The body as territory and place from the perspective of quilombos

Abstract

The recognition of quilombos is a subject that remains on the agenda in Brazil, especially due to many conflicts of interest over the territory. While the definitions of quilombo refer to a space of resistance intended for the practice of the traditions and cultures of traditional quilombola peoples, originating from the flight of black people to distant and isolated spaces, in the historical period that refers to the colonial system of slave labor in Brazil, the social subject identified and declared as black, feels in his body what it is to be a space of resistance and cultural practices of his origins. This resistance, in the face of structural racism, which after centuries, still presents strong traces of colonialism. And these cultural practices, which concern the traditions of black people, which, above all, have contributed and continue to contribute to the formation of Brazilian identity and culture throughout the historical process of this territory. Given this resistance and the cultural practices of black people, it is therefore appropriate to point to black people in themselves as a quilombo of resistance. This work aims to present aspects of the presence of black people in the social space, with the purpose of pointing out this presence as a representation of a quilombo of resistance, not as a territory, but as its own body in itself.