements in the face of their
expropriation, however, they often do not
have these tasks recognized by their
respective social and economic values.
Therefore, to corroborate the
thinking of Del Priori (2004), we ask:
would the time have come to talk, without
prejudice, about women? Had the time
come to read about them, without so many
a priori? Much has been written about the
difficulty of constructing the history of
women, masqueraded as they were by the
speech of men and absent from the
historical setting. Believing that this
discussion is not over, the present study
constitutes the starting point for
investigations that focus on peasant women
in Espírito Santo. Consequently, we aim to
make visible, through the records and
discourses of the Notebooks of Reality, the
trajectories of peasant women from
Espírito Santo communities.
What do the studies on peasant women
in Brazil show?
When analyzing the thematic field of
the articulation between gender and
peasantry, Neves, Santos e Cruz (2013)
point to the social invisibility of women in
academic productions
iii
. Such occurrence is
usually explained by male domination,
sometimes in absolute terms, given the
reference to the so hegemonic
masculinizing influence of institutional
rules and organization; or defended by
affiliations and political complicities of the
researchers with the repudiation to the
submission of women; or investments
based on the construction of denunciations
as part of the political procedures for
change in their respective power relations.
Regarding this social invisibility and the
risks of considering it in interpretations
and analysis, the authors assert:
If social invisibility can be
understood by the impossibility of
participating in public life or by the
non-recognition of the active role of
women in the elaboration process of
social life, to accept it as a principle
of interpretation is to stand up to the
requirement of at least explaining, in
each situation, how public life and its
social organization are defined
(Neves, Santos & Cruz, 2013, p. 351-
352).
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities...
Tocantinópolis
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sep./dec.
2018
ISSN: 2525-4863
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When analyzing the set of studies on
gender in rural areas, Neves, Santos e Cruz
(2013) alert to the scarcity of research that
is concerned with recent changes in the
social and ideological organization of the
Western world that have interfered in
family life and in the roles previously
attributed to women, in this case peasant
women. They therefore show a significant
" … lack of interpretations about the
metaphorical transformation described as a
social revolution in the face of changes in
relations between the sexes, as well as
social displacements in these terms"
(Neves, Santos & Cruz, 2013, p. 352).
In quantitative terms, Neves (2013)
surveyed 12 studies, between dissertations
and thesis defended in postgraduate
programs in the country, between 1995 and
2007, analyzing gender relations in the
rural world. Of this total, 3 papers are of
special interest to us (Oliveira, 2007;
Janata, 2004; & Brochado, 1998 apud
Neves, 2013) because they are about
women in rural areas.
Neves (2013) analyzes the master's
dissertation in Education of the Federal
University of Paraíba, defended in 2007 by
Maria Lucia Lopes de Oliveira, who takes
as physical and social space of analysis a
settlement in Cariri Paraibano. The main
objective of the research was to identify
the transformations that occurred in the
daily lives of women in rural settlements.
It encompasses personal and collective
relationships, considered through the
recognition of the experience of women in
empowerment processes and under an
interventional work, based on the feminist
formation proposed by the Coletivo
Feminista (Feminist Group) and Centro Da
Mulher 8 De Março (March 8th Women’s
Center).
The most evident results highlighted
by the author were: elevated self-esteem;
exercise of speech in public spaces; social
recognition of knowledge’s that they
dominate; and their enrichment resulting
from new knowledge in the development
of their practical skills. These material
acquisitions, but mainly of symbols of
prestige, according to the author,
facilitated: the access to credit policies;
recognition of the identity of rural worker;
the critical awareness of the inequalities of
power that refer to relations between
women and men and the patterns of social
organization (Neves, 2013). Another study
analyzed by Neves (2013) is entitled
“Gossiping on the culture of work and the
playfulness of girls-youngsters-women
from MST (agrarian reform movement)
settlements”. This dissertation is a Master's
Degree in Physical Education, Federal
University of Santa Catarina, defended in
2004 by Natacha Eugênia Janata.
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities...
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Neves (2013) points out that the
investigation was limited to the study of
the articulation between the physical
education activity and the production of
social movement engagements, particularly
in the Landless Rural Workers Movement
(MST). Starting from the problematic of
the migration of rural youth to the city, the
objective of Janata (2004) was to
understand the relationships and
contradictions between the culture of
working and playing lived and built by
youngsters of the 30 de Outubro and São
José Settlements. Both are representatives
of mobilizations coordinated by MST
leaders and are located in the municipality
of Campos Novos - Santa Catarina.
Janata (2004), when valuing the
participation of women in participatory
research activities, brings to the reader's
knowledge the situational explicitation of
dreams. Through this collective reflection,
women acquired a new meaning in face of
the engagements in the political project of
MST (Neves, 2013).
Ofélia Cerinéia Brochado, Master in
Geography (Human) in 1998 by the
University of São Paulo, Brazil, in the
context of agricultural studies, focusing on
issues related to working conditions and
reproduction of human life, in the text
Work, Health and Reproduction of Life:
The bóia-fria woman in the divided world
of Paraguaçu Paulista, considers the work
of women in the sugar cane fields of the
country. In emphasizing the participation
of women, the author claims her affiliation
to gender studies, sizing the conditions of
existence of the female sugar cane cutter,
subject of double exploration: as a woman
and as a worker (Neves, 2013).
In addition to the three studies
selected from Neves’ survey (2013), we
located and analyzed two studies that allow
us to approach the daily life of peasant
women and the challenges they face in
domestic and social spaces, considering the
asymmetric relations that are established in
these spaces. This is the article Women's
Farmers' Movement and the many senses
of "gender equality", published by Paulilo
in 2009, and the article entitled: Gender in
rural contexts: freedom to come and go
and control of women's sexuality in the
backwoods of Pernambuco, by Cordeiro
(2007).
Paulilo (2009) assumed that women,
when participating in collective
movements, whether feminist or not, tend
to question their subordinate social
position. To that end, the author
interviewed militant and non-militant
women and sought to ascertain whether
these gender inquiries were challenging the
identity between women's and other family
members' interests.
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities...
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2018
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The author's interest is mainly
focused on the search for differences
between the women's discourse of the
Peasant Women's Movement and that of
the leaders of other movements, as a
counterpoint to the discourse of non-
militants from three southern states,
especially in Santa Catarina.
The results of Paulilo's study (2009)
point to the fact that only when women
begin to question traditional marriage, they
will question the fact that it is the only
route to the profession of farmer. The issue
of the non-inheritance of the land still is a
taboo among rural women. According to
this author, asking for gender equality in
public policy seems to be easier than
tackling the issue within the family.
Undoubtedly, opposition to groups that are
not effectively close and therefore can be
characterized as "enemies", brings less
emotional wear and tear than opposing
husbands, fathers, in-laws, brothers and
sons.
The study by Cordeiro (2007) aimed
at understanding the constraints and
obstacles of gender concerning the
freedom to come and go of the leaders and
participants of the Movement of Rural
Working Women of the Central
Backwoods of Pernambuco (MMTR), with
the guiding hypothesis that in the
restriction to coming and going from
women also consubstantiates the control of
female sexuality.
Cordeiro (2007) points out that
research on family farming tends to point
to the rigid and asymmetric pattern of
gender relations in rural areas,
emphasizing that women are often
confined to the home, farm and community
where they live, confronted with moral
orders of gender that impose hard
restrictions when coming and going.
The author points out that despite the
transformations in the rural area and the
overcoming of the debate on the rural
world and the urban world as isolated
instances, the control and regulation of the
conducts and the bodies of women are
important elements in the moral orders of
gender. And the family, relatives,
neighbors and the community exercise
vigilance so that it continues. Being “badly
spoken of”, being targeted by someone's
“gazes” are some of the tricks men and
women use to impose sanctions, coercions
or hinder women's “escapades” and
“winks”.
The studies that have been accessed
allow us to approximate what has been
produced at the national level regarding
peasant women, pointing to the invisibility
of women in the production of studies on
their own life contexts, the lack of
representativeness regarding their
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
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economic and social role in the
communities in which they live. In
addition, they highlighted challenges in the
search for gender equality in public
policies and in domestic spaces and the
observation that the control and regulation
of the conduct and bodies of women
constitute important elements in the gender
moral orders.
In the search for studies developed in
Espírito Santo, we accessed the database of
the Postgraduate Program in Education
(PPGE) and History (PPGHIS) of the
Federal University of Espírito Santo. We
have located 5 studies that take women as
subjects (Siqueira, 2008, Rangel, 2011,
Suanno Neto, 2014, Silveira, 2015, and
Rocha, 2016), however, none of the
researched thematics were peasant women.
This finding points to the importance of
this initial reflection, constituting as a
starting point for studies that focus on the
peasant woman from Espírito Santo and
her life trajectories.
Discourses and memories of peasant
women from Espírito Santo: the
concrete statements materialized in the
Notebooks of Reality
At this moment in our study, we
present narratives of peasant women from
Espírito Santo, transcribed from the
Notebooks of Reality of students of
LEDOC/UFES, aiming at the
problematization of such discourses in
view of our main research objective: to
reflect on the trajectory of peasant women
iv
in the state of Espírito Santo in order to
verify permanence’s and discontinuities in
social, family and educational aspects
(schooling) in the period of 1930 to 2017.
It is important to make explicit that
the discourses were listed in order to
delineate the thematic and research
objectives and, through such guidance, the
possibility of covering the explicit time
cut. In this perspective, we understand with
Ginzburg (2007, 287) that "... we must
learn to untangle the multicolored threads
that constitute the tangle of the context
under investigation".
Therefore, the selection of Helena,
Vanilda, Dória and Karina counted,
consecutively, with 92, 85, 81 and 21
years, highlighted by the possibility of
representing the continuities and
discontinuities in this historical process:
the woman of the present - 21 years and
the woman of the past, in different
phases/moments - 92, 85 and 81, aimed at
translating the power of the narrative of the
peasant woman, with a view to the
potentiality of the period investigated.
From this perspective, we proceed
with the study, giving the narratives of
these women, with a view to the three
axes/categories listed:
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
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- Peasant Espírito Santo women:
memories of their childhood and personal
trajectories;
- The work, challenges and social
insertion of peasant women in Espírito
Santo;
- The schooling processes of peasant
women from Espírito Santo.
Peasant women from Espírito Santo:
childhood’s and personal trajectories’
memories
At first, we dedicate this text to the
childhood memories narrated by Espírito
Santo’s women and also reminiscences of
their particular trajectories unleashed in
their social processes, taking into account
that we understand, as explicitly explained
by Bakhtin (2004, p. 58, author’s notes)
that
... the content of the individual
psyche is, by its very nature, as social
as the ideology and, in turn, the very
stage in which the individual
becomes aware of his individuality
and the rights that belong to him is
ideological, historical, and internally
conditioned by sociological factors…
Therefore, by narrating to childhood
memories, the peasant women bring to the
fore the historical and social contours
immanent to their time.
In parallel to Mikhail Bakhtin's
(2003, 2004) thinking, seeking the
evidence through almost invisible and
sometimes neglected details, Ginzburg
(2007) upholds his historiographical
method by removing the macro-historical
veil that hides important details of
minorities.
What to say about very poorly
schooled individuals? How to narrate
stories of historically neglected seclusion
and repression? What to think of these
women in the communities from Espírito
Santo today? In the meantime, one must
take into account "... that the accumulation
of knowledge always occurs this way:
broken lines instead of continuous lines; by
means of false starts, corrections,
forgetfulness, rediscovery; thanks to filters
and schemes that obfuscate and make see
at the same time". (Ginzburg, 2007, p.
111).
In this way, Bakhtin (2004) believes
that our consciousness emerges and is
affirmed through lived contexts, so that the
ways of thinking of the women seen here,
living and remembering their experiences
in domestic, social, political, economic and
cultural spacetimes.
Narratives about childhood
reminiscences of peasant women are one
of the main facets, permeated by
challenges, overcoming and difficulties
that impact on the constitution of their
families and their singularities. This is
what is indicated in the narratives of Dória,
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
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who lived childhood in the 1930s and
1940s:
I was born in a very bad house. I
have lived in so many houses ... more
than 20 houses .... They were very
bad houses, just like a storehouse.
We were very poor. We were 11
brothers and we needed to work
hard. My father drank too much.
Once we were all sick with measles
and my grandmother brought some
milk and rice for us to eat. We were
very poor. I only had two dresses,
which I wore on Wednesday and
Saturday. My father did not work, he
only drank (Dória, 81)
v
.
Living in her childhood in the 1920s,
Helena highlighted material conditions that
marked her daily life. In her words: "The
mattress was made of corn-straw, the
pillow of chicken feathers, and the blanket
was a plank flag. It was a very difficult
time, but I would give anything to go back
there ..." (Helena, 92 years old).
Helena continues her story by
activating her playful memories. Detail
plays and ways of producing artifacts for
the moments of fun, shared with their
brothers:
... the games we used to play were
only during the day, because at night
there was no light, it was a hideous
darkness. There was a huge space
that was supposed to dry coffee, and
we used to play there ... we played
“burnt whip” and “ciranda”. We
were four brothers, where we used to
play the four of us, because we lived
in an isolated house. It had a very
beautiful waterfall, today there is
nothing else because it has dried up.
The toys we had to play at the time
were a shuttlecock that was made of
corn husks and a ball we used to
make out of cloth. The 'people' would
pick up old cloth, roll it up, wrap it
up and tie it with banana rope to
form a ball. And so we played in the
afternoon (Helena, 92).
We find the presence of games and
moments of fun in Karina's childhood, as
she recounts her memories of the 2000s:
“We played a lot of hide and seek, tag,
capture-the-flag. I also really enjoyed
playing cart along with my cousins and
neighbors up close. The main game was to
build roads in the 'barrier' and make paths,
make fencing for the carts” (Karina, 21
years old).
By understanding that "... there are
figures from the past that time approaches
rather than depart". (Ginzburg, 2007, p.
53), we question, from the narratives of the
women here presented: what marks the
childhood of peasant women in Espírito
Santo? When we consider the deponents
who were children in the 1930s and 1940s
and those who lived their childhood in the
2000s, what permanence’s mark their
trajectories? What discontinuities do we
observe? So far, we have heard reports
about the unfavorable economic conditions
and the challenges of a family life with the
presence of an alcoholic father, who
certainly had the mother to support the
family. On the other hand, there are
discourses permeated by moments of joy
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
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and amusement, in which the ludic
experiences gain space in women's
memories and narratives, which, when they
access the layers of the past, retains objects
that are, for them, and only for them,
meaningful within a common treasure
(Bosi, 1987).
At many moments, the narratives of
childhood are confused with the insertion
of these women in the spaces/times of
work. This is what Karina related: "I grew
up going to the countryside, I grew up
having my little sieve, having my little
garden hoe, my little harrow, wetting small
plants. I grew up along with my family
routine, going to the tillage. They have
coffee, banana, a very diverse property,
despite being small" (Karina, age 21). In
the same vein, Vanilda, referring to
experiences lived more than 50 years ago,
reveals:
... my father just wanted us to work.
At the age of 8 we were already
going to the farm. Sometimes we said
that they would go home because
there was a lot of mosquitoes, so my
father would say: 'There’s no way
you’re leaving! Don’t you want to
eat? Don’t you want to drink? Then
go work" (Vanilda, 85 years old).
We note the grief in Helena's
speeches, mentioning that work has taken
up a lot of space in her life, especially in
adolescence:
I almost did not enjoy my
adolescence, I had to work hard, after
I got home from school I went to a
neighbor to wash their dishes. Then I
would go to my house to help my
mother wash clothes and iron with
coal, because we had no electricity
yet. I was always doing embroidery
and other craftwork (Helena, 92
years old).
It emerges, through the evidenced
speeches, a possible demarcation of a
phase of the adolescence of the woman of
the field until approximately the years of
1940, marked by domestic work and,
consequently, by the preparation of this
girl-woman for marriage, estimated to be
largely the only possible and viable
destination, with the possibility of formal
education and/or schooling being outside
their expectations. We see, therefore, the
narrative, in a Bakhtinian perspective,
loaded with ideological or experiential
meaning and capable of bringing with it
the reality and life of its announcer,
translating its different nuances (Bakhtin,
2004).
Therefore, early marriage seems to
us, to paraphrase Ginzburg (1989), an
eloquent indication of permanencies in the
trajectories narrated by the peasant women
here focused. This is what report Dória:
"At the age of 18 I met my husband, he
helped us, because my father had died. I
got married and I lived in several places ...
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
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He did not work in the fields, we did not
have a farm" (Dória, age 81), and Vanilda:
I met my husband in Venda Nova.
He worked with troops. I got married
with 17 years old and I came to live
in Ponto Alto, Domingos Martins
with him. The boys began to arrive,
so he saw that working with the
troops was not enough, because I was
alone. So we moved to Perobas,
where I am until today (Vanilda, 85
years old).
Karina's narrative points to clues
regarding permanent practices in the
trajectories of peasant women: early
marriage and, at the same time,
discontinuities, such as access to and
completion of basic schooling:
About dating, I had some flirting,
some dates, but I only had one real
relationship, that was with my
classmate I met in 2008 in the 5th
grade and I studied with him in those
4 years. We then studied for another
4 years together at the Escola Família
Agrícola de Olivânia, but it was not
until the end of the 3rd year of high
school that we started to date. At the
end of 4th year of high school I got
pregnant, and had my son, A. V. I
was 19 when I had A. Later, when A.
was already 9 months old, we got
civil and religious married, we have
been married for 1 and a half years
(Karina, age 21).
By understanding the narratives as
texts that, when questioned, will allow us
to conjecture about the ways in which
peasant women have built their
trajectories, as Ginzburg (2007), we seek
to excavate the intricacies of the texts,
giving rise to uncontrolled voices.
Therefore, we ask: What are the
motivations that lead to the early marriages
of the women here focused? Would they be
related to Paulilo's (2009) finding that the
rural environment would not be a good
place for single women, having in mind the
fact that the condition of laic, peasant and
female celibacy is constituted by "refusals,
retentions and denials" (Rodrigues, 1993
apud Paulilo, 2009, p.192)? Even with the
absence of answers in the narratives found,
we believe that the interrogation can
provoke other possible narratives and
writings of women themselves in search of
answers to these [and other] questions.
Marks of sexism and feminine
submission present themselves in the
narratives of Dória when she reports
conflicting moments with her spouse: “Me
and my husband sometimes fought. When
he was young he was with other women
and I stayed at home, but I did not curse
him. No use, right? The more you fight, the
worse it gets, right? But he always
provided food, we never lacked anything"
(Dória, 81).
The story of Dória, who has an
experience in the 1950s, points to a
patriarchal family model that is
propagandized and, in many ways,
observed in Brazilian families. The place
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
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of woman and man was clearly
demarcated, as shown by Bassanezi
(2004), when discussing the role of women
in the golden years (1950), through
women's periodicals of the time.
The author cautions
vi
that magazine
content did not reveal that all women
thought and acted as expected, but
indicated the social expectations that were
part of their reality, influencing their
attitudes and weighing their choices.
Thus, in pointing out how the
periodicals dealt with female and male
infidelity, we observed the disparities. In
relation to women, first, the author
emphasizes that this theme was not
recurring in the magazines of the period.
Moreover, when it appeared, women "...
were advised to control their frustrations,
to escape the temptations and, dominating
their impulses, remain faithful to their
husbands, even if they do not act in the
same way". He adds: "Remorse, moral
shame and the risk of losing one's husband,
children and social respect would not
compensate for the deceptive and
fortuitous pleasure of extra-marital
adventure". (Bassanezi, 2004, p. 530-531).
On the other hand, male infidelity assumes
different treatment:
If the unfaithful husband kept his
appearances to a minimum and
continued to provide his family with
material goods, the wives should not
complain. After all, male infidelity
was justified by the polygamous
temperament of men - a natural
factor which, even when considered a
weakness, deserved social
condescension and understanding of
women. Patience and sacrifices,
integrity and determination to
maintain the integrity of the family
(Bassanezi, 2004, p. 531).
Bassanezi's (2004) notes on the ways
in which the behavior of women in
families and society in the 1950s were
thought to approximate situations
experienced by Helena in the same period:
In 1957 the Catholic church was built
in the community. I was a Lutheran
and J. was a Catholic. Then a pastor
told me: two religions in one house
do not work, because if the father has
a religion and the mother has another,
the children get lost, they do not
know where they go. So, I thought:
I'm a woman, I have to give in. So I
converted to his religion (Helena, 92
years old, our emphasis).
From the listening and the dialogue
with the narratives here privileged, we still
recognize traces in the ways in which
women are thought and the places they
occupy in the domestic and social spaces.
We agree with Bassanezi's (2004, p. 533):
"There remain certain customs and values
that define, unite or separate and even
establish hierarchies between men and
women". On the other hand, many of the
ideas and practices observed in the 1930s
and 1950s have been challenged and
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
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overcome, and today may cause reactions
from strangeness to revulsion.
The insertion of peasant women in social
spaces and at work
Through the narrative of childhood
memories, we have shown that work has
always been part of the life of peasant
women from the state of Espírito Santo
since childhood. The work at home, in the
household chores, or work in the fields,
assisting in family subsistence, and often
the concomitance of both labor activities
were and, perhaps, still are present in the
daily life of these women .
At the meeting of this unveiling, we
find Del Priore (2004, p. 54), explaining
that:
Life experiences reported by rural
women show that in their daily lives
there is no clear distinction between
the boundaries of home and work,
between domestic and agricultural
tasks, between responsibilities in the
education of children and community
life. In the countryside, the authority
of the head of the family - the father
or the husband - goes beyond
domestic space and often imposes
itself, denying the participation of
women in decisions in cooperatives,
banks, producer associations and
unions.
Regarding the double and/or triple
working day of the peasant woman from
Espírito Santo, Karina's narrative points
out that:
In the work environment I did not
suffer any discrimination because
where we live and work we live in a
very equal way to each other, even
though the woman has a double
working day. If she goes to the
tillage, she still has to take care of the
house. I see this, for example, in my
mother-in-law's family and also in
my mother's family. If she goes to the
fields, she still goes home, has to take
care of the food, has to handle the
house and is heavily charged for it. In
my relationship with my husband we
do not have it, because if I go to help,
he helps me too. At home, it is he
who makes dinner and also helps me
with the clothes and with our son, he
helps me with everything, we do not
have this discrimination, this
prejudice in the house. But I see this
a lot in the neighbors, even in my
family. In the community in general
what I perceive is this double or
sometimes triple work journey that
sometimes the woman has, that is the
man who wants her to go to the
fields, wants her to help, but when
she returns, she has to clean the
house, she has to do all the
housework and take care of the food.
(Karina, 21).
We can consider, from Karina's
discourse, the continuity of an exhaustive
period of daily work of the peasant woman
from the state of Espírito Santo, however,
the narrative also shows a possibility of
rupture regarding male participation in
domestic tasks, and in this sense, both a
recognition of the exhaustive work of
peasant women, and also that some tasks
are not restricted solely to the female
universe, in the direction, therefore, of a
more egalitarian and just relationship
between pairs.
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
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However, the narratives also allow us
to inquire: to what extent has the work
allowed and/or caused the insertion of
peasant women into the social spaces of
the countryside, with significant action in
relation to their demands?
“We started working with sugar
cane, corn and beans, worked from
morning to night, we had no electricity at
that time, switched on the lamp and were
going to take care of the pigs, we had lots
of them” (Vanilda, age 85). "I am a
peasant, and I have this profession mainly
because of my family" (Karina, age 21).
The two narratives, from different
generations, refer, in a way, to a possibility
of participation in the social life of the
peasant community(ies) through the
agricultural work. However, once we have
taken on the role of Del Priore (2004) and
continue with the narratives, we
understand that this participation
demanded confrontation and disposition
for its effectiveness, especially in view of
the insertion in different fronts of work,
other than domestic and agricultural:
I started working, I worked a few
months in Campinho, I was invited to
teach here in Perobas because the
teacher who taught here only came
for 3 months and was leaving
because here was a “tapera”(simple
place, far from downtown), there was
nothing, so I came here. I arrived
here on February 28th, 1945, it was
very dark, the road could only be
seen when there was lightning bolts,
my father brought me, I stayed in an
old house with a porch. When I woke
up the other day I thought: I will not
stay here! There was a swamp here,
you had to be careful to walk, there
was nothing here, there were only
two houses, Mr. T.’s, which was
already demolished, and of P. T.’s,
my father-in-law. Then, I talked to
my father, that I was not going to
stay here. My father said: try for a
week, if you like, you stay. If you
don’t like, you go home. As I already
had a thing with J., I stayed for a
week, and 72 years have gone by
(Helena, 92 years).
The narrative of Helena,
highlighting her trajectory as a teacher,
reveals the questions that permeated her
insertion in a profession marked, even
today, by the female presence and, in
addition, the aspects that perpass this
activity in the context of a peasant
community:
At that time it was very difficult to
teach, I worked with the four grades
together, I would pass the exercise to
one kid, then the other would talk,
get in the way, then I did this:
divided 1st and 2nd grade on one
side, 3rd and 4th on the other side. I
put a blackboard on each side, so
there was no time for them to talk
and play. There was no school lunch
or school supplies, there was a
student who was very poor, had
nothing to eat, he came to school and
kept his head low in the desk, weak.
Then I thought: Oh my God, this boy
cannot stay this way. I would bring
him a morning snack, sometimes I
would bring home some bread with
eggs, I would feed him so he could
study. The recess was half an hour, I
sang for them, they played a game
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
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where you throw a piece of cloth and
another called “burnt whip”, very
beautiful games. (Helena, age 92).
According to Bakhtin (2003, p.
312), "the human attitude is a potential text
and can be understood (as a human activity
and not physical action) only in the
dialogical context of the period itself (as a
replica, as a semantic position, as a motif
system)". Therefore, we can infer that
human activity, translated here as labor
activity, is evidenced as a form of insertion
of peasant women in social spaces, as well
as the effectiveness of participation in such
spaces can ratify and give visibility to the
work done.
It is with this perspective that we
emphasize the narrative of Vanilda (85
years old), in what concerns mainly the
commitment in the development of a
human activity which realization evidences
the direct and implied relation with the
peasant social space(s):
My father taught me to consecrate
when I was 15 and to this day I work
with it, I've suffered prejudice
because I'm a folk healer from
Catholic Church, but what I say is the
word of God, and I do it with a good
heart, as long as I live I will not give
up, because at 85 years old, I will not
give up, definitely not, because if it
was a bad word, a bad thing, yes,
people could talk, but it's all God's
word. Every day there are people
here, there are days that there are 13,
15 up to 20 people, and I face
everything in the faith of God, thank
God everything is going well, I will
not give up until I have life, I will not
give up because it is not bad words,
it’s God's word. (Vanilda, 85 years
old).
The narrative of Vanilda brings a
man (father) and a woman (daughter)
exercising the same practice, however
perceived in different ways by the peasant
community: for man, acceptance and
recognition; for the woman, in spite of the
usufruct of its activity, the judgment. We
think, therefore, in the Ginzburgian
perspective (1988), when investigating
inquisitorial processes, because it brings
the woman as one of the central subjects,
accused of witchcraft. In this research
space, Vanilda would take the place of the
witch, who, through unguents, offers
healing to the people of the field, even the
father, has its moral integrity preserved and
its activity valued in the wider social
context of the community.
The highlighted narratives can
confirm a gradual and non-facilitated
insertion and participation of the peasant
woman from Espírito Santo in the social
spaces and, in a double way, in work
activities other than the domestic and
agricultural activities, appearing in an
exercise of interest and desire to participate
in these spaces. As Karina (21 years old)
tells us:
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
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I participate a lot in the church
and social life of the community, I
go to church every Sunday, but I
also participate in parties, other
things that happen in the
community, I help to organize, I
have my responsibilities. In the
schools, when I was studying, I
also participated in the 'body' of
the school. I knew the Domingos
Martins rural workers' union a lot
because my father worked there.
He worked there for 10 years, so
when he worked there we knew
about it, and he participated in the
things that the union did. Today I
am a member of the union …
(Karina, age 21).
Contrasting the narratives of Vanilda
and Karina, regarding the participation in
the social spaces of the peasant
communities, we find the permanence of a
desire to act in these spaces, which,
regardless of the content/modes as they
materialize, ended up bringing different
nuances and forms of materialization of
prejudice:
And how I perceive myself as a
woman in society: I have suffered
prejudice in the family, like, in my
grandfather's generation. He is a
person who is characteristic of this
sexist society, for example, these
days I am a woman and I have a
brother D. and a sister A., and we
went for a ride and I wanted to go on
a certain animal. Then my
grandfather said: no, you don’t know
how to ride that one, you have to be a
man to ride on that one. That's how it
was, he made me embarrassed, a
little sad to hear it from him. But,
related to my parents, they are
already from a different generation,
they always treated me and my
brothers in a very same way. If I
went to the farm, D. would go, A.
would, too. Of course, each one has
their limitations, but they always saw
us as equal people, regardless of our
gender (Karina, age 21).
From the perspective of the
highlighted narratives, we understand that,
in spite of the vicissitudes regarding the
insertion of peasant women in social
spaces and at work, we find the
permanence of a double/triple working
day, however, there is a possibility for
ruptures, especially within the family, both
in the treatment and in the looking at this
woman and in the consideration of her
daily tasks.
To meet the reflection through the
discourses brought, we corroborate with
Bakhtin (2003, p. 294) that "in every age,
in every social circle, in every family
microworld, of friends and acquaintances,
of colleagues, in which man grows and
lives, there are always invested statements
of authority that set the tone, ... in which
people are based, which they quote,
imitate, follow ... ".
Therefore, such authoritative
discourses also permeate the peasant
institutions, refraining from them
permanencies or possibilities of ruptures as
to the condition of women in this
community(ies), which could not be
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities...
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v. 3
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sep./dec.
2018
ISSN: 2525-4863
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different in the context of the rural
communities in the state of Espírito Santo.
The processes of schooling of peasant
women from Espírito Santo
"... We cannot read anything"; "... I
finished my studies with great difficulty";
"... My father would not let us study. I
really wanted to study and he did not let us
do it "; "After having passed through the
phase of maternity, marriage, construction
of my own family, I began to enter
college”. These and other narratives impel
us to question: How did peasant women in
the state of Espírito Santo get/got involved
in schooling processes? What is the place
of schooling in the trajectories of women
focused on this study?
Based on the indications and clues
left by peasant women in reporting their
memories about their life trajectories and
specifically about inclusion/exclusion in
schooling processes, we seek to understand
and problematize permanences and
discontinuities in their trajectories,
considering, with support in Ginzburg
(2007, p. 40), that "... our knowledge of the
past is inevitably uncertain, discontinuous,
lacunar: based on a mass of fragments and
ruins".
These fragments indicate that the
processes of insertion or exclusion of the
peasant women seen here are intrinsically
related to the organization of the families,
as well as to the place occupied by these
women in domestic and social spaces.
According to research on family farming,
“... [peasant] women are confined to the
space of the house, the farm and the
community in which they live, confronted
with moral orders of gender that impose
severe restrictions on coming and going".
(Cordeiro, 2007, p. 20). Dória's account
reveals her father's concern to prepare his
daughters for work and married life:
... My father did not work, just drank,
because of this, we cannot read
anything. The school was close to our
house and the teacher told him to let
us study. He would say no and
inquire: 'Why study?' He said that we
needed to work, because then we
would marry and would not know
how to work. He was very bad
(Dória, 81 years old).
We find similarities between the
story of Dória and the recited verse in the
houses of Portugal and Brazil about five
centuries ago: "A woman who knows a lot
is a mess: to be the mother of a family,
know little or know nothing" (Dias, 1984,
apud Ribeiro, 2011, p. 79).
Peasant women are, by various
means, left on the fringes of society. This
is what we observe in the narrative of
Dória, which was destined for submission.
Submissive to the father as a daughter and
submissive to her husband as wife. Vanilda
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities...
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v. 3
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2018
ISSN: 2525-4863
1243
recounts the similar situation: "My father
did not let us study. I really wanted to
study and he did not let us" (85 years old).
Helena, unlike Dória and Vanilda,
was able to study. But her education was
late, so that the challenges she encountered
in this long process marked her and are
recalled and recorded by her.
... I finished my studies with great
difficulty, I had distance education.
At that time you could not study,
there was no condition. With the help
of a judge who is married to a friend
of mine, he prepared the documents
so I could study. I was able to
graduate in the teaching degree. I've
always been a good student, I've
never had a bad grade, I’m an easy
learner (Helena, age 92).
We note that her insertion in the
schooling process became possible thanks
to the mediation of a judge, married to her
friend. In this way, there is mediation not
only male, but of a person occupying a
profession socially privileged. We
perceive, in this perspective, the
predominance of the patriarchal model of
society, which provides the model in
which, in political and social life,
therefore, interpersonal relations were
stuck. "An inflexible moral law, superior to
all the calculations and wills of men, can
regulate the good harmony of the social
body, and therefore must be rigorously
respected and fulfilled". (Holanda, 1995, p.
85).
Even Karina found difficulties and
obstacles in her school education.
However, in narrating the beginning of her
schooling, the young woman emphasizes
that the schools met the needs of her
reality:
About the schooling process, my first
school was “Pena’s” unidocent
municipal school, close to home,
where I studied from 1st to 4th
grades. Later I went to the
Agricultural Family School of São
Bento do Chapéu, where I studied
from 5th to 8th grades. This in the
years 2008 to 2011. From 2012 to
2015 I attended high school at the
Agriculture School of Olivânia. I
went there precisely to give
continuity to this segment of
education I was having, which was
an agricultural family school, geared
to our reality, geared towards the
countryside, geared towards what I
lived and I live to this day that is
work in agriculture, in the farm
(Karina, age 21).
Unlike Dória and Helena, Karina
was able to enter a college course. In her
words: "After having passed through the
phase of maternity, marriage, construction
of my own family, I joined college in
2016. Today I am in the 4th year of the
Degree in Countryside Education, in the
area of Human and Social Sciences"
(Karina, 21 years old).
Even considering that the schooling
of Karina represents signs of discontinuity
in relation to the exclusionary processes,
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities...
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v. 3
n. 4
p. 1221-1248
sep./dec.
2018
ISSN: 2525-4863
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there are permanencies in its trajectory:
early marriage and motherhood.
According to Bakhtin (2004, p. 42,
emphasis added) "The psychology of the
social body is not situated in any interior
place ... it is, on the opposite, entirely
externalized: in the word, in the gesture, in
the act ...", being that "... forms of verbal
interaction are very strictly linked to the
conditions of a given social situation and
react ... to all fluctuations in the social
atmosphere (2004, p. 42)”. In this way, the
discourses analyzed here represent a
specific reality and its socio-historical
implications reveal the social situations
imposed on women and all their effects
that remain today, in a more or less
perceptible way.
We emphasize the importance of the
discourses seen here, since it refers us to
the social contexts in which the women
from Espírito Santo were/are inserted. In
fact, the discourses reveal what was
historically hidden or neglected.
Thus, the peasant women from the
state of Espírito Santo found/find
significant obstacles in their schooling
processes, considering the patriarchal
tradition and its unfolding, which mark the
broader family and social relations.
However, the discontinuities are presented
in their narratives. As an example, we
find the insertion of peasant women in
higher education, especially in the
Countryside Education Degree (LEDOC),
which seeks to recognize them as
protagonists and, therefore, historical
subjects, when considering the reality of
the countryside as a starting point for
educational processes.
Some considerations
In the sense that a text (discursive
genre) reflects and constrains the concrete
reality and, in this sense, the social,
historical, cultural and ideological aspects
inherent to it, we understand that the
narratives of the peasant women from
Espírito Santo state in this study reflect a
condition in constant change, in spite of
the permanencies found. Therefore, the
(in)conclusion of the research becomes a
power in the perspective of its own
inconclusiveness to demand new dialogical
movements and the opening of the
frontiers to other sayings and possibilities.
With this understanding, the
visibility of materialized recurrences in the
narratives instigates us to reflect on some
specific issues, among which the
continuity of a double and/or triple
working day of the peasant woman from
Espírito Santo, still for many naturalized
and devalued, portraying, thus a patriarchal
model of family/society still strongly
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities...
Tocantinópolis
v. 3
n. 4
p. 1221-1248
sep./dec.
2018
ISSN: 2525-4863
1245
marked in the countryside. Therefore, as
Paulilo (2009, p. 192) asserts, "... working
outside the home does not automatically
make women more independent of their
husbands and politically active", nor does
it lead to a similar concern with the
inequality between genders. Therefore, the
entrance of this woman into other work
fronts, among them teaching, did not
reflect, in large part, on a look at her living
conditions and the work activities that she
needs to perform.
On the other hand, even if this look
is not comprehensive, we can distinguish
that the desire for effective participation in
the peasant community gave visibility to
this woman and placed her in a condition
of importance in this community, given
that the positions of farmer, housewife ,
mother, woman, teacher, folk healer...
show their appreciation and influence.
We understand that from these
displacements, marked by the intense
activity of the peasant women in their
community(ies), we find, today, their
insertion as a child in the schooling
process, as well as a protagonism in the
domestic and community scope, different
visions in these spaces and, in this sense,
visibility and deference by the local and
wider society.
In addition, we translate that the
insertion of peasant women from Espírito
Santo in Higher Education and, more
specifically, in Public University, allows
the dialogue between different cultures and
the visibility of the peasant activity as
legitimate and indispensable, which causes
processes of ruptures not previously
thought. Therefore, the Degree in
Countryside Education/UFES evidences
this possibility in the sense of this look and
of the displacement and the relevance that
is inherent to it.
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---------------------
Notes
i
This article presents partial reflections of ongoing
research linked to Research Projects of formative
processes of the students of the LEC/UFES course:
A look with and by the Notebooks of Reality and
extension program: The Notebook of Reality as an
instrument of interlocution and intervention in the
community of undergraduate students in
Countryside Education which developments are
carried out, among others, through the production
of articles and the Undergraduate Thesis produced
by a student of the Degree in Countryside
Education/UFES.
ii
In order to deepen the diversity of the indigenous
groups that populated the region of Piratininga at
the time of the colonization of Brazil, mentioned by
Ribeiro (2011) when dealing with the compression
regarding indigenous women, see: Moreau, Felipe
Eduardo (2003). The Indians in the letters of
Nóbrega and Anchieta. São Paulo: Anablume.
iii
This study was carried out by the authors
considering all titles of dissertations and theses
available in the Bank of Theses of CAPES, until the
end of the first semester of 2009, that had as
reference or keyword not only the term gender
(regardless of whether taken as a concept or
common sense), but also the male and female
sexual distinction, emphasis on the study of the
living conditions of women and men, forms of
production of masculinity, femininity and sexuality
(2013).
iv
In highlighting each statement/discourse, we will
use fantasy names, in the sense of preserving the
identity of these women, co-producers of our
research.
v
The narratives were first recorded in audio and
later transcribed to the Notebooks of Reality,
seeking to guarantee the reliability of the speeches.
vi
The author analyzes women's magazines that
circulated during the period: Jornal das Moças and
O Cruzeiro.
Article Information
Received on May 30th, 2018
Accepted on August 14th, 2018
Published on December 23th, 2018
Author Contributions: The first author participated in the
collection, transcription and analysis of the data; the
second author participated in the data analysis, writing and
final revision of the article; the third and fourth author
guided all the stages of the work, participated in the
analysis of the data, writing of the article and the final
revision of the article. All authors approval of the final
version published.
Conflict of Interest: None reported.
Orcid
Deiviani de Oliveira
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1732-1308
Luan Eudair Bridi
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1008-5103
Miriã Lúcia Luiz
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6825-1541
Regina Godinho de Alcântara
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5748-3918
How to cite this article
APA
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G.
(2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities. Rev. Bras. Educ.
Camp., 3(4), 1221-1248. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.2525-4863.2018v3n4p1221
Oliveira, D., Bridi, L. E., Luiz, M. L., & Alcântara, R. G. (2018). Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities...
Tocantinópolis
v. 3
n. 4
p. 1221-1248
sep./dec.
2018
ISSN: 2525-4863
1248
ABNT
OLIVEIRA, D.; BRIDI, L. E.; LUIZ, M. L.; ALCÂNTARA, R.
G. Trajectories of peasant women in Espírito Santo:
permanence’s and discontinuities. Rev. Bras. Educ.
Camp., Tocantinópolis, v. 3, n. 4, set./dez., p. 1221-1248,
2018. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.2525-
4863.2018v3n4p1221