“Tirar resguardo”: appropriation of women, violence, and patriarchy in the midwestern region of rio grande do norte
"Tirar-resguardo", Patriarchy; Appropriation of Women; Sexual Harassment; Rape; Coronelism; Social Relations of Sex.
The research to which this project is linked aims to analyze the relationships of gender and coronelismo (a system of political and social control by local landowners) as determinants of the phenomenon of "tirar resguardo" (a practice of postpartum recovery) in the Mid-West region of Rio Grande do Norte. It takes as its starting point a set of informal accounts from women and their descendants regarding the activity of "tirar resguardo," an old practice associated with care work and marked by sexual harassment, rape, and the systematic appropriation of women. The work analyzes these elements from both material and ideological perspectives, and under this understanding, seeks to grasp the different ways in which the appropriation of women is carried out in a region of Northeast Brazil marked by hierarchical and unequal relationships based on coronelismo as a representation of patriarchy. The study is characterized as qualitative because it focuses on a category of social phenomena expressed in non-quantifiable symbols and meanings. Methodologically, it seeks to continue an ongoing bibliographic research; concurrently, empirical research will be conducted using semi-structured interviews.