Psychology and Rural Contexts: Psychosocial Dialogues from Latin America 3030829952, 9783030829957

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Jáder Ferreira Leite Magda Dimenstein Candida Dantas João Paulo Macedo   Editors

Psychology and Rural Contexts Psychosocial Dialogues from Latin America

Psychology and Rural Contexts

Jáder Ferreira Leite  •  Magda Dimenstein  Candida Dantas  •  João Paulo Macedo Editors

Psychology and Rural Contexts Psychosocial Dialogues from Latin America

Editors Jáder Ferreira Leite Department of Psychology Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Magda Dimenstein Psychology Graduate Program Federal University of Rio Grande do Nort Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Candida Dantas Department of Psychology Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

João Paulo Macedo Department of Psychology Federal University of Delta do Parnaíba Parnaíba, Piauí, Brazil

ISBN 978-3-030-82995-7    ISBN 978-3-030-82996-4 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

In recent years, some indexing systems have pointed to Latin American Psychology and its developing interest in rural contexts as a new theme for studies and space for interventions. Thus, the theme of rural contexts opens many possibilities for psychology work and research. We recognize, however, that there are many challenges in this approach. Among them, we can mention its theoretical distance from the rural category, to the diverse forms of rural expression, with its variety of ethnicities, social groups, and cultures. Moreover, historically, most of the theories and techniques used as references in psychology have not been produced considering the unique characteristics of these territories and the population’s way of life. It is necessary to consider that rural contexts are often challenging for their inhabitants, given the historical fragility of government actions and other sectors focused on rural populations, with a series of emerging problems related to environmental sustainability and nature preservation, worrying rates hazards to health in general and, specifically, to mental health, low rates of income and schooling, coverage of social and technical assistance programs, and gender inequalities. On the other hand, it is possible to recognize its population capacity to resist and to continue to live in rural contexts, to achieve better living conditions, and to produce food in a sustainable way that meets a large part of the demand from urban centers. This challenge results in the need to publish this book to contribute, through psychology, with theoretical reflections, empirical research, and professional experiences, from a psychosocial and interdisciplinary perspective, developed with various social actors who live and work in the rural environment, with an important relationship with land and nature both in terms of the elaboration of its history, the production of its subjectivities and identity ties with the territory, and engagement in struggles for the right to land and for public policies that guarantee access to education and health services, technical assistance, and infrastructure for its working activities. Thus, we have chosen some axes of discussion to structure the proposed book from a psychosocial approach to psychology in Latin America without losing sight of an interdisciplinary reflection: Mental Health and Rural Populations; Social v

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Movements, Communities and Resistance Practices; Gender Relations and Subjectivation Processes; and Environment and Sustainability. The chapters proposed for each axis prioritize reports of experiences and research with participatory approaches, which seek to highlight the local experiences and knowledge, producing new perspectives and reflections that contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field of psychology, both regionally and globally. We hope to reflect on an effective approach to the various dilemmas experienced by rural populations with some of the theoretical-methodological frameworks of psychology, from a psychosocial perspective, so that it can be renewed as a science and profession in dialogue with ruralities. This book presents a psychosocial approach in dialogue with other fields of psychology to meet the needs of professionals and rural researchers. That is why this book proposal was structured to promote a link between psychosocial approaches with several areas of psychology, such as environmental psychology (in the studies on the relationship of people and groups with the environment and territory in which they live), social and community psychology (in the various issues related to social movements in rural areas, gender relations, identity and interventions in the scope of community and intergroup organizational processes), and mental health (through the processes of social determinants of health, the modalities of psychosocial action with rural populations, and the management of health policies in this context). The introductory part of the book is composed of two chapters. The first, authored by the editors Jáder Ferreira Leite, Magda Dimenstein, Candida Dantas, and João Paulo Macedo, presents the possibilities of bringing psychology and some psychosocial approaches to rural contexts, highlighting the need for a contextualized reading of Latin American ruralities. The second chapter, written by Fernando Landini, Valeria González-Cowes, and Jáder Ferreira Leite, reviews the presence, interests, and needs of psychology in rural areas, based on studies from different parts of the world. In the third chapter, Telmo Mota Ronzani, Maria Lorena Lefebvre, Letícia Lopes de Souza, Juliana Branco Castro, and Júlia Batista Afonso analize the impacts of the use of tobacco and other drugs in rural communities, considering its social determinants. They also highlight some possibilities of psychosocial intervention in this scenario. The fourth chapter, authored by Magda Dimenstein, João Paulo Macedo, Jáder Ferreira Leite, Candida Dantas, Victor Hugo Belarmino, and Brisana Índio do Brasil de Macêdo Silva, reports data from research with Brazilian quilombola communities that articulate the forms of psychological suffering of these populations to the scenario of precarious public policies and the presence of racism as a system that produces social inequalities, oppression, and suffering. In the fifth chapter, Breno Pedercini de Castro, and Cláudia Maria Filgueiras Penido address the psychologists’ actions in rural areas through a look at how specialized support in family health teams construct mental health care, highlighting the strategic importance of the bond between professionals and patients. In the sixth chapter, Jaqueline Medeiros Silva Calafate, Iara Flor Richwin, and Valeska Zanello discuss the complex phenomenon of suicide among indigenous

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people in Brazil, highlighting explanatory models adopted by the indigenous themselves about suicide in dialogue with psychology and anthropology. Based on the evidence of the increase of chemical dependency and social vulnerability in some Brazilian indigenous communities, Lázaro Batista and Rossivânia Souza da Silva describe in the seventh chapter a psychosocial intervention work on alcohol and drugs among indigenous communities’ youths in the state of Roraima-Brazil. Simone Mainieri Paulon, José Ricardo Kreutz, and Robert Filipe dos Passos close the discussion of the first axis in the eighth chapter by proposing an interlocution between cinematographic narratives and mental health interventions in the context of rural municipalities in the extreme south of Brazil. The authors highlight the importance of collective processes and creative resistance that confront the neoliberal hegemonic mode. The second axis of the book, Social Movements, Communities, and Resistance Practices, recovers the questioning force of rural groups and communities in different contexts. In the ninth chapter, Katherine Isabel Herazo González presents how indigenous peoples of Mexico have faced the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic through a psychosocial and community approach. The author highlights how these peoples build an experience based on a sense of “Us” to detriment to the individualistic ideology present in our neoliberal societies. The struggle for recognition of the quilombola communities is the theme of the tenth chapter. Saulo Luders Fernandes and João Paulo Macedo discuss the resistance strategies of these communities in Brazil, their achievements, and the countless challenges that permeate their daily lives. In Chap. 11, Eugênia Bridget Gadelha Figueiredo and Bader Burihan Sawaia analyze the ethical-political suffering of a community of artisanal fishermen in the northeast of Brazil through a look at the forces of capitalism that aim to dismiss the existence of this community in favor of environmentally damaging corporate mega-projects. Based on the articulation between community social psychology, popular education, and human rights, Chap. 12  – authored by Benedito Medrado, Jorge Lyra, Jáder Ferreira Leite, and Wanderson Vilton – reports on an experience of community action in the context of an agroecological farmer’s market, mobilizing agents from rural communities and residents of an urban neighborhood in northeast Brazil. Thelma Maria Grisi Velôso and Valéria Morais da Silveira Sousa discuss in Chap. 13 the meanings of work for family farmers who experienced the struggle for land and today are residents of rural settlements in Brazil. These meanings point to a distinct ethical-moral dimension concerning the capitalist logic of work and production. Through the Gender Relations and Subjectivation Processes axis, Barbara Barbosa Nepomuceno, Verônica Morais Ximenes, Elívia Carmuça Cidade, and e James Ferreira Moura Jr. analyze in Chap. 14 the social support for women living in rural poverty, taking the phenomenon of poverty in its psychosocial implications. In Chap. 15, the focus of the discussion is on the experiences of groups of rural women workers in regards to political action, rural worker identity, and food

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production. The text is a contribution by Rita de Cássia Maciazeki-Gomes, Maria da Conceição de Oliveira Carvalho Nogueira, Judit Herrera Ortuño, Giovana Ilka Jacinto Salvaro, Maria Juracy Filgueiras Toneli, and Flávia Charão-Marques. In Chap. 16, Juliana Cabral de Oliveira Dutra and Claudia Mayorga debate the participation of indigenous women in public spaces of political discussion, highlighting how recognizing the knowledge of these women is fundamental for the construction of a democratic society. In Chap. 17, we follow Antônio César de Holanda Santos and Jaileila de Araújo Menezes, who, inspired by decolonial studies, discuss young rural homosexuals, mapping their potential in resisting in the face of a heteronormative society model and their political struggle to affirm their sexual dissidence. In the last thematic axis, Environment and Sustainability, Ana Paula Soares da Silva, Juliana Bezzon da Silva, and Fernanda Fernandes Gurgel bring in Chap. 18 the contributions of environmental psychology to rural territories, highlighting the importance of ruralities in the complexity of socio-environmental issues and the need for a debate with other areas of knowledge. In Chap. 19, Paulo Ricardo de Oliveira Ramos, and Marcelo Gustavo Aguilar Calegare report on the uses of social technology in healthcare and the importance of the riverside communities’ way of life in the Brazilian Amazon, focused on valuing the traditional knowledge of medicinal plants usage. In Chap. 20, Alejandra Olivera-Méndez develops the theme of the relationship between people and wildlife, in the Mexican scenario, highlighting the contributions that rural environmental psychology can make to improve this relationship, especially in the conservation of biodiversity. Finally, in Chap. 21, Ma. Verónica Monreal, Sofía Fonseca, Ma. Jesús Larraín, and Felipe Valenzuela take the Chilean reality to understand the phenomenon of interaction between traditional rural inhabitants and other migrants. The authors emphasize the consequences of rurbanization processes and the need for community commitment to guarantee sustainability. This proposal will show experiences and research carried out in some Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico). We hope that this book will allow the international scientific community to learn how, in these countries, the production of knowledge and the professional practice of psychology are structured in the context of the rural environment in various settings, such as indigenous populations, artisanal fishermen, quilombola communities, rural youths, and family farmers, allowing for dialogue between these experiences and other realities in different regions of the world. Finally, we would like to register that this book was developed against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, decreed in March 2020 by the World Health Organization. Since then, we have been following a series of events that have

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important impacts on the world population and especially on the inhabitants of rural areas that, in many places on the planet, live in very adverse conditions. This phenomenon will certainly give rise to numerous reflections and will require interventions that can minimize the effects of the pandemic on the daily life of this population. Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil   Parnaíba, Piauí, Brazil 2021

Jáder Ferreira Leite Magda Dimenstein Candida Dantas João Paulo Macedo

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the valuable contributions of the reviewing professors for the chapters in this book: Alice Maggi (UCS), Ana Carolina Rios Simoni (UFRN), Ana Luisa Teixeira de Menezes (UNISC), Marli Gondim de Araújo (UFRPE), Érika Cecília Soares Oliveira (UFF), Tiago Matheus Corrêa (GEMA – UFPE), Liana Esmeraldo Andrade Pereira (UFCA), and Tadeu Farias Mattos (UFRN). We also register and thank the unrestricted and attentive support of Springer’s Brazil Editor, Bruno Fiuza.

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Contents

Part I Introduction 1 Psychology and Rural Contexts: Psychosocial Dialogues��������������������    3 Jáder Ferreira Leite, Magda Dimenstein, Candida Dantas, and João Paulo Macedo 2 Rural Psychology: Literature Review, Reasons for Its Need, and Challenges ������������������������������������������������������������������   21 Fernando Landini, Valeria González-Cowes, and Jáder Leite Part II Mental Health and Rural Populations 3 Working with Use of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs in Rural Communities������������������������������������������������������   43 Telmo Mota Ronzani, María Lorena Lefebvre, Júlia Batista Afonso, Letícia Lopes de Souza, and Juliana Branco Castro 4 Racially Stigmatized Populations, Necropolitics, and Mental Health in Rural Contexts����������������������������������������������������   55 Magda Dimenstein, João Paulo Macedo, Jáder Ferreira Leite, Candida Dantas, Victor Hugo Belarmino, and Brisana Índio do Brasil de Macêdo Silva 5 Psychology in Rural Contexts: An Experience of Mental Health Specialized Support to Family Health Teams����������������������������������������   71 Breno Pedercini de Castro and Cláudia Maria Filgueiras Penido 6 Suicide in the Inỹ Population: Between the Spell and the Disarrangement of “Desire”������������������������������������������������������   85 Jaqueline Medeiros Silva Calafate, Iara Flor Richwin, and Valeska Zanello

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7 Alcohol, Drugs and Indigenous Communities: Report of a Psychosocial Intervention ��������������������������������������������������   99 Lázaro Batista and Rossivânia Souza da Silva 8 For a Non-parasitic Life: Resistance and Creation in Rural Communities of Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil ��������������������������  113 Simone Mainieri Paulon, José Ricardo Kreutz, and Robert Filipe dos Passos Part III Social Movements, Communities and Resistance Practices 9 Sense of Us in the Face of the Pandemic: A Psychosocial and Community Approach ������������������������������������������  131 Katherine Isabel Herazo González 10 Quilombola Communities in Brazil: Advances and Struggles in the Face of Setbacks Experienced in the Current Neoliberal Scenario�������������  143 Saulo Luders Fernandes and João Paulo Macedo 11 Artisanal Fishing Work: The Aesthetics of Art and the Ethics of the Common����������������������������������������������������������������  165 Eugênia Bridget Gadelha Figueiredo and Bader Burihan Sawaia 12 Urban and Rural Articulations in an Agroecological Space in the Brazilian Northeast ����������������������������������������������������������������������  181 Benedito Medrado, Jorge Lyra, Jáder Ferreira Leite, and Wanderson Vilton 13 “The Work That Makes One Live Alive”: The Meanings of Work for Rural Settlers����������������������������������������������������������������������  195 Thelma Maria Grisi Velôso and Valéria Morais da Silveira Sousa Part IV Gender Relations and Subjectivation Processes 14 Poverty and Social Support: An Analysis of Women Living in Rural Communities ����������������������������������������������������������������������������  211 Bárbara Barbosa Nepomuceno, Verônica Morais Ximenes, Elívia Camurça Cidade, and James Ferreira Moura Jr 15 Women in Movement and the Reinvention of Existence: Political Action, Agency, and Subjectivation Processes������������������������  227 Rita de Cássia Maciazeki-Gomes, Maria da Conceição de Oliveira Carvalho Nogueira, Maria Juracy Filgueiras Toneli, Giovana Ilka Jacinto Salvaro, Judit Herrera Ortuño, and Flávia Charão-Marques 16 Indigenous Women as Political Subjects in Brazil��������������������������������  243 Juliana Cabral de Oliveira Dutra and Claudia Mayorga

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17 Decolonial Understandings of Young Homosexual Rural Men’s Ways of Life: Insurgencies and Disobediences��������������������������������������  259 Antonio César de Holanda Santos and Jaileila de Araújo Menezes Part V Environment and Sustainability 18 Rural Territories and Life Production: Approaches from Environmental Psychology������������������������������������������������������������  277 Ana Paula Soares da Silva, Juliana Bezzon da Silva, and Fernanda Fernandes Gurgel 19 Assembly of the Knowledge Landscape: A Social Technology for Health Care and the Enhancement of the Way of Life in Amazonian Riverine Communities����������������������������������������������������  293 Paulo Ricardo de Oliveira Ramos and Marcelo Calegare 20 Human-Wildlife Interactions and Rural Environmental Psychology in Mexico������������������������������������������������������������������������������  311 Alejandra Olivera-Méndez 21 Transitioning Ruralities: Migration Processes and Emerging Socioenvironmental Spaces��������������������������������������������  325 Ma. Verónica Monreal, Sofía Fonseca, Ma. Jesús Larraín, and Felipe Valenzuela Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  341

Contributors

Júlia Batista Afonso  is Psychologist graduated at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Brazil. Pos-graduate student at the Program of Multiprofessional Residence in Family Health at the National School of Public Health Sergio Arouca, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. Her research interests include community psychology, public health, psychology and rurality, ethnic-racial relations, and National Policy of Integral Healthcare of the Black Population. Email: [email protected] Ma. Verónica Monreal Álvarez  is Doctor in Social Sciences and Master in public health. Academic oh the School of Psychology (Pontifícia Universidad Católica de Chile). She is community psychologist, founder, and member of the Chilean Society of Community Psychology and active participant of the Latin American Network of Rural Psychology. She is specialist in evaluation of governmental programs. She is editor and author of the recently published book Diálogos contemporáneos en Psicología Comunitaria: Escenarios, problemas y aprendizajes (Contemporary Dialogues in Community Psychology: Scenarios, Problems and Learning). Her current lines of research are related to counter-­urbanization processes, lifestyle migrations, sustainability, and mental health. E-mail: [email protected] Jaileila de Araújo Menezes  holds a degree in Psychology Course from the Federal University of Ceará (1997), a master’s degree in Psychology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1999), and a doctorate in Psychology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (2004). She is currently an associate professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco, linked to the Department of Psychology and Educational Guidelines of the Center for Education and the Postgraduate Program in Psychology. She has experience in the area of psychology, with emphasis on social and political psychology, acting mainly on the following themes: youth political participation, youth and life project, youth and social movements, subjectivation of young people in the contemporary, youth, sexual rights and reproductive rights; youth and intersectionality, subjectivity and self-writing. She is researcher related to the Group of Studies and Research on Power, Culture, and Collective Practices (GEPCOL) – Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] xvii

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Lázaro  Batista  is a doctor in Psychology from Fluminense Federal University, Master in Social and Political Psychology from the Federal University of Sergipe. He is Professor of Psychology of the Federal University of Roraima, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] Victor Hugo Belarmino  was Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral student in Psychology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. He is collaborating researcher of the Modes of Subjectivation, Public Policies and Contexts of Vulnerability research group (GP/CNPq directory), Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] Brisana Índio do Brasil De Macêdo Silva  is Substitute Professor in Psychology at the Federal University of Parnaíba Delta (UFDPar). He has bachelor’s (2018) and master’s degree (2020) in Psychology at the Federal University of Parnaíba Delta, and currently a PhD candidate in Psychology at the Federal University of Ceará, Brazil. She participates in the Center for Research and Intervention in Critical Psychology and Political Subjectivation (NUPOLIS/UFDPar). She studies themes related to traditional communities and public policies, focusing on the processes of struggle, resistance, and cultural and political (re)existence of these people. E-mail: [email protected] Jaqueline Medeiros S. Calafate  holds PhD candidate in the Graduate Program on Clinical Psychology and Culture at the University of Brasília (UnB). She works at the Ministry of Health, in the Special Secretariat for Health Attention to Indigenous Populations, in Brasília/DF, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] Marcelo Gustavo Aguilar Calegare  has bachelor’s degree in Psychology (2002), Master’s degree (2005), and Doctor (2010) in Social Psychology by the Psychology Institute at the São Paulo University. He is adjunct and permanent professor at the Psychology Faculty and Psychology Graduate Program at the Federal University of Amazonas, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] Rita de Cássia Maciazeki-Gomes  is Psychologist (UNISINOS) and holds Master in Social Psychology (UFRGS), PhD in Psychology from Universidade do Porto (UP) in Cotutelle Convention with the Universidade Federal Santa Catarina (UFSC), and post-doctorate in Collective Health (UFRGS). She is professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG) in the Graduate Program in Psychology (PPGPSI) as well as graduate Psychology and Multiprofessional Residency in Family Health. She is co-founder of the Study Group on Collective Health of Coastal and Maritime Ecosystems (GESCEM-­FURG). She coordinates the South-South Nucleus of the Regional of Rio Grande de Sul of the Associação Brasileira de Psicologia Social (ABRAPSO  – 2020–2021), Brazil. Link to Curriculum Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq. br/2984978445236384. E-mail: [email protected]

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Breno Pedercini de Castro  is Psychologist and has completed Master in Social Anthropology (Federal University of Minas Gerais/Brazil). He is Technical Coordinator of the Family Health and Primary Health Care expanded support center in the city of Itabirito-Minas Gerais - Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] Juliana Branco Castro  is Nursing Undergraduate Student at Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF). Member of the Center for Research, Intervention and Evaluation for Alcohol & Drugs (CREPEIA)  - Brazil. E-mail: branco.jcastro@ gmail.com Elívia Carmuça Cidade  is Professor in the undergraduate courses in Psychology at Ari de Sá College, Brazil. She holds a PhD in Psychology from Federal University of Ceará, Brazil, with a doctoral internship at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mexico (CAPES/PDSE Scholarship). She holds a Master in Psychology from the Federal University of Ceará and is a Specialist in Public Health Management. She is a member of the Community Psychology Nucleus of the Federal University of Ceará (NUCOM/UFC), where she develops research on the social psychology, community psychology, psychosocial implications of life in poverty, focusing on the themes of confrontation, fatalism, resilience, and ways of life. E-mail: [email protected] Maria  da Conceição  de  Oliveira  Carvalho  Nogueira  has a PhD in Social Psychology (1997) at the University of Minho and completed the Aggregation in 2011 in the same university. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at the University of Porto, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences (FPCE), Portugal. Currently, she participates in five research projects and works in the area of Social Sciences with an emphasis in Social Psychology and in the field of Gender and Sexualities Studies. Link to Curriculum Vitae: http://www.degois.pt/visualizador/ curriculum.jsp?key=9906110857543495 – Portugal. E-mail: [email protected] Valeria González-Cowes  holds PhD in Psychology. She is currently carrying out research activities as a Postdoctoral Fellow of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Argentina. She is a researcher at the Institute of Geographical Studies “Guillermo Röhmeder” of the National University of Tucumán. From a general point of view, her studies are focused on primary health care. Particularly, her lines of research are oriented to analyze and understand the interaction processes between health agents and vulnerable populations that hinder or facilitate the access to sexual and reproductive health services. E-mail: valeria. [email protected] Candida Dantas  holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Psychology from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, a doctorate in Social Psychology also from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, and a post-doctorate from the Federal University of Ceará. She is an Adjunct Professor at the Psychology Department of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte and a permanent

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member of the Postgraduate Program in Psychology. She is linked to the research group Modes of Subjectivation, Public Policies and Contexts of Vulnerability (GP/ CNPq directory), and to the Working Group Subjectivation Policies and Invention of Daily Life of the National Association of Research and Post-Graduation in Psychology. She has academic and research experience in psychology, working mainly on the following themes: gender relations, vulnerability contexts, and public policies. E-mail: [email protected] Magda Dimenstein  is Full Professor in the Graduate Program in Psychology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. She has a degree in Psychology from the Federal University of Pernambuco and a PhD in Mental Health from the Psychiatry Institute at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She did postdoctoral training in Mental Health at the Universidad Alcalá de Henares (Spain) and in Collective Health at the Graduate Program in Public Health at the Universidade Federal do Ceará (Brazil). She works in the area of collective health with emphasis on mental health and primary and psychosocial care in urban and rural settings. She participates in the research group: Modes of subjectivation, Public Policies and Contexts of Vulnerability (GP/CNPq directory). She is member of CA/CNPq (2019–2022). She is Researcher Productivity Fellow PQ1A (CNPq), Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] Saulo Luders Fernandes  is Professor of psychology at the Federal University of Alagoas and Professor of the post-graduation program in psychology at the Federal University of Alagoas. He is currently working on research about health practices, rural context, and daily life. Email: [email protected] Eugênia  Bridget  Gadelha  Figueiredo  is Psychologist and Doctor in Social Psychology from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUCSP), Brazil. She is Adjunct Professor at the Federal University of Delta do Parnaíba (UFdPar). She is Member of the Research Group of the National Association of Research and Graduate Studies in Psychology (ANPEPP) entitled: Socio-Historical Psychology and the Brazilian Context of Social Inequality and the Center for Studies on the Social Exclusion/Inclusion Dialectic (NEXIN-PUCSP). He works in the areas of community psychology and public health, and his research deals with issues related to inequality and psychosocial intervention. E-mail: [email protected] Katherine  Isabel  Herazo  González  is psychologist and teacher in Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico. E-mail: [email protected] Fernanda  Fernandes  Gurgel  has Graduation in Psychology and Doctorate in Social Psychology at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte ­(UFRN)/ Brazil. She did doctoral internship at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid/ Spain. She is Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde do Trairí (FACISA/UFRN) and associate researcher of the research group

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Inter-Action Person-Environment. She is Member of the Working Group on Environmental Psychology of the National Association for Research and Postgraduate Studies in Psychology (ANPEPP). ORCID: https://orcid. org/0000-­0001-­7739-­3058. E-mail: [email protected] Antônio César de Holanda Santos  is Professor of the Psychology course of the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL), in the Educational Unit of Palmeira dos Indios  - AL, Campus Arapiraca, Brazil. He is Doctor of Psychology at UFPE, researching ways of life and forms of resistance of young rural homosexual men in the school context of the semiarid of Alagoas, together with the Group of Studies and Research on Power, Culture, and Collective Practices – GEPCOL. He is Master in Brazilian Education by UFAL, researching the education of cane cutters in Alagoas. He has a degree in Psychology and a degree in Psychology from UFAL and has experience in the area of Psychology and Education, with emphasis on School and Educational Psychology, Youth, Education of the Field, Gender, and Sexuality. E-mail: [email protected] José  Ricardo  Kreutz  is Associate Professor of the Psychology Course at the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPEL) and holds a master’s degree in the Social and Institutional Psychology Program (PPGPSI) and a doctorate in the Graduate Program in Education (PPGEdu), both by UFRGS.  He coordinates the research group TELURICA – Experimentation Territories in Urban and Rural Thresholds: In (ter) interventions in Author Coexistences – at UFPEL and is currently doing his post-doctoral internship with the research group INTERVIRES, from PPGPSI/ UFRGS. His research interests are (1) self-managed collectives; (2) schizoanalysis; (3) aberrant movements; (4) crisis; and (5) social psychology and ruralities. E-mail: [email protected] Fernando Landini  has MSc in Rural Development and PhD in Psychology. He works as a senior researcher in the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) of Argentina and is a postgraduate professor at the University of La Cuenca del Plata, the University of Buenos Aires and the National University of Entre Ríos (Argentina), and the University of La República (Uruguay). He was president of the first Latin American Congress of Rural Psychology in 2013 and was awarded by the Latin American Network of Rural Psychology for his contributions to the field in 2019. His main research topics are rural extension and agricultural innovation processes. E-mail: [email protected] Maria Lorena Lefebvre  has Psychology degree from the National University of Tucumán (UNT), Argentina. She is doctoral student in Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology (UNT). Head of Practical Works of: Theories and Interventions in the Group and Community Field and Supervised Professional Practices in the Field of Community Social Intervention in the Faculty of Psychology (UNT). She conducts research in the following areas: community psychology, public health, and health psychology. Email: [email protected]

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Jáder Ferreira Leite  has Graduated in Psychology from the State University of Paraíba and PhD in Social Psychology from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. He is a professor in the Psychology Department of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, acting in the undergraduate and graduate levels (master’s and doctorate adviser). He is the coordinator of the research group: Modes of Subjectivation, Public Policies, and Contexts of Vulnerability (GP/CNPq directory). He develops research in the field of social psychology based on the following themes: social movements and gender relations in rural contexts and production of meaning about family agriculture. He is part of the Latin American Network of Rural Psychology. He is researcher with PQ2 Productivity Scholarship from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico/CNPq – Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] Felipe Andrés Valenzuela Levi  is Psychology student at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He is therapist and teacher of Āyurveda in AyurSattva Chile. Kundalini Yoga Instructor. He is founder of Piuke Mapu, a place in the rurality of the coastal desert for the integration of ancestral knowledge, spiritual development, permaculture, and natural medicine. From psychology, he has researched spirituality, rurality, and postcolonial studies with a decolonial approach. E-mail: felipe. [email protected] Jorge Lyra  holds Master in Social Psychology (PUCSP) and PhD in Collective Health (CPqAM/ FIOCRUZ). He is Professor of undergraduate and graduate courses in Psychology at UFPE, Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Psychology at UFPE, and coordinator of the Feminist Center for Research on Gender and Masculinities (GEMA/UFPE). He is one of the founders of Instituto Papai, member of the collegiate management of the Espaço Agroecológico da Várzea (EAV), and resident of the Várzea neighborhood since 1976 (Várzea/Recife/Pernambuco/ Northeast Brazil). E-mail: [email protected] João Paulo Macedo  is Professor of the Graduate Program in Psychology of the Federal University of Parnaiba Delta and the Federal University of Ceará. He is CNPQ Productivity Fellow from Brazil. Email: [email protected] Flávia Charão-Marques  is Agronomist and holds master in Phytotechnics, PhD in Rural Development, and post-doctorate from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Brazil, with doctoral internship at the Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. She is Professor at the UFRGS, working in the Faculty of Agronomy and the Postgraduate Program in Rural Development (PGDR). She coordinates the Innovation, Society, and Eco-territorialities Research Group (GRIST/UFRGS) and the project “Cooperation, Creativity and SocioBiodiversity: A Gender Issue” and collaborates with the Food and Culture Research Group (GEPAC/UFPel). She works with the following researching themes: agroecology, socio-technical transitions in agriculture, socio-biodiversity in health and food, feminisms and development. Link to Curriculum Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq. br/9010752835148401. E-mail: [email protected]

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Claudia  Mayorga  holds a PhD in Social Psychology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She is a professor in the Department of Psychology and in the Graduate Program in Psychology at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He currently coordinates the Knowledge Connections Research and Extension Center at UFMG.  Link to Curriculum Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq. br/8982681063835719. E-mail: E-mail: [email protected] Benedito  Medrado  has Master’s and Doctorate in Social Psychology. He is Professor of undergraduate and graduate courses in Psychology at UFPE and Coordinator of the Núcleo Feminista de Pesquisas sobre Gênero e Masculinidades (GEMA/UFPE). He is Editor of the journal Psicologia & Sociedade. He was one of the founders of Instituto Papai, member of the collegiate management of the Espaço Agroecológico da Várzea (EAV), and resident of the Várzea neighborhood since 1992 (Várzea/Recife/Pernambuco/Northeast Brazil). He is CNPq productivity scholar in Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] James  Ferreira  Moura Jr  is Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Humanities, University of International Integration of Afro-Brazilian Lusophony, Brazil, and Professor at the Graduate Program in Psychology, Federal University of Ceará, Brazil. He holds a PhD in Psychology from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and coordinates the Network of Studies and Confrontations of Poverty, Discrimination, and Resistance (reaPODERE in Portuguese), which develops activities of critical teaching, research, and collaborative extension programs. He is a collaborating researcher at the Nucleus of Community Psychology (NUCOM) at the Federal University of Ceará and conducts research mainly on the following themes: community psychology, public policy, poverty, shame/humiliation, evaluation and decolonial studies about racism, classism, and intersectionalities. E-mail: [email protected] Barbara  Barbosa  Nepomuceno  is Adjunct professor at the Ari de Sá College, Brazil, and a member of the Community Psychology Center of the Federal University of Ceará, Brazil. She holds a PhD in Psychology from Federal University of Ceará, Brazil, with a doctoral internship at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mexico (CAPES/PDSE Scholarship). She holds an Official Master in Psychosocial Interventions from the University of Barcelona, Spain, and Master in Psychology from the Federal University of Ceará. She has professional experience in the following areas: social psychology, community psychology, health psychology, psychosocial care, and mental health. She develops research (quantitative and qualitative) in the fields of social psychology, community psychology, psychology and poverty, mental health, psychology, and public policies. E-mail: [email protected] Juliana  Cabral  de Oliveira  Dutra  has a degree in Social and Environmental Sciences from UFMG (2014) and a Master’s Degree in Social Psychology from the Graduate Program in Psychology at Federal University of Minas Gerais (2020), Brazil. She is a Specialized Indigenist by the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI). Link to Curriculum Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/4136371078656706. E-mail: [email protected]

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Paulo  Ricardo  de Oliveira  Ramos  has graduated in Human Sciences at the Federal University of Vales do Jequitinhonha and Mucuri (2012) and Master in Psychology by the Graduate Program in Psychology at the Federal University of Amazonas (2018), Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] Alejandra Olivera-Méndez  is Associate professor in Colegio de Postgraduados, San Luis Potosí Campus, Mexico. She has a BA in psychology from the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico, an MA in Rural Social Development, and a PhD, both in the International and Rural Development Department of the University of Reading, UK. She spent a sabbatical year in the Human Dimensions Research Unit in the Natural Resources Department of Cornell University. Her research and publications have focused on the human dimensions of wildlife conservation, especially on tolerance toward large carnivores in Mexico. She is a member and one of the current coordinators of the Latin-American Network of Rural Psychology. E-mail: [email protected] Judit  Herrera  Ortuño  is Biologist from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in Spain; is specialized in International Development Agent from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Spain; and master’s and PhD student in Rural Development by the Postgraduate Program in Rural Development at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (PGDR/UFRGS), with doctoral internship at the Wageningen University and Research (WUR) in the Netherlands. He is researcher in the projects “Cooperation, Creativity and Socio-biodiversity: A Gender Issue” and “PANexus: Governance of Socio-biodiversity for Water, Energy and Food Security in the South Atlantic Forest,” both part of the PGDR/UFRGS. He is co-­ founder of the Innovation, Society and Eco-territorialities Research Group (GRIST/ UFRGS) and a member of the Circle of Reference in Agroecology, Socio-­ biodiversity, Sovereignty, and Food and Nutritional Security (ASSSAN CR/ UFRGS). Link to Curriculum Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/6847353959890976. E-mail: [email protected] Robert  Filipe  dos Passos  is Psychologist and holds Master in Social and Institutional Psychology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul  – UFRGS. He is an associate professor at the University of Passo Fundo – UPF, next to the Psychology course, in which he works in the area of Institutional Psychology. He is a doctoral researcher linked to the INTERVIRES/UFRGS Research-­ Intervention group. He has experience in the areas of public health and mental health. E-mail: [email protected] Simone Mainieri Paulon  is Psychologist and Institutional Analyst. She holds PhD in Clinical Psychology (PUC-SP) and post-doctorate from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte – UFRN/Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna. She is an associate professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul – UFRGS, with the PPG of Social and Institutional Psychology, where she guides master’s and doctoral work in the Clinical, Subjectivity, and Politics research line. He

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coordinates the INTERVIRES Research-Intervention group and is a guest professor at the Institutional Psychology PPG at the Federal University of Espírito Santo UFES.  Has experience in Psychology and Collective Health, with emphasis on Therapeutic Intervention, Psychiatric Reform, and Mental Health. orcid. org/0000-0002-0387-1595. E-mail: [email protected] Cláudia  Maria  Filgueiras  Penido  works in the Department of Psychology/ Federal University of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] Iara  Flor  Richwin  is Psychologist and holds PhD in Clinical Psychology and Culture from University of Brasília (UnB) and from École Doctorale Recherches en Psychanalyse et Psychopathologie da Université Paris Diderot. She is research fellow at the Graduate Program on Clinical Psychology and Culture (UnB). Currently, she is conducting a postdoc-level research project on the mental health of homeless women. E-mail: [email protected] Telmo  Mota  Ronzani  is Psychologist at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF). He holds Master’s degree in Social Psychology at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and a Doctorate in Health Sciences from the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP). He is former postdoctoral researcher at the University of São Paulo (USP) and at the University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC, 2007) in the field of alcohol and other drugs. Currently, he is postdoctoral researcher at the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) and at the Dalhousie University, Canada. He is Full Professor at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF). He coordinates the Work Group Drugs and Society of the National Association for Research and Post-Graduate Studies in Psychology (ANPEPP). He also coordinates the Center for Research, Intervention and Evaluation for Alcohol & Drugs  – CREPEIA-UFJF. He is CNPQ Productivity Fellow from Brazil. He conducts research in the following areas: community psychology, public health, health psychology, alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. E-mail: [email protected] Giovana  Ilka  Jacinto  Salvaro  holds Master in Psychology and PhD in Human Sciences from Universidade Federal Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. She is Professor of the graduate programs in Socioeconomic Development (PPGDS) and Law (PPGD) and of the undergraduate courses in Psychology and Law at the Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense (UNESC). Link to Curriculum Lattes: http://lattes. cnpq.br/3804218623310980. E-mail: [email protected] Bader Burihan Sawaia  is Sociologist and Doctor in Social Psychology from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUCSP), Brazil. He was Full Professor of the Postgraduate Course in Social Psychology at PUC-SP who coordinated for five terms. She was Vice-Rector of PUCSP (2003–2007). He was founding member of the Research Group of the National Association of Research and Graduate Studies in Psychology of Brazil (ANPEPP) entitled: Socio Historical Psychology and the Brazilian Context of Social Inequality. He is Coordinator of the Center for

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Studies on the Social Exclusion /Inclusion dialectic (NEXIN). His research deals with affectivity and politics, social inequality, and social transformation. E-mail: [email protected] Ana Paula Soares da Silva  is Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters at Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo (FFCLRP-USP). He is Head of the Socio-Environmental Psychology and Educational Practices Laboratory (LAPSAPE/FFCLRP-USP). He is Pós-Doctorate by the Socio-Environmental Psychology and Intervention Laboratory (LAPSI), Department of Social and Work Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo (LAPSI-IPUSP). He is member of the Working Group on Environmental Psychology of the National Association for Research and Postgraduate Studies in Psychology (ANPEPP). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-­0002-­0212-­2402. E-mail: [email protected] Juliana Bezzon da Silva  has Graduation in Psychology at the University of São Paulo and PhD student at the Psychology Postgraduate Program, Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters at Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo (FFCLRP-USP), Brasil. Member of the Socio-Environmental Psychology and Educational Practices Laboratory (LAPSAPE/FFCLRP-USP)  - Brazil. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-­0001-­8903-­6939. E-mail: [email protected] Rossivânia  Souza  da Silva  is a psychologist from the Federal University of Roraima, indigenous to the Macuxi ethnic group and resident of the Canauanim Community, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] Valéria Morais da Silveira Sousa  is a doctoral candidate in Social Psychology at the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), linked to the research line “Social Psychology of Health and Work”; Master in Health Psychology from the State University of Paraíba (UEPB); and specialist in Human Resources (UEPB) and graduated in Psychology (UEPB). She is a substitute teacher at UEPB in the Psychology Department, developing projects of Basic and Supervised Internship focused on the knowledge of the work/activity of different professional categories; she has professional experience in private companies in the areas of recruitment, selection, training, and professional rehabilitation. Her research interests include worker’s health, mental health and work, professional rehabilitation, return to work, and subjectivity. E-mail: [email protected] Letícia  Lopes  de Souza  is Psychology Undergraduate Student at Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF). She is member of the Center for Research, Intervention and Evaluation for Alcohol and Drugs (CREPEIA), Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] Maria  Juracy  Filgueiras  Toneli  is Psychologist (UFMG) and holds Master in Education (UFSC), PhD in Psychology (USP), and Post-Doctor (UFMG and

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UMinho/PT). She is professor in the Psychology Department at UFSC (PPGP), researcher 1A CNPq, co-founder of Núcleo Margens: Ways of life, family, and gender relations (PSI / UFSC), and advisor to CFP (Conselho Federal de Psicologia – 2020–2022). Link to Curriculum Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/1437430258647523. E-mail: [email protected] Thelma Maria Grisi Velôso  has a degree in Psychology and a Master’s in Social Work from Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB) and a PhD in Sociology from Paulista State University Júlio de Mesquita Filho (UNESP – Araraquara/São Paulo Campus). She is a professor at the Graduate Program in Health Psychology and at the Graduate Program in Social Work of the State University of Paraíba (UEPB) and has experience in the areas of psychology and sociology, more specifically, social psychology and rural sociology. She has done psychosocial intervention work and research in urban and rural areas. She is part of the Latin American Network of Rural Psychology – Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] Sofía Fonseca Vidal  holds degree in Psychology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Currently, she is involved in clinical training in child and adolescent psychoanalytic orientation. Her interests are related to mental health issues in public contexts, social welfare, and interaction processes from an environmental perspective. During her university training, she has participated in the Cima UC project, a volunteer project that promotes sustainability in children through hiking. E-mail: [email protected] María  Jesús  Larraín  Videla  is Community Psychologist from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She was President of the Psychology Student Center in 2019. During her years of career, she has developed interest in various academic and political activism issues related to ruralities from a community and decolonial approach, gender, and sexogenic dissidence. She is currently pursuing a degree in Aesthetics at the Institute of Aesthetics of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile. E-mail: [email protected] Wanderson Vilton  is Professor of the Graduate Program in Psychology at UFPE in the condition of post-doctoral fellow (PNPD/CAPES). He has graduated in Psychology at the Federal University of Alagoas (2011), Master in Psychology from the same institution (2013), and PhD in Social and Institutional Psychology from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (2018), Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] Verônica  Morais  Ximenes  is Full professor at the Department of Psychology, Federal University of Ceará, Brazil. She holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Barcelona, Spain, and has developed post-doctoral studies at the Institute of Psychology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. She is the coordinator of the Nucleus of Community Psychology (NUCOM in Portuguese) at the Federal University of Ceará, which develops teaching, research, and extension

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activities in Community Psychology. She directs her academic activities in the following themes: community psychology, psychosocial implications of poverty, public policies, contexts of social vulnerability, and others. Dr. Ximenes holds a productivity grant level 2 from the Brazilian National Council for Researcher and Technological Development (CNPq), Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] Valeska Zanello  is Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology and Culture at the University of Brasília (UnB), Brazil. He is Coordinator of the Graduate Program on Clinical Psychology and Culture at UnB. He is Coordinator of the CNPQ’s Research Group on “Mental health, gender, and intersectionalities (race and ethnicity).” E-mail: [email protected]

Part I

Introduction

Chapter 1

Psychology and Rural Contexts: Psychosocial Dialogues Jáder Ferreira Leite, Magda Dimenstein, Candida Dantas, and João Paulo Macedo

1.1  Introduction The eminently urban tradition of psychology, in terms of both knowledge production and professional performance, exposes a lack of thought on the important actors in societies that exist in rural contexts and their relation – be it via integration, conflicts, and contradictions – with urban life. In this sense, Landini (2015a) states that even when looking at the rural, there is a dominant tendency for us psychologists to do so from an urban perspective. Part of this trend follows a dominant paradigm in science (Santos, 2007) which is defined by the generalization of laws and theories that, even though they are produced in given socio-cultural circumstances, are meant to become universal and capable of explaining processes and phenomena with nuances different from those of their original context. Alongside this, we have a professional training with pedagogical projects and curricular structures that, in general, follow universalist psychological models, which may incur immediate practices without a contextualized theoretical reflection, making them meaningless for the population they are serving (Silva & Macêdo, 2017; Malone, 2011). As psychological science is a project created out of Western modernity, its early development revolved around the consolidation of urban life, the challenges of adapting subjects to the ongoing social scenario (work in factories, learning processes and school adaptation, mental health interventions for subjects and groups not adequately inserted in the social dynamics). In this way, a markedly urban J. F. Leite (*) · M. Dimenstein · C. Dantas Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] J. P. Macedo Universidade Federal do Delta do Parnaíba, Parnaíba, Piauí, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_1

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psychological science was formed, restricted to the universe of large cities and having its inhabitants as a privileged focus of investigation. On the other hand, in recent years, the literature has pointed out that rural contexts are today a field of interest for psychology, in terms of both scientific research and professional intervention (Landini, 2015a, 2015b; Leite et al., 2013; Ronzani et al., 2019; Silva & Macedo, 2017; Singh, 2002). However, it is necessary to keep in mind a careful reading of this interest, as to not simply replicate the psychological knowledge already consolidated and produced from other realities. In this sense, Singh (2002) points out a certain dissatisfaction from psychologists of peripheral countries with how the academic knowledge produced at the European level is still considered to take precedence and how this knowledge becomes limited in view of the particularities experienced in other countries. In this way, a wide work agenda opens up for professionals and researchers. However, we recognize that many challenges arise there. Among them, we can highlight how to dialogue with a set of theories and techniques in psychology that were not produced considering the idiosyncrasies that mark rural territories and their population’s ways of life. Thus, its theoretical distance around the rural category requires an additional effort to allow itself to be provoked and challenged by the different expressions of rural life and by the socio-cultural variety of their subjects and groups that integrate them. For this reason, a psychology focused on rural contexts does not imply just another specialty but turning previously neglected particularities of social life into an important debate in which psychologists recognize the partiality of knowledge, as Donna Haraway (1988) reminds us, thus removing the illusion of the neutrality of scientific knowledge. This task, therefore, requires us to put ourselves in the different places of power that make up the production of knowledge, pointing out the social hierarchies that locate the varied subjects and collectives who live and work in the rural environment, who have an important relationship with the land and other natural resources, in terms of both the construction of its history, the development of its identity references, and the production of its subjectivities. The purpose of this text is, therefore, to address some of these issues without the intention of exhausting them, but of indicating possibilities for dialogue from a psychosocial and interdisciplinary perspective focused on ruralities. To do so, we situate, in principle, an understanding we shared about rural contexts. Then, we highlight three thematic lines of investigation that we have built in dialogue with some theoretical approaches: rural contexts and their modes of meaning, mental health and rural contexts, and gender relations.

1.2  Understanding Rural Contexts There is a set of social practices feed representations, meanings, and narratives about the rural environment that, to a large extent, recognize it as a space of demographic dispersion, with a predominance of natural or farmed landscapes, a

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productive sector focused on agricultural activities and dependent on the environment of the urban system (Bernardelli, 2006). The effects from the globalization process and the advance of capitalism in the countryside have stimulated a debate in the last decades in which new views on the “rural world” have begun to be adopted, although they still support the contrasts between rural-urban and countryside-city. Thus, the phenomenon of urbanization and capitalist industrialization were seen as precipitating a disappearance of the rural in favor of a highly technified urban life, one that is culturally dominant and economically guided by the industrial model, reserving to the rural life a sense of backwardness and decline (Veiga, 2006; Ferreira, 2002). On the other hand, there was a revival of the rural (Kayser, 1990), especially in Europe, due to the emergence of social dynamics that redefined the forms of use of space, production, and complexification of the network of social actors in the field. These actors shifted the concept of a rural exclusively synonymous with the agricultural sector, betting on the combination of agricultural and non-agricultural activities as a way of staying in the countryside; urban populations sought the rural environment as a place of residence, attracted by its natural attributes, and we are witnessing a growing concern with the theme of environmental preservation, whether by questioning productive models harmful to the environment or recognizing the figure of family farmers as the guardians of natural resources. These examples, cited by Ferreira (2002), allow us to see, therefore, the emergence of a rural that is not simply one single unit, but new ruralities that are drawn up in the face of these social dynamics. In this way, we are impelled to consider “the rural” based on specificities that territories can assume in terms of historical and social contexts. Hence, we agree to think about such issues in terms of ruralities or rural contexts. Thus, the ruralities that make up the European continent are distinct in relation to Latin America, for example. Latin American rural contexts are marked by strong investment in the productive model of industrial agriculture in order to export their products to the foreign market, especially to countries with advanced capitalism (Burneo, 2018). This model is constituted by large international and business corporations, concentrated in most of the agricultural areas, promoting enormous environmental damage and advancing violently over territories historically occupied by indigenous and traditional peoples, such as indigenous, campesinos, quilombolas, ribeirinho [riverside traditional people], and extractivist populations. Another striking characteristic of Latin American rural contexts is the diversity of family farming, which, in different countries in the region, is responsible for generating jobs, producing healthy food, and preserving socio-environmental heritage, even though it does not have, from the government’s perspective, due recognition, because it is fraught with a lack of investments and public policies that can ensure its development (Grisa et al., 2018). No less important are the deep and historical marks left by the colonization of the region, which consisted of a broad process of socio-cultural and demographic destruction, eliminating the patterns of power and civilization that previously existed there, exterminating more than half of the peoples that inhabited the region,

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including their producers and bearers of knowledge, techniques, and arts, in addition to the continuous repression of those who survived, in material and subjective terms. As a result, we have the submission of peoples and their territories to a new system of domination and social exploitation that institutes the control of work, resources, and products, based on the invention of race as a hierarchy criterion (Quijano, 2005a). Even with the administrative end of the colonial enterprise, we continue in a system of coloniality, as stated by Quijano (2005b), marked by strong hierarchies of power and knowledge that is historically anchored in a Eurocentric logic based on racial and gender difference (Lugones, 2014), which has repercussions on the ordering of societies, their institutions, structures, and subjectivities, maintaining economic, political, and cultural domination from the global north. In dialogue with decolonial studies, Assis (2014) states that the international division of labor and territories, when classifying countries with central and peripheral economies, maintains regimes for expropriating natural resources, taken as commodities, in order to extinguish other forms of relationship with the environment, as well as imposing inequalities in the occupation of territories. The coloniality category was proposed by the Peruvian sociologist Anibal Quijano, in the late 1980s, and it makes up the field of colonial studies (Mignolo, 2017). For Quijano (2005b), coloniality refers to a world standard of capitalist domination, founded from the racial and ethnic classification, which begins with colonialism, but extends to the present day. Mignolo (2017) indicates that in Quijano’s initial formulations, the colonial power matrix is ​​described from four domains: authority, economy, knowledge and subjectivity, and gender and sexuality. Hence also the historical constitution of resistance struggles in the region in different cycles, ranging from the process of European colonization and the consequent destitution of the territories occupied by the original peoples, through the emergence of economic cycles that adopted the slave labor of both these peoples and of people captured in Africa, up to the processes of modernization of the rural environment, from the so-called Green Revolution which, in countries like Brazil, increased land concentration, intensified environmental damage, and promoted the expulsion of small rural producers from their work lands. In these terms, Kay (2007) informs that, from the globalization process and its impacts on the Latin American rural population, some themes have become prominent in rural studies, such as the struggles and protests of peasants, indigenous people and women, the distinctions between productive business and peasant models, poverty and precarious rural work, land reform, and other public policies for rural development. With regard to the incorporation of the theme of ruralities by Latin American psychology,1 a greater interest in community social psychology has been identified (Landini, 2015a; Moura Jr. et al., 2019; Ronzani et al., 2019) addressing issues such

1  It is not the aim of this chapter to rescue the history of psychology in rural contexts. About this theme, see Landini (2015a) and the second chapter of this book.

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as mental health, poverty, identity, work, environment, and gender relations. Most of these studies refer to the socio-cultural context of the countries in which they are carried out (Cidade et al., 2020). We believe that this interest is partly inspired by the critical movement around Latin American psychology in the late 1970s and early 1980s of the last century, which has become an important theoretical and political framework for the discipline in the region. This criticism reached the modes of production of knowledge and professional action in psychology in several Latin American countries (Lane, 1984; Martín-Baró, 1994; Montero, 1989). Martín-Baró (1994), one of the protagonists of this movement, made important questions to two aspects that he identified in Latin American psychology: an uncritical adoption of North American psychological systems, generating a decontextualized production of knowledge, and the absence of an epistemology that dialogued with the reality of Latin American countries, marked by profound social inequalities and dictatorial political regimes. The conceptions of the subject in the theoretical arsenal in vogue, therefore, distanced themselves from the concrete conditions of existence of the population, since they were guided by positivist, individualistic, and ahistorical assumptions. For the author, it would be fundamental, from a dialectical point of view, to operate guided by a link between psychological structure and social structure. Sílvia Lane (1984), when questioning the relevance of importing North American psychology to Latin American reality, pointed out that “Human beings bring with them a dimension that cannot be ruled out, which is their social and historical condition, at the risk of having a distorted (ideological) view of their behavior” (p. 12) (translated by the authors). Thus, inspired by the tradition of historical-dialectical materialism, the authors of this critical aspect saw community social psychology as an important tool for social transformation and the psychologist as an agent who could denounce the human suffering generated by the conditions of exploitation and oppression experienced by some sectors society and also contribute to changes based on a professional practice focused in this reality (Lacerda Jr., 2013; Montero, 1989). After four decades this movement culminated in an important transformation of social psychology, and in the emergence of a community social psychology (Freitas, 1996; Montero, 2006) that is recognizably Latin American, we questioned the relevance of this criticism, both from the transformations undergone in the region with the advancement of the neoliberal agenda and the expansion of social and political conflicts, especially of a socio-environmental nature, and the emergence of different currents of so-called critical thought that contributed to social psychology, such as institutional analysis, antipsychiatry, psychology historical-cultural, social constructionism (Lacerda Jr., 2013), and, more recently, currents of post-colonial thought and the decolonial turn (Ballestrin, 2013; Menezes et al., 2019). Therefore, a psychosocial approach to ruralities in view of the Latin American context has posed itself as a challenge that involves (a) recognizing the historical, socio-cultural, and geopolitical complexity of the region and how that same complexity cuts across the modes of subjectivation and (b) how this varied

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theoretical-conceptual body can be mobilized to dialogue with rural contexts, without losing sight of the reference to knowledge that is always partially and politically situated. Guided by these questions, we now proceed to present some thematic lines of investigation that we have been carrying out.

1.3  Research Lines in Psychology and Rural Contexts From the Research Group Modes of subjectivation, public policies, and contexts of vulnerability, linked to the Graduate Program in Psychology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil) and to the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPQ – Brazil), we have sought to build an effort to bring some psychosocial approaches and rural contexts closer together, especially on the ways of life of countless agents who have in relation to the land and the territory important elements in the configuration of their subjectivities. Thus, issues related to the living conditions and mental health in areas of rural settlements and quilombola communities, political participation of rural women workers, gender relations within the scope of some public policies, links between public health, welfare policies and the territories rural processes, and processes of interpreting the meaning of rural life by young and old people have been addressed in our research agendas. This effort has made it possible not only to point out historically invisible realities, as is the case of unequal gender and work relations in rural areas, the stigmas experienced by rural populations regarding the forms of mental suffering and the precarious backing given by health and care policies in these contexts, but also to show the tension between some theoretical and methodological perspectives present in psychology that, historically, were forged in the light of social, cultural, and subjective processes based on urban-centered realities. Thus, we present some lines of investigation.

1.3.1  Rural Contexts and Their Modes of Meaning A first line of our research activities is related to the way in which people elaborate meanings about an existence marked by ruralities, how they interpret the rural environment, and how these forms of knowledge give rise to specific practices in their territories. This effort has been made in dialogue with the social constructionist perspective (Gergen, 1985; Ibáñez, 1993; Iñiguez, 2008; Spink & Spink, 2010) which considers interactions as an important form of historically localized and meaning-generating social action. The knowledge produced about the phenomena from such interactions is, therefore, nourished by social and cultural particularities that guide the active and cooperative course of these relationships.

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From a constructionist point of view, reality does not exist in itself ready to be deciphered, but from the way we access it and the knowledge we produce about it (Iñiguez, 2008). This stance points to reality and its artifacts as enterprises built socially from our conventions and, through them, many objects and also subjects can be constituted. This constitution takes language as a marked instrument that appears here with an active force capable of constituting itself as a social practice, ceasing to occupy a place of representation for action in the world (Ibáñez, 2005). In this sense, attention is paid to the performative character of the discursive forms that are most recognized for their practical effects “for generating the categories from which we think and give meaning to the events of our daily lives” (Spink & Spink, 2010, p.  578) (translated by the authors). This perspective has, therefore, allowed to situate rural contexts based on the ways in which their inhabitants manage knowledge that, at times, indicate the permanence of a set of rationalities that define ruralities and, at other times, indicate new possibilities of naming, causing these same ruralities to be expanded as materiality for new social dynamics. In a first study, our interest turned to investigating the meanings produced by elderly residents of a rural community in northeastern Brazil about the aging process in this context (Costa et al., 2020). We take the generational and rurality dimensions as mediators of these acts of meaning and look at the specificities of how the experience of aging can be configured in a context marked by family groups that have agricultural practices and retirement as their main source of income, living in a semi-arid region.2 The elderly residents of the community produced meanings about the rural environment, coming closer to agricultural activities and the natural landscape, which can offer the necessary resources (water, land) for the development of family-based agriculture for the purpose of own production, ensuring healthy food through work that can be shared in the community and generating better living conditions. Notwithstanding, life in rural areas was also marked by the lack of assistance and the lack of interest from the State to invest in the region, especially in solving the problem of water scarcity. Faced with a scenario of vulnerability, the community started to use the divine as a form of support, making religiosity an important strategy to deal with the adversities experienced in daily life (Costa et al., 2020). The experience of aging in this context also brought a discursive multiplicity, sometimes associated with gains in experience, sometimes with a more peaceful life, especially around aging in the countryside, away from the tribulations of the city and close to nature. “Being old” also appeared as a desired state, since it would reveal that the subject had lived a lot and, thus, acquired experience. In this context, chronological time as the main definition of old age presented differently in relation

2  This term refers to a part of the Brazilian Northeast with long and lasting drought periods, shallow and fragile soil, with added adverse social and economic effects and historically constructed by the absence of public policy that ensure the development of the region with the semi-arid-based strategies.

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to what was established by Brazilian legislation,3 marking a distinct temporality. Another important aspect is that the elderly, being assisted by social security, remain in the community, contributing to better living conditions of the family cores, remaining in work activity in agriculture, and moving the local economy with their pensions. It can be seen, from this study, that categories such as rural and elderly are updated discursively from specific socio-cultural markers that can manage their own and sometimes contradictory conceptions, making the experience of aging in the countryside at the same time challenging, but also somewhat socially respectable. A second study aimed to investigate the meanings produced by young people from rural communities, also from northeastern Brazil, around sexual diversity. These young people were students at a federal high school education institute. Thus, we were also interested in analyzing how the educational environment contributed to the elaboration of these meanings (Primo et al., 2020). Sexual diversity is understood here through the multiple possibilities of identifying people beyond the universal categories of sex, heteronormativity, or biological determinism (Sales et  al., 2016), expanding the ways of experiencing sexualities and sexual practices beyond the male-female binary. In this sense, we identified that the young people’s repertoires around this diversity pointed to meanings that, on the one hand, redefined sexual practices not with a naturalized conception, but constructed from affective exchanges and feelings that, many times, were experienced with some embarrassment insofar as they did not correspond to socially established conventions. On the other hand, sexual diversity was also identified through heteronormative and medicalizing references, insofar as it was pathologized for breaking a natural order. The youths found in the rural community and in the family environment a reinforcement of these normative standards, censoring sexual diversity. They justified that this conservative way to see the world could be related to a conception of the rural environment that seems to reflect an old social imaginary marked by backwardness, neglect, and tradition, unlike the urban space, a place par excellence for modernity and diversity. Young people saw the urban scene as evolved and developed, with new perspectives and opportunities that, many times, they did not find in rural areas. In this disputed discursive game, the school institution performed an important mediation by adopting, based on its pedagogical project and the performance of a good part of its faculty, an understanding of sexual diversity as a historical and social construction, which allowed young people to develop questions and thoughtful questionings about an alleged sexual nature. Professionals considered sexual diversity to be an important dimension of the educational and training process, especially in terms of recognizing that dimension for raising citizens. As a result, young people recognized the educational institution as a privileged space to access a reflection that would help to overcome prejudices and stigmas about sexual diversity.

3  While the Brazilian legislation considers someone elderly from age 60, some of the people living in the community saw someone aged 40 as an elderly.

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1.3.2  Mental Health The second line of investigation is based on the understanding that there is a close association between life scenarios marked by intense inequalities, injustices, racism, gender violence, and the production of psychological suffering. The populations of the countryside, forest, coasts, and rivers are people and communities that have their ways of life and work predominantly connected to the land and that share stories marked by poverty and the consequences of the intense and perverse inequality behind the social formation of Brazil. It is on these populations that display most of the effects from the lack of development in different areas such as education, health, and social security. In other words, these populations are the most affected by the isolation, invisibility, and the small scope of public policies. The complex interrelationship between rural territories and mental health is crossed by environmental aspects of the subjects’ life contexts, such as the drought phenomenon and its psychosocial implications (Camurça et al., 2016). Among the main psychosocial impacts analyzed by this literature, stress, anxiety, depression, suicide, and increased alcohol consumption stand out, which when overlapping losses in agricultural and animal productivity cause financial difficulties and loss of social and family support and intensify situations of food and nutritional insecurity. Another dimension linked to mental health in the countryside is the work that, when carried out in precarious conditions, has affected the health of rural workers. This has been the conclusion of studies like that of Santos et al. (2017) on the clinical profile and health problems of farmers linked to the culture of tobacco and the impacts produced by the excessive use of pesticides. This multifaceted and constantly changing scenario, strongly marked by adverse living conditions, makes up a complex network of social determinants that have an impact on the health-disease process of rural populations. In this sense, the research group developed several investigations on the vulnerability of rural populations and the production of psychosocial suffering. Despite the polysemy inherent in the concept, we conceive vulnerability as a social and political process strategically produced and directed at certain social groups. The effect of this targeting is to induce a calculated precariousness of life (Dimenstein, Belarmino, et  al., 2019). In this way, in relation to certain social groups, there is a series of surgically produced interventions that throw these subjects in areas with less visibility and social neglect. In this sense, Butler (2018, p.41) states that “precariousness” designates the politically induced situation in which certain populations suffer the consequences of the deterioration of social and economic support networks more than others and are differentially exposed to damage, to violence and death. This understanding has guided our studies in rural contexts. One of them, carried out in rural settlements in northeastern Brazil, points to the interdependence between socioeconomic conditions, characteristics of the territories and environments lived, cultural patterns, experiences, and life histories of individuals as elements that forge mental health conditions (Dimenstein, Almeida, et al., 2017; Macedo et al., 2018). We use the notion of Social Determination of Mental Health as an analytical operator (Dantas, Dimenstein, et  al., 2020), highlighting a scenario composed of

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conditions that must be thoroughly analyzed to understand the subtleties of psychosocial suffering in these contexts (Dimenstein, Leite, et al., 2017). In addition to the problems arising from precarious working conditions, low schooling, lack of access to public policies, inequities, and racial discrimination-­ specific conditions related to specific rural contexts come into play, such as land reform settlements and quilombola communities. Several studies have identified a strong association between racism, common mental disorders, and problematic alcohol use among men and women (Dimenstein et al., 2016; Dimenstein, Dantas, et al., 2019; Dimenstein, Belarmino, et al., 2020). Another important axis concerns the situations of vulnerability linked to the specificities of gender relations in rural territories. Leite et al. (2017) detected singular experiences of suffering between men and women. Among men, the agricultural workload, the precarious working conditions, the loss of physical vitality, and the emergence of chronic diseases appear as conditioning factors for mental health. For women, domestic work, characterized by a double workday, the number of children, gender-based violence practiced by an intimate partner, and stressful life events, such as loss of close relatives and separation, are factors that cause and intensify suffering mentally. In this scenario, violence against women and domestic violence in rural contexts stands out as a complex and singular phenomenon, present in rural families, especially in those with financial difficulties and in geographical isolation, which, added to the strong patriarchal culture, prevents them from activating the few existing institutional protection mechanisms (Silva et al., 2018). Finally, we focus on psychosocial care aimed at rural populations. Keeping with the perspective previously indicated, the question is how to deal with the superfluous and disposable populations produced from this system. If we understand precariousness as a logic to govern life, this management takes place through deliberate choices and decisions that at the State level will create the minimum conditions for these lives to persist in precariousness. Historically analyzing public and social policies aimed at rural populations, we note that they were excluded from the scope of protection and guarantee of rights, until recently. Only after the promulgation of the 1988 Constitution was it possible to implement Rural Welfare, universal access to the Unified Health System and, later, to the Unified Social Assistance System. The National Policy for Comprehensive Health of the Populations of the Countryside and the Forest (Brazil, 2013) and the National Policy for Mental Health, Alcohol and other Drugs (Brazil, 2003) are important devices to give visibility to the specific health demands in the rural environment. In this direction, we developed several researches that indicate the existing obstacles in terms of the organization of the Psychosocial Care Network, the existence of care gaps in mental health, and the team’s difficulties in producing territorialized, culturally sensitive, integrated, and connected to life contexts (Dimenstein et al., In press; Macedo et al., In press; Cirilo Neto & Dimenstein, 2017a, 2017b). Despite the limitations still present with regard to how the particularities of the populations of the countryside and the forest are received, new technologies are seeking to dismantle the processes of standardization, psychologization, and pathologization that are still frequent in the management of diversity in mental health when the actors do not belong to urban settings, contributing to the advancement of public policies.

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1.3.3  Gender Relations The third line of investigation aims to carry out studies that articulate gender, territory, and politics, paying attention to ethnic-racial and generational issues, focusing on the practices of resistance in the daily life of women in situations of social vulnerability and violence. In the course of the research group’s investigations in rural communities, gender relations emerged as a fundamental issue to understand the particulars that cut across the ways of life and the subjectivation processes of women in the countryside, in territories marked, above all, by high rates poverty and inequality, gender violence, invisibility of work in the countryside, work overload with the accumulation of domestic activities and caring for the children and the elderly in the family, lack of access to public policies, etc. The analysis of such particulars demanded a closer link with theoretical-­ epistemological frameworks that allow the appropriation and creation of new concepts, different conceptions of subjectivity, and the use of different methodologies that challenge the essentialist and universalizing narratives of women as universal subjects (Dimenstein, Silva, et al., 2020), as a fixed identity, referenced in the experiences of white, Western, and heterosexual women, in an attempt to “colonize and appropriate non-Western cultures, instrumentalizing them to confirm markedly Western notions of oppression” (Butler, 2017, p. 21). Thus, we propose a dialogue with the so-called subordinate feminisms (Ballestrin, 2017) or peripheral feminisms, other-feminisms (Martín, 2013), which, by bringing postcolonial and decolonial perspectives closer to the field of feminisms, geopolitizes feminist debates, showing the multiple ways to experience being a woman, by integrating analyses that include relations of power, class, race, ethnicity, generation, territory, and nationalities (Dimenstein, Silva, et al., 2020). According to Curiel (2019), these perspectives are the result of political projects by racialized, Afro-­ descendant, and indigenous feminists who, since the 1960s, have highlighted the articulation of different systems of domination with post-colonial criticism, by proposing strategies for the decolonization of feminism and of its hegemonic narrative (Figueiredo & Gomes, 2016). In this sense, for Lugones (2019): Decolonizing genders is necessarily a practice. It is a question of transforming a critique of gender oppression - racialized, colonial, capitalist and heterosexist - into a living change in society; placing the theorist in the midst of people in a historical, human, subjective / intersubjective understanding of the relationship oppress → ← resist at the intersection of complex systems of oppression (p. 363). (translated by the authors)

The links between coloniality, gender, and sexuality will, therefore, be the focus of the elaborations of decolonial feminist theorists, like Lugones (2020), for whom the processes of racialization, colonization, capitalist exploitation, and the imperative of heterosexuality subordinated women, reserving them a place of inferiority in the established social hierarchy. In her writings, the author uses the term “women of color,” in reference to subordinate women, including “the whole complex plot of victims of gender coloniality, articulating themselves not as victims, but as

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protagonists of a decolonial feminism” (p.  80) (translated by the authors). The “women of color” contemplate non-white women, victims of the coloniality of power and gender, marked by their color and origin. Thus, the use of this term is beyond a racial classification, defined in phenotypic terms by science, but it is a political posture against the universalization of the woman category and homogenization of the agendas of feminist movements (Elias, 2019). In our studies, such perspectives have contributed to increasingly expand studies on gender in rural contexts in their different expressions considering the historical, social, and cultural singularities that cross the ways of life and the processes of subjectification of women in these contexts, in a way to advance in the knowledge of this reality and in the construction of sensitive practices that are ethically and politically committed to the needs of this population. To this end, this line of investigation is also located in the field of feminist and decolonial epistemologies, as it starts from a critique of the dominant modes of production of knowledge. Grosfoguel (2016) calls the privilege of Western white men as producers of knowledge and truths as epistemic racism/sexism. This privilege is supported by imperial, colonial, and patriarchal projects that disqualify other knowledge and other critical and dissonant voices. Thus, we understand that producing knowledge from these epistemological fields means opening up to diversity, to subordination, to different political experiences, and to unique life trajectories. It is to connect with knowledge and practices historically excluded from academia. It is, as stated by Haraway (1988), “There is a premium on establishing the capacity to see from the peripheries and the depths” (p. 583). It is, therefore, to construct other analysis paradigms based on the practices and knowledge of women of color, racialized, colonized, and oppressed by the heterosexual matrix. In this way, we highlight the results of research carried out by our group in rural settlements and quilombola communities in Northeast Brazil, especially with regard to two aspects that illustrate the intersection between the particularities of rural contexts and gender issues. The first refers to the permanence of the centrality of domestic work and care in the daily lives of women, making invisible the existence of other activities that enable an increasingly active role of women in the economic support of the family, such as the work they do in the fields, in caring for animals, similarly to cleaning women in the city, in cooperatives, in extractivism and in small household businesses. This active participation of women in subsistence and family organization did not mean considerable changes in gender hierarchies, maintaining historical power relations with harmful effects on women’s lives and health. The association with other factors such as gender-based violence practiced by an intimate partner and stressful life events, such as losses of close relatives. Separation, are aspects that contribute to the emergence or worsening of these women’s mental suffering, indicating how gender issues, in intersection with race, gender, and sexuality markers, have a strong impact on the precarious processes of these women’s lives (Dantas, Dimenstein, et al., 2020; Dantas, Santos, et al., 2020; Leite et al., 2017). Another important issue concerns the increasing participation and political protagonism of women in movements fighting in/for land in search of improvements in living conditions, through participation in movements, collectives, organizations,

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and community associations, opening up important spaces for confronting women, gender violence, and tensioning of hierarchical gender relations (Bonfim et  al., 2013; Oliveira & Leite, 2016; Scott et  al., 2016). Federici (2020), in a study on women’s resistance movements in Latin America, highlights the importance of this activism in facing the destructive forces of capitalism, patriarchy, and environmental destruction, whose transformation of daily, social, and reproductive activities into collective action is fundamental for the construction of the social protagonism of these women. In a study on the political participation and leadership of women from a rural quilombola community, we found that gender inequalities and material difficulties promote community demobilization and disarticulation of women as a collective, depotentializing the spaces already established for political participation, as well as the creation of new fronts of struggle and claim (Leite et al., in press). However, it was also possible to confirm the centrality of the role of black women in the quilombola struggle for land, which have produced confrontations in multiple situations and contexts. Community leadership is one of those situations, if not the main one, which produces repercussions on women’s life histories, as well as dislocations in social and gender relations. When assuming leadership spaces, women go through an intense process of social and collective transformation. There is no doubt that establishing this space of struggle, through a set of actions and tactics, implies operating a subjective work that is ethical and political in daily life. In collective spaces, such as the meeting of quilombola communities in which we participated, women have the opportunity to get to know the reality of other communities and their rights, confront speeches, and share projects aimed at improving the living conditions of their communities, projects that are allied with anti-racist, anti-sexist, and right to land struggles (Dantas et al., in press). In summary, the investigations produced by the group in the meeting between studies of gender, feminisms, and rural contexts have resulted in a closer relationship with the unique life trajectories of rural women, who share precarious conditions, violence, and rigidity in the hierarchies of women and gender. They are women for whom surviving means resisting the multiplicity of oppressions that cross their existence (Collins, 2008). They are, therefore, also stories of collective resistance, woven daily and producing possible confrontations against the logic of the coloniality of power and gender.

1.4  Final Considerations The diversity and complexity inherent to rural contexts in Latin America impels us to search for interdisciplinary knowledge and psychosocial approaches that broaden our view on the particularities that cut across these scenarios of research and professional practice. Historically, essentialist, universalizing, and urban-centered tendencies have greatly limited our ability to capture and share knowledge, cultural practices, beliefs, and processes of subjectification different from those found in hegemonic theoretical perspectives in psychology.

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In these scenarios, important ethical, political, and methodological challenges emerge in doing research in rural contexts (Dantas et al., 2018). The first refers to the need to pay attention to the particularities of these contexts, without falling into the fallacy of the rural and urban dichotomy, in which the first represents a place of backwardness, left behind, and the second a place of advancement and modernity. On the contrary, it is necessary to operate from the analysis of differences, connections, continuities, or discontinuities, recognizing the different ways of life, political practices, sociability, identities, forms of illness, and subjectivities that cross the experience of the populations of the countryside. Another important challenge is to give visibility, through our research and academic productions, to the precarious living conditions imposed in these territories, especially in a political, social, and economic context in which countries such as Brazil face a dramatic moment of social democratic rupture, the result of alliances between financial capitalism, neoliberalism and classist, machismo, and racist neoconservatism (Dantas, Santos, et al., 2020), which has meant a constant dismantling of the field of public policies, including those focused on issues of the right to land and social rights of traditional peoples (quilombolas, indigenous) and the countryside, in addition to an increasing criminalization of diverse rural social movements such as the Landless Rural Workers Movement, rural union movement, indigenous movements, quilombola movements, etc. Regarding the challenges more related to methodological aspects, we highlight the need to adapt the tools and strategies used, considering the low levels of education and high level of illiteracy, but also the existing socio-cultural diversity. Another challenge concerns the spatial-territorial configuration of some rural areas, from the point of view of both their distance from the capital, where most of the research centers are located, and the difficulty of access to the researched communities, due to the lack of public transport and precarious roads, for example. Such challenges impose the need for a high budget in its operationalization, a factor that is not always considered by governmental funding agencies, especially if we consider the low investment in research in Brazil today, especially in the humanities field (Dantas et al., 2018). Finally, it is important to highlight how investigations into rural contexts can contribute to redefine the logics of knowledge production that are already consolidated in academic institutions and that, as a rule, are unaware of the singularities that integrate these contexts. Thus, there is an urgent need for institutions and psychology professionals to create strategies so that rural populations can count on professionals with greater technical and ethical-political capacity to both welcome and interfere in the problems of these territories in a participatory, interventional, and emancipatory way. This requires skills to recognize the psychosocial processes mobilized by living conditions, to intervene in ways of existence and feelings of the rural in a singular way, to coordinate intersectoral actions in the territory, and to know how to value the spatial, social, and symbolic heterogeneity that permeates different scenarios, the diversity that fosters processes of subjectivity and sociability that escape the regime of universality, uniformity, and massification, as we are led to operate.

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Landini, M. (2015a). La noción de psicologia rural y sus desafios en el contexto latinoamericano. In F. Landini (Ed.), Hacia una psicologia rural latinoamericana (pp. 21–34). Latin American Council of Social Sciences and University of La Cuenca del Plata. Landini, F. (2015b). Contributions of community psychology to rural advisory services: An analysis of Latin American Rural Extensionists’ Point of View. American Journal of Community Psychology, 55, 359–368. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-­015-­9712-­4 Lane, S. T. M. (1984). A Psicologia Social e uma nova concepção do homem para a Psicologia. In S. Lane & W. Codo (Eds.), Psicologia social: o homem em movimento (pp. 10–19). Brasiliense. Leite, J. F., Macedo, J. P. S., Dimenstein, M., & Dantas, C. (2013). A formação em psicologia para a atuação em contextos rurais. In J. F. Leite & M. Dimenstein (Eds.), Psicologia e contextos rurais (pp. 27–56). EDUFRN. Leite, J. F., Dimenstein, M., Silva, E., Dantas, C. M. B., Macedo, J. P. S., & Sousa, A. (2017). Condições de vida, saúde mental e gênero em contextos rurais: um estudo a partir de assentamentos de reforma agrária no Nordeste brasileiro. Avances en Psicologia Latinoamericana, 35, 313–328. Leite, J.  F., Belarmino, V.  H., Macedo, J.  P., Dantas, C.  M. B., & Carvalho, A.  V. (in press). Participação política de mulheres quilombolas rurais no nordeste brasileiro, Athenea Digital. Lugones, M. (2014). Rumo a um feminismo descolonial. Revista Estudos Feministas, 22(3), 935–952. Lugones, M. (2019). Rumo a um feminismo decolonial. In H.  B. Hollanda (Ed.), Pensamento feminista: conceitos fundamentais (pp. 357–377). Bazar do Tempo. Lugones, M. (2020). Colonialidade e gênero. In H. B. Holanda (Ed.), Pensamento feminista hoje: perspectivas decoloniais (pp. 53–83). Bazar do Tempo. Macedo, J. P. S., Dimenstein, M., Silva, B. I. B. M., Sousa, H. R., & Costa, A. P. A. (2018). Apoio social, transtorno mental comum e uso abusivo de álcool em assentamentos rurais. Temas em Psicologia, 26, 1123–1137. Macedo, J. P. S., Dantas, C. M. B., Dimenstein, M., Leite, J., Alves Filho, A., & Belarmino, V. (in press). Condições de vida, acesso às políticas e racismo institucional em comunidades quilombolas. Revista Interinstitucional de Psicologia. Malone, J.  L. (2011). Professional practice out of the urban context: Defining Canadian rural psychology. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 52(4), 289–295. https://doi. org/10.1037/a0024157 Martín, M. R. (2013). Feminismos periféricos, feminismos-otros: una genealogía feminista decolonial por reivindicar. Revista internacional de Pensamiento político, 8, 53–79. Martín-Baró, I. (1994). Writings for a liberation psychology. Harvard University Press. Menezes, J. A., Lins, S. S., & Sampaio, J. V. (2019). Provocações pós-coloniais à formação em psicologia. Psicologia & Sociedade, 31, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1590/1807-­0310/2019v31191231 Mignolo, W. D. (2017). Colonialidade: o lado mais escuro da modernidade. Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, 32(94), 1–18. Montero, M. (1989). La psicología social em America Latina: desarrollo y tendencias actuales. Revista de psicología social, 1, 47–54. Montero, M. (2006). Hacer para transformar: El método en Psicología Comunitaria. Buenos Aires. Moura, J.  F., Jr., Barbosa, V.  N. M., Bomfim, Z., & Martins, C.  M. S.  S. (2019). Psicologia e Contextos rurais no Brasil: interlocuções com a Psicologia Comunitária. Interamerican Journal of Psychology, 53, 140–154. Oliveira, A. B. F., & Leite, J. F. (2016). Produção de sentidos sobre a militância política de mulheres vinculadas ao MST. Subjetividades, 16(1), 181–190. Primo, I. C. M., Leite, J. F., & Dantas, C. M. B. (2020). Produção de sentidos sobre diversidade sexual por jovens rurais. Psicologia, Educação e Cultura, 24, 55. Quijano, A. (2005a). Dom Quixote e os moinhos de vento da América Latina. Estudos Avançados, 19(55), 9–31.

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Chapter 2

Rural Psychology: Literature Review, Reasons for Its Need, and Challenges Fernando Landini, Valeria González-Cowes, and Jáder Leite

2.1  Introduction During 2018, approximately 3413 million people lived in rural areas, representing 44.7% of the world’s total population (United Nations, 2018). In 2011 the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) pointed out that extreme poverty was 27% higher in rural areas when compared to urban ones (IFAD, 2011), which implied that more than half of the poorest people in the world lived in rural areas. In this line, Anríquez and Stloukal (2008) also argued some years ago that, “rural communities in developing countries are home to some of the most disadvantaged and marginalized people in today’s world: the landless; the chronically poor; women who are heads of households; people affected by chronic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria; disadvantaged youth; the elderly; persons with disabilities” (p. 3). Moreover, different authors have argued that rural people face multiple, specific disadvantages. In the area of healthcare, for example, it has been pointed out that rurals have a higher risk of having mental health problems in general (Bradley et al., 2012; Costa et al., 2014; Simpson et al., 2014) and depression in particular (Brossart et al., 2013), as well as limited access to quality health services (Jameson & Blank,

F. Landini (*) Consejo Nacional de Invetigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and Instituto de Investigaciones de la Universidad de La Cuenca del Plata, Posadas, Misiones, Argentina V. González-Cowes Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and Instituto de Estudios Geográficos “Guillermo Röhmeder”, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina J. Leite Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_2

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2007; Rainer, 2010; Tarlow et  al., 2014), which leads to a worse prognosis. Additionally, rural youth seems to have more problematic alcohol consumption than their urban counterparts (Salazar et al., 2011). With regard to education, universities, and other higher education institutions, these tend to be located in urban areas (Pillay & Thwala, 2012), which makes studying more difficult for those living outside of big cities. In this vein, lower academic performance has been found in rural youth (Lillo et al., 2014) as well as lower literacy rates (Singh, 2002). Additionally, different studies have shown more gender inequities and violence against women (physical, sexual, and psychological) in rural settings (Vasquez, 2009). Thus, it becomes apparent that rural communities are particularly vulnerable (Jameson & Blank, 2007) and are generally underserved by welfare public policies (Silva & Silva, 2013; Riding-Malon & Werth Jr, 2014; Tarlow et al., 2014). In this context, one would expect a clear and ample commitment of psychology and of psychologists to rural communities. However, the situation is quite the opposite. Firstly, the proportion of psychologists living and working in rural and remote areas is clearly lower than that of those living in urban ones, in countries as varied as Australia (Bhar et al., 2006; Simpson et al., 2014), Brazil (Vasquez, 2009), the United States (Clopton & Knesting, 2006; Duncan et al., 2014), India (Singh, 2002), and South Africa (Pillay & Thwala, 2012). Secondly, psychologists receive scarce or even no education or training to work in rural areas, that is, to face their specificities (Martins, 2010; Vasquez, 2009). In general, there is almost no academic literature on the specificities of rural professional practice (Malone, 2011). Likewise, psychologists tend to be trained according to urban models of psychological intervention (Helbok, 2003). Thus, as Heyman and VandenBos (1989) warned three decades ago, most training programs for psychologists seem to be geared implicitly or explicitly toward urban contexts. Thirdly, there is a solid agreement that psychology and psychological research both focus on urban problems and neglect rural specificities (Landini et al., 2010; Pizzinato et al., 2015; Rojo et al., 2010). Thus, the lack of research in certain specific topics such as rural mental health (Costa et al., 2014; Jameson & Blank, 2007; Kumar et al., 2016), gender (Maciazeki-Gomes et al., 2016), child education (Lima & Silva, 2015), rural development (Albuquerque & Pimentel, 2004; Roberti & Mussi, 2014), and social norms (Cotter & Smokowski, 2016), among others, has been highlighted. Consequently, it becomes apparent that psychology, as a scientific discipline and as a practice, has neglected rural people (Bonomo et al., 2011; Leite et al., 2013), has a tendency to see reality through an urban lens (Landini, 2015a), and is framed in urban terms (Malone, 2011; Reis & Cabreira, 2013; Sánchez Quintanar, 2009). As Migliaro (2015) puts it, psychology is an urban-centered scientific discipline. As a result, the need for seriously reflecting on the specificities and problems of rural populations from a psychological perspective is an urgent one (Landini, 2015b). In this article we propose to contribute to the construction and shaping of a rural psychology. In this sense, we identify three urgent tasks that constitute the objectives of this article and frame its structure: to review the situation of rural psychology at an international level, to discuss why a rural psychology is needed, and to

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define and characterize it. Finally, we will also present some final reflections and challenges ahead for rural psychology.

2.2  B  ackground Analysis and Literature Review (in English, Spanish, and Portuguese) In order to review the situation of psychology in rural areas, two strategies were employed. Firstly, an open Internet review using Google search engine and “rural psychology” as key word (in English, Spanish, and Portuguese) was conducted. And secondly, an academic literature review using DOAJ, EBSCOhost, PsycINFO, and Scielo databases with the same key word as well as its transformations was implemented. Web pages as well as titles and abstracts of the articles identified during the search were scanned in order to check for relevance with regard to the topic. Thus, multiple web pages and almost 100 articles were read in full. Additionally, considering that the objective was to conduct a literature review and not a bibliographical research, the authors of this article also included in their analysis several books that directly or indirectly addressed rural psychology. Based on the results of said procedure, two different topics will be addressed: firstly, the presence of rural psychology as a division within psychologists’ associations or as part of academic journals and, secondly, an overview of the most relevant approaches and areas of interest of rural psychology. Finally, we will also devote a specific heading to describing the differences found between the approaches and topics addressed by rural psychology in the developing and in the developed world, despite the fact that this difference, although not sought out, appeared with prominence. Importantly, it is worth mentioning again that the Internet and literature review were conducted in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Thus, it is possible that contributions that are not in any of these languages have been involuntarily neglected.

2.2.1  Rural Psychology in the Institutional Context During the Internet review, two divisions of rural psychology were found within national psychological associations: the section of “Rural and Northern Psychology” of the Canadian Psychological Association (2019) and the Interest Group on “Rural and Remote Psychology” of the Australian Psychological Society (2019). Additionally, the American Psychological Association (2019) has a Committee on Rural Health, thus expressing this rural interest in the context of psychology, but limiting the range of its scope to health issues. Interestingly, all the national psychological associations that have rural psychology or rural health divisions are

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considered developed countries and are among the biggest countries of the world (Canada is the second, the United States the fourth, and Australia the sixth). With regard to academic journals, there is no current one dedicated specifically to rural psychology. In 1980 the Marshall University (West Virginia, United States) published the first volume of a journal named The Journal of Rural Community Psychology, but it was later discontinued, and its articles are not currently available in the Internet. Likewise, in the year 2000 the International Journal of Rural Psychology was created in the context of the Interest Group in Rural and Remote Psychology of the Australian Psychological Society (Harvey, 2000). There is some evidence of its existence on the Internet, but it is clear that the journal was discontinued around 2010 and its articles are not currently available online. Likewise, there are also several, well-established journals in the area of rural health (e.g., Journal of Rural Health, the Australian Journal of Rural Health, and Rural and Remote Health), but only one focused on psychology, the Journal of Rural Mental Health of the APA. Interestingly, in 1986, the American Journal of Community Psychology published a special issue on rural community psychology (Heyman, 1986) and the Journal of Clinical Psychology another one in 2010 which focused on the clinical treatment of rural and isolated patients (Rainer, 2010). Two reflections emerge from the analysis of the results of this search. Firstly, the institutionalization of rural psychology is clearly stronger in territorially big, developed countries, particularly the United States and Australia, but also Canada. And secondly, the interest for a rural psychology seems to stem from two different sources: on the one hand, clinical practice and, on the other hand, a community psychology perspective, the former being stronger, at least in terms of its degree of institutionalization.

2.2.2  The Emergence of the Interest in Rural Psychology The first book on rural psychology was most probably, Our Rural Heritage: The Social Psychology of Rural Development by Williams (1925), published in the United States. Later, Fromm and Maccoby (1970) wrote “Social character in a Mexican village,” which, in its Spanish version, was entitled, “Sociopsicoanálisis del campesino mexicano” [Socio-psychoanalisis of the Mexican peasant], thus demonstrating its rural focus. However, it was not until 1982 that the idea of a rural psychology appeared in a book’s title. During that year, Childs and Melton (1982) edited “Rural psychology,” a book divided into 18 thematic chapters that focused on the reality of rural United States. As mentioned above, during this time period (concretely in 1986), the American Journal of Community Psychology published a specific issue on rural community psychology. Since 2000, the interest in the articulation between psychology and rurality has expanded and become consolidated. Albuquerque (2002) in Brazil, Singh (2002) in India, and Malone (2011) in Canada have published papers discussing rural psychology as a topic. Furthermore, during this time, different edited

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books come to light: “Psychology in rural environment” (Sánchez Quintanar, 2009, in Spanish); “Psychology in rural contexts” (Leite & Dimensteinm, 2013, in Portuguese); “Towards a Latin American rural psychology” (Landini, 2015c, in Spanish); and “In the inner Amazonia: Psychosocial lectures” (Calegare & Higuchi, 2016, in Portuguese). Interestingly, this review shows a recent increase in psychology’s interest in rural issues, as well as a stronger presence of the developing world in this process, particularly Latin America, although this is perhaps due to the languages used in the literature review.

2.2.3  A  reas of Interest and Topics of Debate in Rural Psychology (in English, Spanish, and Portuguese) Different areas of interest and topics of debate appeared during the literature review. The most mentioned was health and psychotherapy in rural settings. In this line, different authors highlighted the barriers that rurals find when attempting to access health services in general and mental health services in particular (Bhar et al., 2006; Landini et al., 2015; Rainer, 2010), which in broad terms refers to the lack of professionals (Bradley et  al., 2012; Duncan et  al., 2014; Simpson et  al., 2014) and the great distances separating them from such services (Tarlow et al., 2014). In countries with good and stable access to communication technologies (e.g., broadband), particularly Australia, Canada, and the United States, the debate over the efficacy of psychotherapy provided by telephone (Aisenberg et al., 2012) and videoconferencing (Duncan et al., 2014; Tarlow et al., 2014) occupies a central place. Additionally, in Australia, the study of psychologists “flying in-flying out” to provide psychotherapy has generated great interest (Simpson et al., 2014; Sutherland et al., 2016). Although in some respects different, but yet related, are the references to the ethical dilemmas faced by psychologists (particularly psychotherapists) when living in small towns or villages. In this line, three major issues have been discussed: firstly, problems maintaining clear professional boundaries (dual relationships) due to being a health practitioner but also a member of a small community (Edwards & Sullivan, 2014; Scopelliti et  al., 2004); secondly, client’s confidentiality within a context where everybody knows everybody and knows what they do, which makes it almost impossible for patients to keep the fact that they are receiving psychotherapy private (Rainer, 2010; Riding-Malon & Werth Jr, 2014); and thirdly, the pressure to be generalist psychologists due to there being a lack of professionals versus competency requirements to address specific disorders (Bradley et al., 2012; Helbok, 2003). Interestingly, the Australian Psychological Society has published specific guidelines for psychologists in such settings (Sutherland & Chur-­ Hansen, 2014). Additionally, different authors have addressed the prevalence of certain mental illnesses in rural contexts when compared with urban ones. Two topics that have drawn great attention are depression and suicide (Brossart et  al., 2013; Kosaraju

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et al., 2015; Valdivia et al., 2015), including specific discussions on whether or not they are more common in rural than in urban people, with inconclusive results (Breslau et al., 2014; Jameson & Blank, 2007). Another topic of interest within rural health is the study of cultural factors and processes that are related to mental suffering. For instance, Vahia et  al. (2013) addressed how Hispanic rurals in the United States explained depressive symptoms and Kumar et  al. (2016) why rural patients abandon antipsychotic treatment for schizophrenia in India. Interestingly, Shakya (2005) studied the references to “evil spirits” used by rural locals in Eastern Nepal to explain a hysteria epidemic in a rural school. Additionally, on a wider scope, Edwards (2015) reveled the existence of over one million indigenous, divine, or faith healers currently in South Africa; and Soares et al. (2014) studied superstitious beliefs in rural communities that go against the control of high blood pressure. Rural development processes and interventions also generate a great deal of interest within rural psychology. In a literature research, Landini et al. (2010) found that rural development was the most common topic of psychological papers that addressed farmer populations. More recently, Roberti and Mussi (2014) presented a literature review on the relationship between psychology and rural development, and Landini and colleagues discussed the need and the theoretical guidelines for a psychology of rural development processes and interventions (Landini, Leeuwis, et al., 2014; Landini, Long, et al., 2014). One of the central topics of debate within this area has been farmers’ cooperation and associative processes. In this vein, Huertas-Hernández and Villegas-Uribe (2007) have studied peasants’ cooperatives as a commercialization strategy that goes beyond the market logic. Additionally, Landini (2007) addressed the construction of trust and distrust in farmers’ cooperatives; Scopinho (2007) conducted research on cooperativism in the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement; and Salvaro et al. (2014) studied women’s participation in rural cooperatives. Another topic of debate within the area of rural development is the understanding of farmers’ practices and behaviors. In a recent paper, Landini (2011) described peasants’ economic rationale, later expanded on within the study of farmers’ moral perceptions of the economy (Landini, 2012a), productive choices (Landini, 2014). Meanwhile, Rocha et  al. (2009) addressed intention of credit payment and Zuchiwschi and Fantini (2015) pro-environmental behaviors. A third area of interest in rural psychology is rural youth. Within this area, topics are highly diverse. For instance, Nelson and Bui (2010) studied satisfaction with psychotherapy received through videoconferencing; Sung et al. (2006) youth’s coping strategies; Salazar et  al. (2011) alcohol consumption; Ceballos Ospino et  al. (2007) sexual behaviors; and Ferreira and Bonfim (2013) emigration. Thus, it is clear that the subject itself is relevant but there are no consolidated topics of debate, at least within the literature review conducted. Within the area of developmental and educational psychology, three different topics were identified. Firstly, several articles, mostly from Latin America, studied mothers’ breeding practices in rural settings, as well as mother-child relationships (e.g., Jaramillo Pérez & Ruiz, 2013; Kobarg & Vieira, 2008; Vera Noriega &

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Martínez Ortega, 2006). Additionally, different authors focused on children’s cognitive development (Flores-Mendoza & Nascimento, 2007) and the evaluation of rural peoples’ intelligence (Lillo et al., 2014). Finally, a last group of papers pays particular attention to schools in rural contexts and villages. However, two different perspectives appeared, one centered on the practice of school psychologists (Clopton & Knesting, 2006; Edwards & Sullivan, 2014) and the other on the role of schools in rural communities (Lima & Silva, 2015; Vera-Bachmann & Salvo, 2016). Interestingly, the former approach seems more prominent among American authors while the latter more so with Latin American ones. The topic of people and communities’ identities in rural contexts has also attracted scholars’ attention. Some authors, in line with social identity theory, have studied the identity of rural communities in comparison with other social groups (Bonomo et al., 2008; Espinosa et al., 2013), particularly rural versus urban identities (Bonomo et al., 2011; Bonomo & Souza, 2013). Likewise, others have addressed the identity of specific communities or social groups in particular contexts. For instance, Landini (2012b) has studied peasant identity in Argentina, Alvaides and Scopinho (2013) landless rural workers’ identity in Brazil, and Turra et al. (2014) Mapuche natives’ identities in Chile. In this line, women’s identities have also become an area of research, with studies on rural cooperativist women (Salvaro et  al., 2014), peasant women (Salvaro et  al., 2013), and young rural women (Pizzinato et al., 2015). Interestingly, all of this academic work on rural identities has been produced in Latin America. Perhaps, the psychological approach to gender issues in rural contexts could be thought of as an independent area of interest. As shown in the previous paragraph, there are different papers that address women’s identities in rural settings. Additionally, papers on violence against women (Ferrer Lozano & González Ibarra, 2008) and on rural masculinities (Detoni & Nardi, 2013) can be found. Nonetheless, taking into account the limited development of the topic (Maciazeki-Gomes et al., 2016), as well as its presence in different thematic areas, perhaps it should be considered a transversal topic rather than a specific one. In the Brazilian context, due to recent changes in public policies that created opportunities for psychologists to work in small and mid-sized towns in the areas of health and quality of life, the role of psychologists within public policies became a dynamic topic of debate. In 2001, Albuquerque called for a greater involvement of psychologists in pro-poor, rural public policies, while later, other Brazilian authors discussed how to work in different contexts (Reis & Cabreira, 2013), with regard to specific public policies (Rocha et al., 2009) or with particularly vulnerable, rural populations (Fernandes & Munhoz, 2013). Additionally, authors from the United States have also highlighted the importance of psychologists’ involvement in public policies, but in this case in health policies (Rainer, 2010; Tarlow et al., 2014), in contrast with the more general interest shown by Brazilian scholars. Furthermore, in the developing world, mostly in Latin America, other topics have also drawn the attention of scholars. Specifically in Brazil, multiples authors have studied different social organizations and movements, particularly the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), with regard to different topics. For instance,

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Silva (2010) and Alvaides and Scopinho (2013) have studied the social memory and group participants’ reconstruction of their lived history from a psycho-political point of view. Likewise, other scholars have addressed childhood experiences (Silva & Silva, 2013), cooperative practices (Scopinho, 2007), as well as women’s healthcare strategies (Araújo et al., 2013; Costa et al., 2015) in MST’s rural settlements. Among other interesting topics, the study of social violence appeared as relevant in different Latin American countries. This includes papers on gender violence against rural women (Ferrer Lozano & González Ibarra, 2008; Vasquez, 2009), on the effect of paramilitary and guerrilla groups in Colombia (Bravo, 2013; Hewitt et al., 2014; Prado et al., 2015), and on violence against MST members in Brazil (Campos & Sawaia, 2013). Finally, there are also different articles that address interventions conducted from the perspective of community psychology in rural settings. In summary, it becomes apparent that different areas of interest and topics of debate exist in rural psychology, as well as differences between them in different contexts. In the following subheading, the differences that exist in the study of rural psychology between authors and countries of the developing and the developed world will be addressed.

2.2.4  R  ural Psychology in the Developing and the Developed World Within the previous headings, many differences were found between topics of interest in different countries and regions, yet the differences between developing and developed regions were found to be the most pronounced. Despite the fact there is no universal agreement on how to classify developing and developed countries, for practical reasons we will follow the United Nations’ regions classification (2013). Thus, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, Northern America (Canada and the United States), and Japan will be considered developed regions, while Africa, Asia (excluding Japan), Latin America, and Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) will be defined as developing. Beyond this classification, it is interesting to notice that most papers cited in this article are from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the United States, five of the eight biggest countries in the world. This could be suggesting that remoteness and problems with accessibility (and not rurality itself) are what makes rurality a topic relevant to psychology. Among the eight biggest countries, Russia, China, and India are mostly absent. In the case of the first two, it could be related to the languages in which the literature review was conducted. Likewise, the presence of Argentina and Brazil could also be because the reviewers used Spanish and Portuguese to conduct their searches. Nonetheless, the review conducted still suggests the possible relationship between the surface area of the countries and the relevance of rural issues in psychology.

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With regard to the differences between developing and developed regions, those referring to the topics of interest and the conceptualization and role of ethics in psychology stand out. Focusing on the area of health, it is clear that psychotherapy and how to deliver it in a rural setting is at the nucleus of the interest shown in developed regions. With regard to health issues in general, the study of the prevalence of mental illnesses in rural compared to urban areas seems to be shared among regions. In this line, other areas of interest appeared in both macro-regions, such as rural youth, how to contribute to public policies, and even gender issues. However, with regard to others, important differences appeared. In the area of cultural factors that influence health, most of the papers found were from developing countries, in this case Brazil, India, Nepal, and South Africa, which suggest the greater importance given to the topic in said macro-region. The same phenomenon was found with the study of rural actors’ social identity, with all identified papers coming from Latin America. Additionally, with regard to education and school psychology, while American scholars seem to focus on the practice of school psychologists, Latin American ones do so on the role of schools within rural communities. Generalizing these findings, it could be argued that American, Australian, and Canadian authors seemed to focus on psychologists’ professional practice (clinical or in schools) and, in contrast, scholars from developing countries on cultural and community issues in connection with rurality. Of course, this is not being argued as a general law, but indeed as a tendency. Interestingly, this very difference is also acknowledged when comparing American and Brazilian psychologists’ approach to public policies: while the former highlighted psychology’s potential for contributing to public health polices, the latter laid the claim for pro-poor public ones, thus showing a different positioning, Americans as committed professionals and Brazilians as agents of social change. Interestingly, these conclusions are strengthened when noticing that most psychological academic literature on rural development, social organizations, and movements, as well as social violence, are from different Latin American countries and do not have a clear or strong presence in developed regions, showing different areas of interest but also different approaches to practice. Moreover, these differences found between authors and papers coming from developing and developed regions are also present in how professional ethics are framed. As argued previously, most papers explicitly addressing ethics do it in the context of ethical dilemmas derived from clinical professional practice in small cities. In this vein, the main problems were dual relationships, clients’ confidentiality, and pressures to provide clinical attention beyond one’s own professional competence. Thus, it is clear that these ethical concerns are essential to those scholars who focus on providing psychotherapy services in rural settings, a characteristic area of interest in developed regions. Importantly, authors such as Bradley et  al. (2012) (United States) and Malone (2011) (Canada) highlight the need for advocacy for socially appropriate services for underserved rural communities. However, this seems to be the exception and not the rule in the developed world. In contrast, Latin American authors, in line with the guidelines of community psychology (Montero,

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2004), tend to address ethics from a different perspective, explicitly committing, as psychologists, to the development of a more just and equal society. In this line, it makes much more sense that psychologists from developing countries (particularly Latin American in this literature review) are generally more interested in rural development, rural social movements and organizations, and social violence. In brief, psychologists from developed regions seem to have a greater interest in professional (mostly clinical) practice in rural areas, which leads them to focus on ethical dilemmas and their implications for ethic codes. In contrast, Latin American psychologists (and, psychologists from developing regions in general) seem to address mostly social issues from a community psychology perspective, thus focusing on ethics in terms of commitment to social change.

2.3  Why Do We Need a Rural Psychology? Despite the fact that there is no final argument that can prove or establish the need for a rural psychology, in this subtitle we will present several strong points on its behalf. First argument: rural peoples account for almost half of the world’s population and are being neglected by psychology. As argued previously, almost half of the world’s total population lives in rural areas (United Nations, 2018). Moreover, this percentage tends to increase when focusing on disadvantaged dwellers because, on average, rural populations tend to be more vulnerable than their urban counterparts, particularly in areas such as access to health services, education, and gender equity, to name just some. In contrast, there is a clear and solid agreement among experts around the globe that psychology has historically neglected rural populations (e.g., Landini, 2015a; Malone, 2012; Pizzinato et al., 2015). Second argument: rural communities and populations possess distinctive characteristics and face specific challenges that have to be acknowledged and addressed by psychology and psychologists. These specificities include environmental, institutional, and sociocultural factors, which result in unique challenges. In terms of environment, authors have highlighted the role played by distances, lack of transportation, and geographic isolation in rural communities (Lima & Silva, 2015; Tarlow et al., 2014). Such contexts exacerbate pre-existing problems derived from scarcity or even lack of public services and professionals (Edwards & Sullivan, 2014; Rainer, 2010), including psychologists (Bhar et  al., 2006; Simpson et  al., 2014), which leads to poor access to appropriate educational and health services (Clopton & Knesting, 2006; Jameson & Blank, 2007). Additionally, scholars have also found differences in terms of social or cultural practices when comparing rural and urban areas, for instance, in adolescents’ behavior (Ceballos Ospino et al., 2007; Cotter & Smokowski, 2016), parenting practices (Vera Noriega & Martínez Ortega, 2006), and gender violence (Ferrer Lozano & González Ibarra, 2008). These specificities

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and differences end up generating unique problems, challenges, and contexts for research and practice (Harvey, 2000; Riding-Malon & Werth Jr, 2014), which require a specific and contextualized intervention on the part of psychology and psychologists, and not one derived from general principles. As Edwards and Sullivan (2014) put it, “effective professional functioning in rural contexts requires recognition of the subtleties of rural life” (p. 261). Third argument: psychology is framed and structured in urban terms. This framing is not circumstantial, but instead is a part of the history and structure of the discipline. As argued previously, several authors point out that psychology is framed in urban terms (Malone, 2011; Migliaro, 2015; Reis & Cabreira, 2013; Sánchez Quintanar, 2009). This includes psychological tests that are implicitly developed and adjusted for urban populations (Vera Noriega, 2002), a factor that is never mentioned when results are generalized (Albuquerque, 2002), public polices and interventions that fail to address the specific problems of rural communities (Rainer, 2010; Salazar et al., 2011; Tarlow et al., 2014), theories developed in urban contexts with urban people that are used to “understand” both urban and rural dynamics (Rojo et  al., 2010), and psychologists trained (only) to work in urban settings (Helbok, 2003). Importantly, this urban framing of psychology does not seem to be circumstantial or peripheral to the nucleus of the discipline but quite structural. Most psychologists live, practice, teach, and do research in urban contexts and mostly in large cities. Thus, it is not surprising that their areas of interest coincide with those of their environment (Landini, 2015a). Additionally, the expansion of psychology in most countries occurred in the context of a social process of modernization, wherein the development of industry, the migration from rural to urban areas, and the growth of big cities was central and lead psychology to address those and related topics (Albuquerque, 2001; Leite et al., 2013). Finally, since its emergence in the nineteenth century, psychology has mostly followed the guidelines of positivism. This epistemological approach, characterized by prioritizing the generalization of results over the understanding of diversity, also seems to have led to psychology to render rural environments invisible and ignore its diversity because of a tendency to generalize results obtained in urban contexts with urban people. Thus, it seems like the urban framing and focus of psychology is not just a simple descriptive fact, but the result of specific historical and epistemological factors. Conclusion: we need a rural psychology. In the context of these arguments, it is clear that rural peoples have tended to be neglected by psychology, despite the fact rural settings have distinctive characteristics and face specific challenges that cannot be addressed in urban terms. On the contrary, psychology seems to be urban-­ centered and tends to invisibilize rurality as a source of diversity, because of multiple reasons, some of which are quite structural. In this context, the need for psychology to have a greater involvement in these issues is indisputable, and the idea of giving the area a name such as rural psychology, in order to visibilize it, seems to be an advisable strategy.

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2.4  R  ural Psychology: Meaning and Preliminary Characteristics When we talk about rural psychology, we do not argue that it should be considered to be a subdiscipline of psychology, because it would imply substantializing its nature and would lead to the problem of how to differentiate it from other psychological subdisciplines. Quite the opposite, when we talk about rural psychology, we are referring to a field of problems and to a space of practice wherein rurality and psychology are connected, because both dimensions have to be taken into account if processes are to be understood accurately and problems to be addressed properly. Thus, the existence of a rural psychology should not be considered as a need derived from the nature of things, but as an attempt to make rurality and rural people visible to psychology and psychologists (Landini, 2015a). Such a psychology should not be based on the contrast between rural and urban environments (Albuquerque & Pimentel, 2004; Malone, 2011; Pizzinato et  al., 2015) because, besides being the result of an unrealistic, stereotyped approach, it would lead to understanding rurality, again, from and in terms of the characteristics and dynamics of urban spaces and not its own. On the contrary, rural psychology has to be based on rurality and rural people before it makes any comparison with urban environments. In this line, rural psychology should also put into question and denaturalize the urban model of psychological practice, as well as the assumptions used by psychology to understand human experience that are based on research conducted only in urban settings or structured in terms of urban experiences. Additionally, rural psychology should also pay particular attention to the environments (urban, rural, and its diversity) wherein specific human dynamics and experiences take place (Sánchez Quintanar, 2009), avoiding unnecessary generalizations. In this sense, it can be argued that rural psychology should greatly value the contextualization of research strategies, theoretical models, and psychological practices. Additionally, neither rural nor urban settings can be perceived as homogeneous. Time and time again, scholars argue that rurality is diverse (Bonomo et al., 2011; Curtin & Hargrove, 2010; Edwards & Sullivan, 2014; Rainer, 2010; Silva & Silva, 2013; Tarlow et al., 2014), which implies that it should be understood in its specificities and diversity. Likewise, rural people should be understood in terms of what they have in common with each other as well as their differences (Helbok, 2003). In order to understand human experiences and dynamics, rural psychologists have to adopt a complex approach that considers how biophysical, socio-political, and economic processes impact human experience in rural settings (Landini, Long, et al., 2014). In this sense, it is clear that rural psychology has to engage in an interdisciplinary dialogue with social and natural sciences (Landini, 2015b; Zuchiwschi & Fantini, 2015), as well as with rurals’ knowledge and wisdom (Migliaro, 2015; Singh, 2002) as a means to properly understand rural experience in its diversity and complexity.

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Finally, our characterization of rural psychology has to also take into account that rural communities tend to be underserved, that they are subject to multiple disadvantages and, particularly in developing countries, they are home to multiple oppressed and excluded social groups. Thus, it is also essential that rural psychology, based on the principle of social justice, engages in advocacy for improved access to public services and growing social equity of disadvantaged rural communities (Bradley et al., 2012; Malone, 2011). Moreover, following the principles of the psychology of liberation (Montero & Sonn, 2009), we also argue that rural psychologists should acknowledge how their practice and approach are (implicitly or explicitly) contributing to reproducing or changing long-term social inequities and injustices of highly marginalized rural communities and make a free, conscious decision regarding which social interests and groups are to be supported.

2.5  Challenges and Final Reflections In this text, the current situation of psychology in rural areas was presented and the need for a rural psychology discussed. This article is the result of an Internet and literature review in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, which speaks of its amplitude but also of its potential shortcomings. For instance, no articles from China and Russia (two of the biggest and most populated countries in the world) were found in the process. Interestingly, important, unexpected differences between developing and developed regions were identified during the analysis, which broaden the results and opened new lines of thought. In this context, we think that rural psychology, understood as a proposal and an opportunity, faces several key challenges on its way to becoming a relevant area of interest and debate within psychology. Firstly, rural psychologists have to make visible and to put into question the assumptions, traditions, and practices that lead them to implicitly use the psychology of urban people as a general pattern or blueprint for psychology. If conducted seriously, such a task will support more firmly the need for a rural psychology, as well as enrich psychology as a whole. Secondly, rural psychology also has the challenge to show real usefulness, which involves generating contributions to psychology as a science, for the practice of psychologists working in rural settings and to the well-being of rurals. Moreover, rural psychology also has to demonstrate that it has the capacity to generate new ideas as well as more egalitarian rural societies. Thirdly, in a context where different scholars argue that psychologists usually have no education or training to work in rural areas, rural psychology has to seriously address the challenge of generating training and education programs for psychologists that are working or may work in rural settings. Undoubtedly, these challenges are difficult, and there is no proof that they will be overcome. However, there is no doubt that, in this process, there is nothing to lose and much to win.

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Hewitt, N., Gantiva, C., Vera, A., Cuervo, M., Hernández, N., Juárez, F., & Parada, A. (2014). Afectaciones psicológicas de niños y adolescentes expuestos al conflicto armado en una zona rural de Colombia. Acta Colombiana de Psicología, 17(1), 79–89. https://doi.org/10.14718/ ACP.2014.17.1.9 Heyman, S. (1986). Toward the development of rural community psychology. American Journal of Community Psychology, 14(5), 453–456. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00935352 Heyman, S., & VandenBos, G. (1989). Developing local resources to enrich the practice of rural community psychology. Psychiatric Services, 40(1), 21–23. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036172 Huertas-Hernández, O., & Villegas-Uribe, C. (2007). La narrativa como posibilidad de comprensión de las organizaciones productivas rurales. Universitas Psychologica, 6(1), 163–172. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/647/64760116.pdf IFAD. (2011). Facts & figures. Rural poverty report 2011. www.ifad.org/rpr2011/media/kit/ factsheet_e.pdf Jameson, J., & Blank, M. (2007). The role of clinical psychology in rural mental health services: Defining problems and developing solutions. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 14(3), 283–298. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-­2850.2007.00089.x Jaramillo Pérez, J., & Ruiz, M. (2013). Metas y prácticas de socialización de madres del área rural cundiboyacense. Psicología desde el Caribe, 30(2), 276–308. http://www.scielo.org.co/ pdf/psdc/v30n2/v30n2a05.pdf Kobarg, A., & Vieira, M. (2008). Crenças e práticas de mães sobre o desenvolvimento infantil nos contextos rural e urbano. Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica, 21(3), 401–408. https://doi. org/10.1590/S0102-­79722008000300008 Kosaraju, S., Vadlamani, L., Bashir, M., Kalasapati, L., Rao, G., & Rao, G. (2015). Risk factors for suicidal attempts among lower socioeconomic rural population of Telangana region. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 37(1), 30–35. https://doi.org/10.4103/0253-­7176.150813 Kumar, C., Thirthalli, J., Suresha, K., Venkatesh, B., Kishorekumar, K., Arunachala, U., & Gangadhar, B. (2016). Reasons for schizophrenia patients remaining out of treatment: Results from a prospective study in a rural south indian community. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 38(2), 101–104. https://doi.org/10.4103/0253-­7176.178767 Landini, F. (2007). Cooperación y desconfianza en campesinos formoseños. Aportes de la psicología a la formulación de estrategias y metodologías de desarrollo rural. Investigaciones en Psicología, 12(3), 97–118. Landini, F. (2011). Racionalidad económica campesina. Mundo Agrario, 12(23). http://www.scielo.org.ar/pdf/magr/v12n23/v12n23a14.pdf Landini, F. (2012a). Moral perception of the economy and wealth in peasants’ worldview. Rural Society Journal, 21(3), 219–230. https://doi.org/10.5172/rsj.2012.21.3.219 Landini, F. (2012b). Peasant identity. Contributions towards a rural psychology from an Argentinean case study. Journal of Community Psychology, 40(5), 520–538. https://doi. org/10.1002/jcop.21479 Landini, F. (2014). Elecciones productivas y teorías del funcionamiento del mercado en campesinos. Un abordaje psicosocial. Cuadernos de la Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales, 45, 117–135. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/185/18538243006.pdf Landini, F. (2015a). La noción de psicología rural y sus desafíos en el contexto latinoamericano. In F. Landini (Ed.), Hacia una psicología rural latinoamericana (pp. 21–32). CLACSO. Landini, F. (2015b). Introducción. In F. Landini (Ed.), Hacia una psicología rural latinoamericana (pp. 11–17). CLACSO. Landini, F. (Ed.). (2015c). Hacia una psicología rural latinoamericana. CLACSO. Landini, F., Benítez, M., & Murtagh, S. (2010). Revisión de los trabajos realizados por la psicología sobre pequeños productores agropecuarios. Anuario de Investigaciones, 17(1), 221–229. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/3691/369139946012.pdf Landini, F., González Cowes, V., Bianqui, V., Logiovine, S., Vázquez, J., & Viudes, S. (2015). Accesibilidad en el ámbito de la salud materna de mujeres rurales de tres localidades

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del norte argentino. Saúde e Sociedade, 24(4), 1151–1163. https://doi.org/10.1590/ S0104-­12902015137239 Landini, F., Leeuwis, C., Long, N., & Murtagh, S. (2014). Towards a psychology of rural development processes and interventions. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 24(6), 534–546. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2187 Landini, F., Long, N., Leeuwis, C., & Murtagh, S. (2014). Theoretical guidelines for a psychology of rural development. Cuadernos de Desarrollo Rural, 11(74), 125–147. https://doi. org/10.11144/Javeriana.CRD11-­74.tgpr Leite, J., & Dimensteinm, M. (Eds.). (2013). Psicologia e contextos rurais. UFRN. Leite, J., Macedo, J., Dimenstein, M., & Dantas, C. (2013). A formação em psicologia para a atuação em contextos rurais. In J. Leite & M. Dimensteinm (Eds.), Psicologia e contextos rurais (pp. 27–55). UFRN. Lillo, G., Alvarado, K., Araneda, C., Pérez-Salas, C., Fuica, P., Tenorio, M., Miranda, R., & Lira, J. (2014). Habilidades cognitivas, contexto rural y urbano: Comparación de perfiles WAIS-IV en jóvenes. Terapia Psicológica, 32(2), 143–152. https://doi.org/10.4067/ S0718-­48082014000200007 Lima, L., & Silva, A. (2015). A relação entre a educação infantil e as famílias do campo. Psicologia Escolar e Educacional, 19(3), 475–483. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-­166X2010000100012 Maciazeki-Gomes, R., Souza, C., Baggio, L., & Wachs, F. (2016). The work of the community health worker from the perspective of popular health education: Possibilities and challenges. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 21(5), 1637–1646. https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-­81232015215. 17112015. Malone, J. (2011). Professional practice out of the urban context: Defining Canadian rural psychology. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 52(4), 289–295. https://doi.org/10.1037/ a0024157 Malone, J. (2012). Professional ethics in context. Practising rural Canadian psychologists. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 9(4), 463–477. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-­012-­9394-­7 Martins, A. (2010). A formação em psicologia e a percepção do meio rural: Um debate necessário. Psicologia Ensino & Formação, 1(1), 83–98. http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/pdf/pef/v1n1/08.pdf Migliaro, A. (2015). Psicología rural: Pensar lo que se hace y saber lo que se piensa. In F. Landini (Ed.), Hacia una psicología rural latinoamericana (pp. 239–250). CLACSO. Montero, M. (2004). Introducción a la psicología comunitaria: Desarrollo, conceptos y procesos. University of Guadalajara. Montero, M., & Sonn, C. (2009). The psychology of liberation. Theory and application. Springer. Nelson, E., & Bui, T. (2010). Rural telepsychology services for children and adolescents. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 66(5), 490–501. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20682 Pillay, A., & Thwala, J. (2012). Are rural students from historically disadvantaged communities prepared for psychology studies at university? Journal of Psychology in Africa, 22(3), 419–424. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2012.10820548 Pizzinato, A., Hamann, C., Machado, R., & Strey, M. (2015). Relações de gênero e ruralidade nos projetos vitais e noções de si de jovens mulheres. Fractal: Revista de Psicologia, 27(3), 247–255. https://doi.org/10.1590/1984-­0292/1484 Prado, M., Carpeta, M., & Tapiab, S. (2015). Del campo a la periferia de la ciudad, la omnipresente sombra de la violencia. Campesinos desplazados forzados en Colombia caminan de la mano del eterno retorno a la violencia: vulneración y potencia de vida. Psicologia USP, 26(2), 161–168. https://doi.org/10.1590/0103-­6564D20140018 Rainer, J. (2010). The road much less travelled: Treating rural and isolated clients. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 66(5), 475–478. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20680 Reis, R., & Cabreira, L. (2013). As políticas públicas e o campo: E o psicólogo com isso? Psicologia: Ciência e Profissão, 33(special issue), 54–65. https://www.scielo.br/pdf/pcp/ v33nspe/v33speca07.pdf

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Riding-Malon, R., & Werth, J., Jr. (2014). Psychological practice in rural settings: At the cutting edge. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 45(2), 85–91. https://doi.org/10.1037/ a0036172 Roberti, J., & Mussi, G. (2014). El desarrollo rural y las contribuciones de la psicología: Un estado de la cuestión. Mundo Agrario, 15(28). http://www.mundoagrario.unlp.edu.ar/article/ view/5016 Rocha, F., Albuquerque, F., Coelho, J., Dias, M., & Marcelino, M. (2009). Avaliação do programa nacional de fortalecimento da agricultura familiar: a intenção de pagamento do crédito. Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica, 22(1), 44–52. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbl.30217 Rojo, G., Vera, J., & Martínez, R. (2010). Aportes desde la psicología y sociología a la ruralidad. UAIM & CIAD. Salazar, G., Valdez, R., Martínez, M., & Pedroza, C. (2011). Intervenciones breves con adolescentes estudiantes rurales que consumen alcohol en exceso. Universitas Psychologica, 10(3), 803–815. http://www.scielo.org.co/pdf/rups/v10n3/v10n3a13.pdf Salvaro, G., Estevam, D., & Felipe, D. (2014). Mulheres em cooperativas rurais virtuais: reflexões sobre gênero e subjetividade. Psicologia: Ciência e Profissão, 34(2), 390–405. https://doi. org/10.1590/1982-­3703000262013 Salvaro, G., Lago, M., & Wolff, C. (2013). “Mulheres agricultoras” e “mulheres camponesas”: Lutas de gênero, identidades políticas e subjetividades. Psicologia & Sociedade, 25(1), 79–89. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-­71822013000100010 Sánchez Quintanar, C. (Ed.). (2009). Psicología en ambiente rural. Plaza y Valdés. Scopelliti, J., Judd, F., Grigg, M., Hodgins, G., Fraser, C., Hulbert, C., Endacott, R., & Wood, A. (2004). Dual relationships in mental health practice: Issues for clinicians in rural settings. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 38(11–12), 953–959. https://doi. org/10.1080/j.1440-­1614.2004.01486.x Scopinho, R. (2007). Sobre cooperação e cooperativas em assentamentos rurais. Psicologia & Sociedade, 19(1), 84–94. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-­71822007000400012 Shakya, R. (2005). Epidemic of hysteria in a school of rural Eastern Nepal: A case report. Journal of Indian Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 1(4). http://files.eric.ed.gov/ fulltext/EJ847488.pdf Silva, A. (2010). O caminho da terra: Revisitando a história do MST no Pontal do Paranapanema –SPdesde uma ótica psicopolítica. Psicologia em Estudo, 15(1), 137–149. https://doi.org/10.1590/ S1413-­73722010000100015 Silva, J., & Silva, A. (2013). Vivências de crianças no ambiente rural: aproximações e distanciamentos na educação infantil. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología, 45(3), 351–362. https:// doi.org/10.14349/rlp.v45i3.1478 Simpson, S., Rochford, S., Livingstone, A., English, S., & Austin, C. (2014). Tele-web psychology in rural South Australia: The logistics of setting up a remote university clinic staffed by clinical psychologists in training. Australian Psychologist, 49(4), 193–199. https://doi.org/10.1111/ ap.12049 Singh, C. (2002). Rural psychology in India: Issues and approaches. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 37(3), 404–419. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27767798 Soares, M., Silva, L., Chequer, M., Rodrigues, S., & Dias, C. (2014). Comportamentos supersticiosos e práticas comportamentais inadequadas no tratamento da hipertensão arterial sistêmica. Psicologia, Saúde & Doenças, 15(2), 524–537. https://www.redalyc.org/ pdf/362/36231460015.pdf Sung, K., Puskar, K., & Sereika, S. (2006). Psychosocial factors and coping strategies of adolescents in a rural Pennsylvania high school. Public Health Nursing, 23(6), 523–530. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1525-­1446.2006.00589.x Sutherland, C., & Chur-Hansen, A. (2014). Knowledge, skills and attitudes of rural and remote psychologists. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 22(6), 273–279. https://doi.org/10.1111/ ajr.12152

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Sutherland, C., Chur-Hansen, A., & Winefield, H. (2016). Experiences of fly-in, fly-out and drive­in, drive-out rural and remote psychologists. Australian Psychologist. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/ap.12194 Tarlow, K., McCord, C., Elliott, T., & Brossart, D. (2014). Health-related quality of life of rural clients seeking telepsychology services. International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications, Article ID 168158. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/168158 Turra, H., Garrido, S., Pérez, C., Llanquinao, G., & Merino, M. (2014). El rol del espacio recreado en la construcción discursiva de identidad de adolescentes mapuches de Temuco y Santiago. Alpha (Osorno), 38, 155–172. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-­22012014000100011 United Nations. (2013). Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings. Retrieved http://unstats.un.org/unsd/ methods/m49/m49regin.htm#developed United Nations. (2018). World urbanization prospects: The 2018 revision, online edition. https:// population.un.org/wup/Download/Files/WUP2018-­F01-­Total_Urban_Rural.xls Vahia, I., Camacho, A., Depp, C., Herrera, A., Thompson, W., Munoz, R., Jeste, D., & Ng, B. (2013). To what factors do rural-dwelling hispanics attribute depressive symptoms? Depression Research and Treatment, Article ID 781986. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/781986 Valdivia, M., Silva, D., Sanhueza, F., Cova, F., & Melipillán, R. (2015). Prevalencia de intento de suicidio adolescente y factores de riesgo asociados en una comuna rural de la provincia de Concepción. Revista Médica de Chile, 143(3), 320–328. https://doi.org/10.4067/ S0034-­98872015000300006 Vasquez, G. (2009). A psicologia na área rural: Os assentamentos da reforma agrária e as mulheres assentadas. Psicologia: Ciência e Profissão, 29(4), 856–867. https://www.scielo.br/pdf/pcp/ v29n4/v29n4a15.pdf Vera Noriega, J. (2002). Prolegómenos para una psicología de la salud comunitaria en el México rural. Revista Sonorense de Psicología, 16(1), 2–15. Vera Noriega, J., & Martínez Ortega, L. (2006). Juego, estimulación en el hogar y desarrollo del niño en una zona rural empobrecida. Enseñanza e Investigación en Psicología, 11(1), 129–140. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/292/29211109.pdf Vera-Bachmann, D., & Salvo, S. (2016). Cierre de escuelas rurales y salud colectiva. Salud Pública de México, 58(1), 4–5. http://www.scielo.org.mx/pdf/spm/v58n1/v58n1a4.pdf Williams, J. (1925). Our rural heritage. The social psychology of rural development. Alfred A. Knopf. Zuchiwschi, E., & Fantini, A. (2015). Intenção comportamental de agricultores do Oeste de Santa Catarina para a conservação de florestas nativas. Estudos de Psicologia (Natal), 20(1), 61–71. https://doi.org/10.5935/1678-­4669.20150008

Part II

Mental Health and Rural Populations

Chapter 3

Working with Use of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs in Rural Communities Telmo Mota Ronzani, María Lorena Lefebvre, Júlia Batista Afonso, Letícia Lopes de Souza, and Juliana Branco Castro

3.1  Introduction Problems associated with the consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs are considered a public health issue around the globe. Epidemiological data show that a quarter of the world population has used some type of psychoactive substance during their lives, with a growing tendency throughout the years. Alcohol and tobacco are the most consumed drugs, followed by cannabis, opioids, and amphetamines. Furthermore, 35 million people are estimated to have some type of dependency disorder (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODOC], 2020). In addition to the consequences of substance use for the health of individuals, it is important to consider the impact of drug use, production, and selling across the globe, as well as increasing the assessment of that impact. Variables such as violence, geopolitical and territorial disputes, poverty, and general living conditions are some of the issues that have to be considered in discussions on this topic (Ronzani, 2018). Relatedly, we stress the importance of considering substance use from the perspective of social determinants, broadening the understanding of health and disease processes beyond individual and biological aspects, expanding our focus to historical and social contexts, so as to understand the living conditions of communities (Rocha & David, 2015). Thus, we view the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs as embedded in a series of relativonships and determinants such as race/ethnicity, territory, and social class, among others. Substance use is hence not a universal phenomenon, but is influenced by those factors (Dimenstein et  al., 2017; Wilkinson & Marmot, 2003).

T. M. Ronzani (*) · J. B. Afonso · L. L. de Souza · J. B. Castro Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil M. L. Lefebvre Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_3

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According to this perspective, when we present the issue of substance use in rural settings, we begin by examining the sociohistorical aspects of this behavior, assuming that understanding its impacts implies understanding the sociocultural processes involved in substance use and in the daily life of persons or groups in specific points of time and space (Escohodato, 1998). It has been shown that psychoactive substance use, particularly of alcohol and tobacco, is prevalent in multiple rural settings and influences the living conditions of those individuals (Ronzani et al., 2016). For this reason, it is essential to identify the situations in which such use occurs, as well as relationships and conditions (both objective and subjective) that influence the daily life of those persons (Dimenstein et al., 2017). This chapter presents some perspectives of investigation and intervention on health care in rural communities, with a focus on Public Health and Community Social Psychology. We concentrate on life contexts of rural Latin American populations, who are generally afflicted by social inequality, iniquity, and multiple barriers to access to health care, but who also produce meanings, as well as survival and resistance actions in those contexts (UNODC, 2017).

3.2  C  hallenges to (Mental) Health Care and Drug Use in Rural Contexts Rural settings are characterized by a complex interplay of diversities and specificities and can be described as peoples and communities who have ways of life and social reproduction tied predominantly to the countryside, forests, aquatic environments, farming, and extractivism (Brasil, 2014). Compared to the standards for urban areas, which are generally used as reference by health professionals, working with health care in rural settings requires greater attention to the contexts of those populations to ensure access to qualified health professionals, particularly regarding the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs (Lima et al., 2020; Pessoa et al. 2018). Policies guiding health care for rural populations are often designed in large, economically developed urban centers, usually without the needs of rural populations in mind or the implications of policies targeted at those populations (World Health Organization [WHO], 2018). This occurs in addition to the progressively increasing specialization of health professionals, particularly of physicians (in organ systems and/or pathologies), which across the century has promoted scale economies and centralization of health services, leading health professionals to work predominantly in large urban centers (WHO, 2010). Moreover, investigating the use of alcohol and other drugs in rural populations reveals a significant gap in the development and implementation of public health policies that aim at promoting health and reducing harm resulting from psychoactive substance use by this segment of the population (UNODC, 2017). Publications on rural populations generally deal with epidemiological aspects of their living environment. Therefore, there is probably considerable subnotification of the use of alcohol and other drugs by those communities (Jaeger et al., 2018; Scholze et al., 2015).

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Another difficulty is the scarcity of university degrees that include courses on working with rural populations and curricular internships in those contexts. Health professionals who already work in the field, particularly in rural settings, often have no available training options that provide a better understanding of public policies and processes that constitute the identity of the environment where they work (Lea & Cruickshank, 2015). In this context, Brazil has established an important milestone in the development of public health policies: administrative measure n 2.866 of December 2, 2011, which instituted the National Policy for Integral Health of Rural, Forest, and Water Populations (Política Nacional de Saúde Integral das Populações do Campo e das Florestas e das Águas—PNSIPCFA) within the Brazilian Public Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde—SUS). This policy is the result of multiple discussions organized by the Grupo da Terra (“Land Group”), which gathered health professionals and social movements, including representatives of several expressions of rurality, such as peasants, settlers, riverside populations, and maroon communities (quilombolas). PNSIPCFA aims to reduce iniquities of health-disease processes in its social determinations for those populations, following the principles of equity, integrality, and transversality of SUS, at all levels of health care (Brasil, 2014). Among those levels, we highlight, due to its communitarian basis, the importance of Primary Health Care (PHC), defined as the set of actions that occur at the level of first contact within the health system, with the goal of health promotion, health problems prevention, and disease recovery (Brasil, 2017). As an entry point and coordination level of health care, PHC needs to be accessible, by being present in geographical and cultural spaces where health production occurs. Its essential attributes are first contact access, longitudinality, integrality, and coordination of care; its derived attributes are family guidance, community guidance, and cultural competence. In Brazil, PHC is organized according to the Family Health Strategy (Estratégia de Saúde da Família—ESF) and includes Community Health Agents, residents who work as links between the health system and the community (Brasil, 2017). Regarding PHC, PNSIPCFA has an Operative Plan that follows a set of principles: relevance of strengthening, improving, and disseminating basic health care (understood as synonymous with PHC), organized according to the ESF; creation of Support Centers for Family Health, currently named Expanded Centers for Family Health (Núcleo Ampliado de Saúde da Família—NASF-AB); and continuous training of ESF teams to discuss health care in rural environments and in forests. Another important goal is the development of indicators of access to the ESF and health promotion actions targeted at those populations, including reducing the abuse of alcohol and other drugs (Brasil, 2014). According to some studies on PHC, ESF, and rural populations, health care is still individualistic and predominantly based on biological, curative views. ESF teams must be trained to adopt communitarian practices, integrating knowledges and health practices produced by those peoples, in addition to increasing community participation, including the dimensions of prevention and health promotion and the consolidation of the PNSIPCFA (de Miranda et al., 2020; Dantas et al., 2019; da

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Costa et al., 2019). Considering PHC as an important strategy to increase access to health care by individuals, communities, and populations in Brazil and other countries, we view those principles not only as a level of health care but also as a way of thinking about health care that meets the goals of contextualized actions targeting the needs of those communities. Considering the field of psychology from an interdisciplinary perspective as contributing to care in public health, we describe some proposals on how to develop actions and knowledges in Community Social Psychology.

3.3  C  ommunity Psychology and Rural Contexts: A Possible Approximation Community Psychology works with community residents to facilitate and produce change. Therefore, it is essential for psychologists to be familiar with the context where they are entering, since there are key aspects (Montero, 2004) that limit what can be accomplished by community work. In practice, however, Community Psychology interventions often do not follow those principles. There are several reasons why psychologists behave in this contradictory manner. Nevertheless, it is necessary to emphasize a contextual approach, which becomes less effective in the absence of an agreement about what is a community and the relationship intrinsic to that phenomenon. That is, context and community cannot be viewed separately, since they are intimately connected and determine one another. Context is the text of the community or the group (Fernández, 1989). However, a lack of clarity on this issue is understandable, as this is not an easy task. The word “community” is polysemic, characterized by great diversity and complexity. This was shown in the field of social sciences by Hillery (1955), who found over 94 different definitions of “community” in the twentieth century. In its original meaning, the word refers to a particular relationship between a land and a community. In a broad sense, it indicates the quality of that which is shared or the possession of something that is shared between persons. Depending on what it is that is shared, there are distinct meanings to the word. This multiplicity often leads to serious mistakes. Thus, it is necessary to define the scope and meaning of the word for each situation (Ander-Egg, 2000). Back to the importance of investigating the context, we argue that a community needs to be understood from an integral, global, and interrelated perspective of structures, groups, social networks, individual behaviors, social relations, etc. present in the area where the community resides. The community is delimited by its members following criteria that are political-administrative, historic-cultural, or both (Ander-Egg, 2000). Hence, it is important to investigate the context that characterizes the community and vice versa, making it essential to consider which approaches and interventions are adequate for each situation. Moreover, the community, as well as its context, is dynamic, a moving entity, in constant

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transformation, always a process (Montero, 2004). For those reasons, it is essential to plan and execute processes that allow to understand and reconstruct the history of the relationship between a community and its context. Two processes described in the literature are useful in this regard: historicization and familiarization. Historicization enables reconstructing the collective memory of the community, understanding the social, political, and economic contexts in which relevant facts took place, as well as reaffirming rights, retrieving ideas, knowledges, and resources. That is, historicization enables reconstructing histories that provides essential tools for contextual practices. At the same time, historicization contributes to develop and/or consolidate the sense of community (Montero, 2006). Regarding the process of familiarization, it is possible to understand the patterns of regular and stable behaviors (habitus, a concept proposed by Bourdieu, 1972) produced and reproduced by the community, which shows the “natural” way of being in the world, from the community’s own perspective. It is a learning process that consists in becoming acquainted with the community and vice versa. Familiarization reveals, by working with community members, the habits and naturalization typical of a group, as well as the context in which they arose and developed. In this way, it is possible to accept, understand, and interact with the strange, the diverse, to make it admissible and internalize it, and later to question it (Montero, 2004). Thus, understanding the context, an essential aspect of the community, allows us to develop a working proposal specific for each community while simultaneously establishing agreements and strengthening the bonds between community members. This is crucial when working with rural communities because it allows us to become familiar with its particular features, generating knowledge to “build doors,” according to Pedro Vieira (Ieno, 2013), a family farmer. Community Psychology has developed distinct interventions and psychosocial works to tackle concrete issues faced by communities (Freias, 2010). Specifically in the case of rural settings, this is still a dearth of psychological services compared to urban settings (Martins et al., 2010). In particular, there is a lack of involvement by psychologists in debates on modes of subjectivation and psychosocial and identitary processes in rural settings (Leite & Dimenstein, 2013). This situation notwithstanding, some authors and groups in Community Social Psychology have contributed, both theoretically and methodologically, to a psychological approach that is committed to transforming the reality of rural populations (Leite et  al., 2013). The processes of problematization, conscientization, and empowerment are tools used by community psychologists in rural settings that are coherent with those goals, promoting a critical analysis of their actual living conditions and their strengths. Problematization, described by Montero (2004) as a critical process of analysis, challenges explanations, and considerations about life circumstances, makes it possible for residents of a region to question the essential and natural character of some facts. According to Góis (2005), through problematization individuals can see the world as a challenge to be overcome, and not as something previously established, and thus inevitable. Hence, problematization creates opportunities to question and

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challenge, one of the first movements necessary for self-actualization in those contexts. Conscientization is described by Martin-Baró (1998) as a process that is essential for the activity of psychologists who desire to work according to critical realism. For him, this process presupposes changes in the way individuals interact with their environment and with others. Conscientization, defined by Freire (1980) as “[…] apprehending reality […], is the most critical possible perspective of reality, ‘unveiling’ it to understand it and to understand the myths that deceive and help to maintain the reality of the dominant structure” (p. 29) (translated by the authors). It is through this process of developing a critical consciousness about reality that people in these contexts may “construct themselves as agents of their history and put down roots” (Góis, 2005, p. 132) (translated by the authors). At the same time, along with problematization, conscientization produces a finer perspective on concrete and contextualized situations, leading to the development of practices specific to rural settings. Lastly, according to Montero (2004), empowerment consists in the simultaneous development of skills and resources, both communitarian and individual, with the goal of consciously, responsibly, and critically taking control of situations in the life shared by individuals. According to Montero, this enables residents to transform their shared environment while simultaneously transforming themselves. Kieffer (1982) argues that empowerment includes a progressive development of strategies and resources to achieve collective or personal sociopolitical changes. That is precisely what empowerment promotes: a recognition and deepening of individual and collective tools to carry out actions conceived and planned using the other two processes. Furthermore, the work of the community psychologist, in both communitarian and rural settings, involves working with persons in a community, taking into account the psychosocial processes of oppression, transformation, and liberation present in those persons, considering their specificities, characteristics, and conditions. Hence, this work involves developing ways of adaptation or resistance, contributing to create conditions for changes that are both necessary and possible in a certain context (Heller, 1984).

3.4  P  erspectives for Work in the Field of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs in Rural Settings As discussed above, community work, with an emphasis on the territory and employing theoretical-methodological tools from Community Social Psychology and Public Health—fields that have accumulated relevant knowledge and experience in Latin America—may be an option for health care in the field of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. We advocate this perspective based on the idea, described earlier, that psychoactive substance use and the benefits and harm that use engenders should not be viewed as a result only of neurophysiological reactions but also

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of cultural, economic, and subjective effects and meanings. Such broader relationships have been discussed and investigated in greater depth elsewhere (Ronzani, 2018), and examining them is outside the scope of the current chapter. However, we would like to emphasize that it is essential to consider drugs in their relationship with the individual and their environment. As an example, we may ask if the effect of psychoactive substance use has the same meaning or impact in all countries. That is, are the consequences of such use the same when we analyze them according to race, gender, or social class? We will certainly find completely distinct outcomes and meanings. For this reason, actions in this field must always be planned considering its context. The first aspect to examine is how to define “rural setting”: this is not a universal and homogeneous category. Instead, it changes depending not only on which non-urban group is investigated, such as indigenous communities, maroon communities (quilombolas), riverside populations, country towns, settlement areas, and others, which have their own characteristics but also on territory, which is created and shaped by history, language, culture, and environmental issues, among others (Ronzani, Mendes, et al., 2019). Therefore, despite the great relevance of general guidelines for interventions in the field of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, and despite the usefulness of the evidence and knowledge generated within this field, it is crucial that such actions be contextualized according to the territory where they are carried out. For example, drug use has increasingly been discussed in indigenous communities, as well as the increase, observed in several countries, in prevalence of drug dependence in those groups (UNODC, 2017). However, it is important to acknowledge that several social factors contribute to this phenomenon, such as a rise in social vulnerability due to impoverishment; expulsion from and violence within territories; lack of State presence, or negligence by the State; unemployment and changes in the options of economic activities available; and changes in cultural codes and resignification of the use of some substances, which previously may have had a spiritual/ritualistic meaning, to other forms of use (Ronzani, 2018). Another example are the meanings attributed to the use of alcohol and tobacco in rural communities, often linked to a culture of sexism (Costa et al., 2014) or even to the economy and local livelihood (UNODC, 2017). We can also examine substance use in areas of family farming or by workers of monocultures, either of sugarcane (to produce cachaça) or tobacco, where economic relationships and consumption habits are established based on those activities. Thus, we need to take those aspects into account when planning actions that focus on substance use in those contexts (Souza et al., 2012; Vargas & de Oliveira, 2012). From the perspective of Community Social Psychology and Public Health, it is possible to plan and carry out interventions focusing on issues related to alcohol and other drugs in those regions, considering the aspects described above. Participative methodologies and research-action-interventions are important resources for the work in rural contexts (Ronzani et al., 2016). Following the steps of insertion in the

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community, as described above, we may carry out actions targeting the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs in the territory. Some principles are basic in this process: (1) acknowledging idiosyncrasies and the context of the territory; (2) analyzing meanings involved in the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs; (3) considering social determinations that influence the territory, by identifying not only barriers to access or health care, but also potentialities; (4) becoming acquainted with formal and informal support networks of the community; and (5) carrying out actions and evaluating them according to the context and together with the community (Ronzani et al., in press). In this sense, health-care actions related to the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs in rural settings have a communitarian foundation and are carried out within a territory and with the greatest possible participation by the community, necessarily including the processes of familiarization, participative diagnosis, planning, intervention, and evaluation (Ronzani et  al., in press). To achieve that goal, psychologists may employ multiple tools and methods, such as conversation circles, culture circles, focal groups, individual interviews, home visits, questionnaires, surveys, community mappings, etc., which require adaptation and care to be used adequately. Additionally, from the perspective of health care, problems related to the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs are defined as chronic health conditions and thus require continuous and transdisciplinary action. This involves participative planning and diagnosis, designing different strategies for individual and/or collective action, at distinct levels of problems and impairments (Ronzani et al., in press). It is then possible to develop strategies at the levels of prevention, treatment, or harm reduction, which entails actions targeting groups, populations, or specific environments; pharmacological or clinical interventions; and/or social actions such as income generation and job creation, for example. Considering the complexity of the type of care we propose, the perspective of intersectoral action is essential. Identifying formal and informal support networks not only in the field of health, such as Primary Health Care teams, but also institutions and groups that support rural communities in distinct sectors, local leaders, and cultural and religious groups are some possibilities to strengthen the work of the support network (UNODC, 2017; Ronzani et al., 2015). There is a large literature showing that community-based strategies are effective in systematizing integrated actions in the field of alcohol and other drugs, particularly for Primary Health Care services, in distinct contexts, populations, and regions (Ronzani, Fuentes-Mejía, et al., 2019). These actions are based on implementing tracking practices and brief interventions from a communitarian and systemic perspective. These involve sensitizing the community, local authorities, and health professionals to implement brief interventions based on reducing the harm caused by psychoactive substance use and organizing and monitoring the care network of users of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs (Ronzani et al., 2017).

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3.5  Final Considerations As explained above, thinking about issues pertaining to the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs in rural settings reveals a host of challenges. Those include a need for adequate training by health professionals; the complexity and social vulnerability of this population; the lack of policies and their dismantling; and a need for a broader perspective on drug use, instead of perspectives that are often generic and characterized by stigma and prejudice on the part of certain groups, further increasing the challenges and burden carried by that population. In addition, we often find that these issues are analyzed from an individualistic and decontextualized perspective, which leads to misplaced and idiosyncratic interventions. On the other hand, that complexity and the challenges it involves leads us to contemplate new possibilities for actions that include continuous, integral, and widespread health care. This leads to a more contextualized perception of psychoactive substance use, which is not restricted to the individual, but instead considers his or her territory and community as instances of understanding and action, in an integrated and active manner. In this sense, we hope that our contribution as health professionals working in the field is more effective and tuned to the concrete needs and challenges faced by rural populations.

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Chapter 4

Racially Stigmatized Populations, Necropolitics, and Mental Health in Rural Contexts Magda Dimenstein, João Paulo Macedo, Jáder Ferreira Leite, Candida Dantas, Victor Hugo Belarmino, and Brisana Índio do Brasil de Macêdo Silva

4.1  On Racism and Health Currently, one of the most important criticisms of both in terms of the Política Nacional de Saúde Mental [National Mental Health Policy] and of the Política Nacional de Saúde das Populações do Campo, da Floresta e das Águas [National Health Policy for Rural and Forest Populations] has to do with the absence of discussions and proposals in mental health focused on the rural populations which target these campesinos, settled rural workers or otherwise, and even traditional people like the ribeirinhos, quilombolas that settle or live off extractivism in forest or riverside areas. Both public policies, despite their advances in the last decades in Brazil, are still crossed by knowledges, rationalities, and colonial thinking which affirm the universality of psychic experiences and the efficiency of the practices and care devices that do not follow ontological belonging and the uniqueness of their ways of life. To touch these public policies implies considering how there are different paths to the subjective process and to see the world when it comes to traditional peoples. Furthermore, it demands to dismantle the narrative chains of ethnocentrism with a focused and intersectional knowledge (Crenshaw, 2002),1 with epistemic, racial, ethnic, sexual, and gender location to understand – from a cultural sensitivity – the

1  Crenshaw (2002, p. 177) conceives intersectionality as “a conceptualization of the problem that seeks to capture the structural and dynamic consequences of the interaction between two or more axes of subordination.”

M. Dimenstein (*) · J. F. Leite · C. Dantas · V. H. Belarmino Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil J. P. Macedo · B. Í. B. M. Silva Universidade Federal do Delta do Parnaíba, Parnaíba, Piauí, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_4

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process of alcoholism and suicide and the indiscriminate use of legal and illegal drugs, among other devastating issues that hit this country’s populations. The demands made from public policy in current times are owed to the fact that in scope of mental health, there has been very few discussions about the effects of racism in psychic suffering, in affirming the practices to care for the knowledge and power of “psy”, in the medicalization of everyday life, the pathologization of the lives of traditional peoples. This means that analysis of the subjective consequences of living in a society built and crosscut by racism, like Brazilian society, that is systematically neglected in the academic field, in health, and in Psychology, particularly. However, this touches directly the lives of Black populations and quilombola communities, among which we can see, in an everyday basis, the creation of psychosocial suffering and its range in the biopolitical2 and necropolitical taking place in the country, which has race as a key issue. According to Passetti (2013, p. 3): Through biopolitics it is intended to govern living bodies, the population, starting a life that depends on politics. Biopolitics is made, therefore, as a total focus over the body-species (population and territory) and works in articulation with the individual disciplinary powers (use and docility), linking the group and the individual, intimately related to security devices. (Translated by the authors)

In contemporary society, especially in the peripheries of capitalism, according to Mbembe (2018), the way in which this diffuse and insidious power operates gains new outlines. The regulation force of the State over bodies exercises its maximum sovereignty in its capacity to choose who lives and who dies. For the author, we are before a regime that produces discarded lives, of “worlds of death” (p.  71), as a contemporary enterprise of oppression and annihilation of bodies. However, necropolitics brings to biopolitics – the control and regulation of bodies – the neglect issue of certain populations and human groups, based on the principle of race. Race becomes the element of differentiation of the human species in different groups, in a hierarchy of some beneath the others, and it is at the base of the legitimization of murderous functions of the State: For Mbembe the notion of biopower is not enough to explain the contemporary ways in which oppression manifests, so the author explains colonialism, racism and State violence to argue about the contemporary ways to subjugate life to the power of death. (Araújo & Santos, 2019, p. 3026) (translated by the authors)

According to Mbembe (2018), the term “Black” possesses a politically oriented meaning toward an intimate relationship between life and death. The Black body, in this way, is doomed to extermination and death; it is a permanent target for violations and death, as it sustains the two pillars of racism: skin tone and the idea of African inferiority. Pessanha and Nascimento (2018), dealing with the national reality, point to the genocide of Black Brazilians and their strategies to eliminate the Black race since the nineteenth century: forced miscegenation, mass European and 2  Biopolitics, according to Foucault (2008), is a concept that refers to the government and the regulation of populations as a State policy. Through techniques, knowledge, and institutions, that is, devices and technologies of power (biopower), control over populations is exercised.

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Asian immigration, “the spread of racist scientific theories in academia and popular culture - of Black inferiority, of their low inteligence, of a supposed propensity to crime and the idea that Black blood could ruin the white race” (Menegat et al., 2020, p. 5) (translated by the authors), and, at last, the creation of the racial democracy myth. Furthermore, subtler strategies such as cultural, intellectual, and Black culture’s erasure on behalf of whiteness, which make ethnocide, epstemiciode, and genocide – therefore, necropolitics – become faces of one the same process. As an aggravating factor in this scenario, the Política Nacional de Saúde Mental [National Mental Health Policy] (PNSM) since its implementation faces a series of challenges. In the country’s current political scenario, the Sistema Único de Saúde [Single Health System] (SUS) and the Redes de Saúde [Health Networks] (RAS) provide its support, such as the case with Rede de Atenção Psicossocial [Psychosocial Care Network] (RAPS), but are under severe pressure. The democratic ideal, of social justice and of the anti-asylum struggle, has been undermined by private interests and by a confinement lead ideology. The federal government has been systematically attacking the process of Psychiatric Reform and the directives of Psychosocial Care, which focuses on freedom, community, and territory based and on the cultural traits and the needs of the population. In this sense, it is vital to realize not only the manner in which the crisis to the Psychiatric Reform movement took place, but the calculated effects of this attack to it which strikes first and foremost populations and territories that have been historically neglected like the quilombolas. Quilombola communities or those “remnants of quilombos” can be seen, as explained by Article 2° of Decree n. 4.887/2003 (Brasil, 2003), as “ethnic-racial groups, which according to self-identification criteria. Have their own historical trajectory, specific territorial relationship, with an assumed Black ancestral past related to resisting historical oppression” (translated by the authors). However, for Porto et al. (2012), the name “remnants of quilombos’‘ helps solidify a romanticized stereotype of a relatively equal, harmonious, cohesive, solidary community with a common political project. Because of that, the expression “quilombola communities” will be used as it highlights historical processes of oppression, inequalities, and common struggles to these Black communities but also to escape the image that quilombolas are mere leftovers of a history of Black resistance attached to the past, with no permanent renewal. The Brazilian quilombola communities are immersed in tension and struggles that are constantly reordered. However, beyond the wide lack of knowledge of the mental health situation of the people living in these “territory of the invisible” of the country (Leroy & Meireles, 2013, p. 115), its big portion of these communities and populations, particularly those of the Brazilian Northeast, is in small municipalities, marked by low socioeconomic development and low access to public services,3 which, as such, find immense difficulties to access health, which results, often, in alarming morbidity rates.

 Model presented by Viana et al. (2015) about the health regionalization process in Brazil.

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Many researches have pointed to the devastating impacts of the devaluation of the country’s social policy, particularly, to Atenção Primária em Saúde [Primary Health Care] (APS), which is the main strategy for promoting, preventing, and caring for the widespread health network in small size municipalities and in rural territories. Furthermore, there is a self-evident weakening of the mental health-care offers and the existence of gaps in service offers, above all in the municipalities where there are quilombola communities (Dimenstein et  al., 2020; Dantas et  al., 2020; Dimenstein et  al., 2019; Dimenstein et  al., 2016). This scenario of social inequality has been a backdrop for the increase in psychic suffering in the general population and particularly to the traditional people. The main scenario of the “art of government,” especially, are Black bodies which historically have been targeted for extermination, criminalization, neglect, and the structural racism that upholds, socially, economically, and politically, Brazilian society. Thus, it is possible to see a clear association with the biopolitical (lack of) attention to certain actions that affect the Black population  – which come from the Brazilian structurally racist State – the worsening of their living conditions, and the deterioration of their mental health. It is undeniable that being more exposed to violence, racism, and racist prejudice, beyond other unfavorable socioeconomic factors, makes the Black population more likely to present different forms of psychic suffering. Which means that the imposition of necropolitics makes so that Black bodies are marked by death, whether through urban and rural violence, incarceration, labor exploitation, neglect, or worsening life conditions. Before this, we can understand that the health of the Black population is a target of a governability which is “a power that directs the small stuff of life, the details, the thoughts and feelings along an entire life. It is therefore a power that reigns over the intensity and the wholeness of life” (Souza, 2014, p.  981) (translated by the authors). It is not by chance that racially stigmatized populations are worse off in death and illness indexes and in access to health public services across the world, as Williams and Priest (2015, p. 124) point out, in the study about racism and health. Three dimensions of negative impacts can be highlighted, basically: Firstly, through policies and practices that limit the access to resources and opportunities in society, institutional racism produces pathogenic consequences to restrict social mobility, create racial differences in socioeconomic status and life and work conditions, which are harmful to well-being. Secondly, cultural racism, on a societal level, causes and sustains institutional and interpersonal racism, creating a hostile environment to policies that pursue equal rights. On an individual level, negative stereotypes, sustained by cultural racism, create psychological responses that are harmful to health, such as the “stereotype threat” and internalized racism. Thirdly, the subjective experience of racial discrimination is the sort of life experience that leads to stress, but is historically neglected in literature, which might lead to adverse changes in the life conditions and altered behaviour patterns that lead to health hazards. (Translated by the authors)

Reviews of Brazilian literature about race/skin tone and mental illness made by Smolen and Araújo (2017) pointed to a reduced number of researches in the country about the relationship between race/skin tone and mental health that also include race as an analysis unity. Those that did dedicate themselves to examining health

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inequalities according to race/skin tone detected a larger incidence of mental illnesses around non-White people. In the current pandemic and the health, social, economic, and moral crisis which has struck the country, the group Trabalho Racismo e Saúde da Associação Brasileira de Saúde Coletiva [Work Racism and Health in the Brazilian Collective Health Association] shows that a society structured by racism such as our own will penalize certain groups more, especially Black people. This is particularly concerning in quilombola communities, as Santos et al. (2020, p. 232) point out: The Coordenação Nacional de Articulação das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas [National Coordination of Rural Black Quilombola Communities Articulation] (Conaq) alerts to a concerning data in the times of Covid-19: in Brazil there are six thousand communities and a population of about 16 million people, with 30% of elderly people, a risk group for the worst case of Covid (Guimarães, 2020). The Black population also has a larger incidence of hypertension and diabetes, comorbidities most related to deaths in the case of coronavirus (Brasil, 2018). (Translated by the authors).

This data is useful to show that the vulnerability that struck this population is a wider political project which joins neoliberal capitalism, anchored in relations of colonial knowledge/power relations, to a micropolitical order that imposes to some ways of living extremely precarious conditions or the end of their existence. There is in relation to some social groups  – such as the Black population  – a series of interventions surgically produced which throw these subjects to less visible zones and social neglect. In Brazil, racism is not one part of a whole but intrinsic to its very nature. In this way, as Sampaio and Meneghetti (2020) explain, it is a powerful domination tool, present in how institutions work, in how privileges and disadvantages are applied in relation to race: “racism is the right to kill, through different means: to take life away, to harm, to exile either from one’s country or in ghettos” (p. 639) (translated by the authors). It is possible to see, therefore, strategies to weaken life or, in better terms, a necropolitics taking place in quilombola communities across the country. It is in this sense that the studies related to the health of the rural quilombola populations are extremely relevant considering the social inequalities and vulnerabilities that mark these people. Among them we can highlight the quilombola communities as defined ethnic-racial groups with a specific history and territorial principles and marked by the presumption of Black ancestrality linked to the historical oppression of our society (Decreto n. 4.887, Brasil, 2003). The legal framework for recognizing the specific health needs of these populations was the institution of the Política Nacional de Saúde Integral da População Negra [National Policy of Integral Health to the Black Population], with emphasis on “the recognition of racism, ethnic and racial inequalities and institutional racism as a social determinant in health conditions, aiming to promote health equality” (Brasil, 2013, p. 18) (translated by the authors). Because of that, the mental health analysis of quilombola communities is a tremendous challenge. The material conditions, bent by poverty and social inequality, alongside the effects of racism that historically oppressed them, makes for a

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scenario that causes many aggravating factors to health and inequality. This means the forms of being in the world – in specific historical and social configurations – determines the expression and meaning of suffering. This pushes us to an alignment toward a knowledge production that is committed to criticizing universal and essentialist models, evidencing the way in which colonialism of knowledge/power (Quijano, 1992) operates through a standard of subjectivity and ideas like deficit, destructuring and deficiency in relation to other forms of existence. We will also move toward a recognition that colonialism leaves its fingertips in the way in which people interpret their everyday lives, particularly in inequality, exploitation, and social exclusion situations and the silencing and normalization mechanisms of those that present resistance or dissidence. Anchored in the assumptions of medical anthropology and ethnopsychiatry (Borges et al., 2019), we conceive health, illness, and suffering not as universal entities nor as individual matters but as a “social process embodied in historical subjects” (Victora, 2011, p. 4). In a more detailed manner, the author clarifies that: It is a suffering that is instrisical to what I refer to simply as life policies and economies, once we verify the historical and social conditions. In this sense, it becomes fundamental to observe political, economic and institutional powers interweaving in personal and everyday life and how people react to everyday events. (pp. 3–4) (translated by the authors)

From the point of view of the unbreakable dimensions of life, that the individual and collective experiences of life are entwined in everyday life, the concept of psychosocial suffering becomes more potent, with the capacity to escape the imposed senses and the medical and scientific determinants, whose illness has been the target of trivialization. According to Menegat et  al. (2020), we cannot forget that the once enslaved Black people became a target of psychiatric, that Black bodies as slaves and the mental ill have always been part of carceral and racist logic of the dominant medical class. Since the beginning of psychiatrics in Brazil, in the beginning of the twentieth century, the issue of race has always been present in psychiatric theories, where race mixing and the supposed degeneration from it were seen as a tendency toward madness, a symbol of the inferiority of the Brazilian people, which blocked its civilizational progress (Soares, 2018). Black people became representative of a majority of the populations in the so-called madhouses, asylums, and prisons, something which is still true now, revealing the continuity of the vulnerabilities created by the ethnic and racial asymmetries along the centuries. To take the psychosocial suffering of the Black population as an expression of the experience lived in this historical scenario is to consider the economic, social, political, cultural, and subjective order of the problems, a fundamental step to fight the pathologization effects or an oversimplifying view of illness. Furthermore, it is fundamental to the understanding of the meaning of suffering, to a coherent therapy, and to the development of culturally sensitive care. In the spirit of further discussing more deeply the health of the Black population, particularly, their mental health, we will present the next part of a broad study done in two quilombola communities

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located in the Brazilian Northeast.4 An investigation took place among the people living in these locations about their alcohol use5 and the incidence of common mental illnesses,6 considering their life conditions, service offers, and the psychiatric death and illness profile in the municipalities where these populations live, to better understand the inequalities produced by mental health.

4.2  I nequality Markers in Mental Health in Quilombola Territories The two communities focused by this work are a part of more than 3000 communities recognized in Brazil. However, out of this total, less than 150 are registered. Recognition consists in the legal recognition of self-declaration as quilombola descendents, which is to say, “as a ethnic and racial group according to self-­ declaratory criteria, with their own historical trajectory, with specific territorial relationship, with a presumed black ancestrality related to their resistance to historical oppression” (Decree n. 4.887, 2003) (translated by the authors). Registration, on the other hand, means acquiring an official title by the descendent and “used as a guarantee of physical, social, economic and cultural reproduction” (likewise). Despite these guarantees, the process is slower and more bureaucratic. According to Oliveira and D’Abadia (2015), the slowness is due to the bureaucratic nature of the administrative processes linked to registration and because of the political and economical interests of rich landowners and/or rural businessman. It was the political mobilization of rural Black communities that gave them constitutional space, an expressed right to land, as ensured in article 68 of the Ato das Disposições Constitucionais Transitórias da Constituição Federal Brasileira de 1988 [Transitory Constitutional Dispositions of the Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988] which allows that “the descendents of the quilombola communities can occupy the lands over which their definite ownership is recognized, with the State must issue the respective titles” (translated by the authors). Furthermore, the Articles 215 and 216 promise protection to the Black cultural identities, as well as their ways to live and exist, making the quilombo a patrimony of the Brazilian society. Ever since, many communities in different regions of the country, organized in different associations, began to claim their newly acquired rights from the ethnic recognition process. In 1996 the Coordenação Nacional de Articulação das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas [National Coordination of Rural Black Quilombola Communities Articulation] (CONAQ) was created. These struggles have sought to 4  Both have been the subject of several investigations carried out since 2015 by the Research Group  – Subjectivity Modes, Public Policies and Vulnerability Contexts  – linked to the UFRN Graduate Program in Psychology and by the Research and Intervention Center in Critical Psychology and Political Subjectivity (Nupolis) in the Graduate Program in Psychology at UFDPar. 5  Application of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). 6  Use of the Self-ReportingQuestionnaire 20 (SRQ-20).

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minimize the socioeconomic vulnerability set of these communities, which have been historically made invisible and forgotten in policies that ensure favorable life conditions (Domingues & Gomes, 2013). It is in this turbulent scenario, of constant struggles that the Communities of Grossos, in Rio Grande do Norte/RN, and Olho D’agua dos Negros, in the state of Piauí, both in the Northeast of Brazil, are inserted. The reference municipalities of these communities (Bom Jesus/RN and Esperantina/PI) are small and belong to G1 – a group of regions with low socioeconomic and public service offers.7 Thus, the life conditions are those of locations associated with precarious work and income conditions and the effects of poverty, social inequality, and social neglect in terms of food safety, housing, education, and health. This reality can be observed considering some indicators referring to the states and municipalities.8 The community of Grossos is in the rural zone, 7  km from the center of the municipality of Bom Jesus, located in the microregion of Agreste Potiguar do Rio Grande do Norte. It is located in 46 km from the state capital, Natal. It has 140 families registered. The IBGE (2021) data related to the municipality of Bom Jesus evidence low income and education levels among its inhabitants and a lack of health public services, as well as aspects connected to the local quality of life such as no proper sanitation. These rates point to higher poverty levels than those registered in the rest of the state, which points to a population with an unfavorable perception of its quality of life. The community Olho D’agua dos Negros is located in the rural area, 18 km from the center of Esperantina/PI, located in the cerrado area of Piauí and 189kms of the state capital Teresina. It has 87 registered families. The IBGE9 data related to the municipality of Esperantina evidence the following data: a great part of the population with income of up to 1/2 minimum wage, low education levels, problems that refer to health public services, to low basic sanitation and street urbanization. It is a municipality that also shows a worrying level of poverty and subjective poverty, above the rates registered for the rest of the state as a whole. 7  According to the model presented by Viana et al. (2015) of the evaluation of the health regionalization process in Brazil, the 5570 municipalities were grouped in the 438 existing health regions in the country, taking into account socioeconomic development, the offer, and the complexity of health services in each regional context. Thus, 5 groups were established: G1, low socioeconomic development and low supply of services, with 175 regions, 2151 municipalities, and 22.5% of the Brazilian population, located predominantly in the Northeast; G2, medium/high socioeconomic development and low supply of services, with 47 regions, 482 municipalities, and 5.7% of the population, mostly located in the Midwest, Southeast, and North regions; G3, medium socioeconomic development and medium/high offer of services, with 129 regions, 1891 municipalities, and 20.3% of the population, located predominantly in the Southeast and South regions; G4, high socioeconomic development and average service offer, with 27 regions, 300 municipalities, and 10.6% of the population, located mostly in the Southeast region; and G5, high socioeconomic development and high offer of services, with 60 regions, 746 municipalities, and 40.9% of the population, located predominantly in the Southeast and South regions. 8  Available at https://cidades.ibge.gov.br/, retrieved on April 5, 2021. 9  Available at https://cidades.ibge.gov.br/brasil/pi/esperantina/panorama, recovered on April 5, 2021.

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In terms of mental health-care offer,10 both municipalities registered a good coverage in terms of Estratégia Saúde da Família [Family Health Strategy] (ESF), of Agentes Comunitários de Saúde [Community Health Agents] (ACS) and the Núcleo de Apoio à Saúde da Família [Support Core to Family Care] (NASF), the main responsible for the attention to mental health care at APS. In relation to Rede de Atenção Psicossocial [Psychosocial Care Network] (RAPS), we find a slightly different situation, and the availability of services is much weaker. The municipality of Bom Jesus (RN), with an estimated 10,000 inhabitants, it has no RAPS services. Esperantina (PI) only counts with one Centro de Atenção Psicossocial (CAPS I) [Psychosocial Care Center] and one Comunidade Terapêutica [Therapeutic Community] (CT) to cover a population of almost 40 thousand people. This shows important deficits in RAPS coverages and assistencial gaps in both municipalities. As for the profile of psychiatric mobility profile, in the last 10 years (2010–2020),11 the two municipalities continued in the following situation.

4.2.1  Bom Jesus Municipality (RN) There were 87 psychiatric hospitalizations, with 64 men and 23 women. Of the 87 hospitalizations, 13 were Brown/Mixed, and the remaining ones did not inform their race/skin tone, pointing to issues of subnotification of race indicators in the country. Two age groups can be highlighted: between 20 and 29 years old and 30 and 49 years old. They received a schizophrenia diagnosis and were hospitalized in both private and public institution, as an emergency. The length of their stay is extremely long, between 142.4 days, which changes considerably when taking gender into account (men stay longer than women), age (highlighting people between 40 and 49 years old), and which kind of institution they were sent to (longer stays in private hospitals – 400% more than public hospitals). It was noted that the elder the patient was, the longer the hospitalizations were. It was not possible to take race/skin tone into consideration due to lack of system information. Along 10 years, 04 deaths at home took place due to behavior and mental illness, all among Brown/Mixed men, between 50 and 59 years old, single, with low levels of education, with 02 due to alcohol consumption. Bom Jesus also registered ten cases of suicide in the period, with nine being among Brown/Mixed people, seven being men, in different age groups, especially single, with low levels of education, via hanging, strangling, or suffocation. As for suicidal attempts, there were two cases, with two being women (one White, one Brown/Mixed), of different ages, with low levels of education, and living in the urban zone of the municipalities, who took medication or cleaning products, causing one death.  Available at http://www2.datasus.gov.br/DATASUS/index.php?area=02, retrieved on April 5, 2021. 11  Available at http://www2.datasus.gov.br/DATASUS/index.php?area=02, retrieved on April 5, 2021. 10

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4.2.2  Esperantina (PI) Municipality 90 psychiatric hospitalizations took place, with 63 men and 27 women. Out of the 90 hospitalizations, 70 had patients who identified as Mixed/Brown and 03 as Black, in two age groups in particular: 20–29 years old and 30–49 years old. They were diagnosed with schizophrenia and sent to a public hospital, in Teresina, as an urgent issue. The average time spent in the hospital was around 54.6 days, but that data changes considerably when taking race/skin tone into account, to 213.3 days among those self-identifying as Black and reducing to 35.5  days among those self-­ identifying as White. It was noted that men stay in the hospital for longer than women, and the younger they are, the longer their stays. This is also evident considering race, meaning that Black or Mixed/Brown have much longer stays than White Brazilians. Throughout 10 years, three hospital deaths due to mental and behavioral illnesses were registered, all among Brown/Mixed men, of many ages. There were also 25 deaths in their own homes, of which 24 were Black or Brown/Mixed, 18 were men, with no significant or very low education levels. Of the 25 deaths, 16 were due to the use of alcohol, by Black or Brown/Mixed men, over 50 years old, married, with little or no formal education. Esperantina also registered 31 suicides in the same period, with 28 being Black or Brown/Mixed men, between 20 and 39 years old, especially among single men, with low education levels, via hanging, strangling, or suffocation. As for suicide attempts, there were ten cases, with eight being men between 20 and 39  years old, with different levels of education, five being rural zone inhabitants, five of the municipality’s urban zone; they ingested agricultural pesticides, causing two deaths. As we can see, despite some small differences between municipalities, the data shows a clear profile in psychiatric death and illnesses: men, in working age, with low education levels, Brown/Mixed or Black, with a schizophrenia or other mental and behavior illness linked to alcohol or other substance use, hospitalized in public or private hospitals in the state capitals, for a length of time that is much longer than the average of their state (RN – 43.8 days and PI – 29.6 days), of the whole of the Northeast (46.3 days) and of Brazil (40.6 days). This also applies for suicides and suicide attempts, except the latter in RN. Added to that, Brown/Mixed and Black Brazilians tend to be hospitalized for much longer than White ones. In this way, it is clear the manner in which the existing inequalities are joint up in regard to living conditions and access to services in both municipalities with the psychiatric death and illnesses profile of the local population. These are poverty struck scenarios: municipalities with low socioeconomic development, with many traditional people and strong rural characteristics. Being G1 municipalities present absence in RAPS coverage and because they are municipalities with traditional people, they present unfavorable conditions and worse indicators in mental health-­ related deaths and illnesses when compared to municipalities without the presence of these communities (Dimenstein et al., 2021). As they are a Black, poor, rural, and peripheral population, the element of race/skin tone is plainly evident in a significant manner as a inequality marker, as gender and class are linked to many vulnerabilities that surround this socio-ethnic group (Sousa et al., 2020).

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Following the discussion of mental health markers in quilombola territories, we present next a more detailed data on the people living in both quilombola communities, as well as some of the results related to alcohol consumption and the incidence of common mental illness.12 We will seek to show to what extent the profiles of illnesses and deaths are above what is expected.

4.3  M  ental Health Needs, Alcohol Use, and Common Mental Illnesses As previously said, the data referring to alcohol consumption and the tendency to common mental illnesses in both of the quilombola communities are a part of a dataset from many researches done along the population of these territories which have been divulged by the researchers (Dimenstein et al., 2020; Dimenstein et al., 2019). We used as tools the questionnaires Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Self-Reporting Questionnaire 20 (SRQ-20) to map these aspects. Both quilombola communities, as a part of municipalities with low socioeconomic development and low service offers, presenting infrastructure problems in relation to housing, be it in access to clean water, sanitation, access to electricity, or in relation to accessing health services and policies or adequate attention by public policies or social programs intended for rural populations. In relation to the instruments, 118 people responded to AUDIT and 146 to SRQ-20. Of the 264 respondents, 185 were from a community in Grossos/RN and 79 of the community Olho D’água dos Negros/PI. As for gender, 175 (63.3%) were women and 89 (33.7%) were men, aged between 30 and 35 years old. Most of them are married, whose families are composed of two to four members. As for education, there is the predominance of basic education, complete or incomplete, followed by the illiterate, which is to mean, they can only write their own name or only have a year of education. The main occupation is agriculture and part of them are family farmers or cattle ranchers. As for income, the main feature is the minimum wage or half the minimum wage, which puts them in extreme poverty (per capita lower than R$70,00). Furthermore, the source of income of the families comes, primarily, from family agriculture, social programs, and raising and selling cattle and retirement. In relation to the low consumption of alcohol in both communities, 76.3% of the respondents (n – 90) are beneath the cutoff point and 23.7% (n – 28) (Table 4.1). It is possible to note that women, proportionally to men, are primarily below the cutoff point and low-risk categories (Table 4.2). More problematic levels of alcoholic consumption were detected among men and women who lived in the community of Grossos/RN. The prevalence of men among alcohol users has been detected

 Research carried out on mental health and psychosocial support in quilombola communities in northeastern Brazil and financed with resources from CNPq.

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Table 4.1  AUDIT/cutoff point by gender

Below (< 7 points) Above (≥ 8 points) Total

Male n 21 20 41

% 17.8 16.9 34.7

Female n 69 8 77

% 58.5 6.8 65.3

Total n 90 28 118

% 76.3 23.7 100.0

Total n 94 16 3 5 118

% 79.7 13.6 2.5 4.2 100.0

Table 4.2  AUDIT/risk categories by gender

Low risk (0–7) Risk (8–15) Harm (16–19) Addiction (≥ 20) Total

Male n 23 11 3 4 41

% 19.5 9.3 2.5 3.4 34.7

Female n 71 5 0 1 77

% 60.2 4.2 0.0 0.8 65.3

in many studies that recognize that the patterns of alcohol use have a strong relation with gender roles (Pelicioli et al., 2017; Jomar et al., 2015; Brites & Abreu, 2014). These studies show that the men, compared to the women, develop patterns of alcohol use that are more harmful, drinking more often and in bigger quantities. For many authors like Nicolau et al. (2020), Santos (2017), and Zart and Scortegagna (2015), this pattern can cause male involvement in socially disapproved behavior and domestic violence episodes. This research also detected strong associations between problematic use of alcohol with race (Mixed/Brown), age (young), low levels of education, low socioeconomic levels, and low social support. Joining these results to the ones about psychiatric hospitalization and deaths that were previously presented, it is possible to see that the municipalities where the two studied quilombola communities registered an increase in the number of psychiatric hospitalizations from 2018 on, especially on Mixed race/Brown young men, with mental illnesses due to psychoactive substance use, including alcohol. Despite the use of alcohol being a part of day-to-day life and one of the main factors associated with health issues and part of the community for the country’s quilombolas (Freitas et al., 2018), these results highlight the vulnerabilities which reach, especially, the male population for its greater morbidity incidence, psychiatric hospitalization, and death associated with the use of alcohol (Andrade et al., 2006). In relation to common mental illnesses, the result from SRQ-20 (Table  4.3) shows that 79.5% of the population (n – 116) were under the cutoff point and 20.5% (n – 30) were above it. The women, as said by literature, present common mental illness indicators in a much higher rate than men, 17.8% to 2.7%, respectively, showing the crosscutting of gender in relation to psychic suffering (Barbosa & Morais, 2019; Furtado et al., 2019). Beyond that, women had three times more points than the men in the four dimensions evaluated by the instrument, especially in regard to Anxious-Depressive Mood and Depressive Thoughts. In many ways, women feel useless, tense, nervous, and

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Table 4.3  Cutoff point of the SRQ-20 by gender

Below (< 6 pontos) Above (≥ 7 pontos) Total

Male n 44 4 48

% 30.1 2.7 32.9

Female n 72 26 98

% 49.3 17.8 67.1

Total n 116 30 146

% 79.5 20.5 100.0

worried; they tire easily and their hands shake. The men highlight the dimensions of Somatic Symptoms and Vitality Decrease, presenting a lack of appetite, scaring and tiring easily, feeling useless, and considering ending their own lives. The women living in the Grossos/RN community showed higher percentages in the category above the cutoff point than those living in Piauí, as well as in three of the four dimensions of the SRQ-20. However, proportionally, the women living in the town of Esperantina/PI registered more psychiatric hospitalizations than those living in RN. Articulating these results relative to the psychiatric hospitalizations and deaths, it is worth noting that both Bom Jesus and Esperantina had less and shorter psychiatric hospitalizations than men. They received the schizophrenia diagnosis and mood disorders and, unlike the men, they registered less occurrences, including deaths and suicides, caused by psychoactive substances and alcohol. However, women are more vulnerable to morbidity, psychiatric hospitalizations, and deaths linked to depression, anxiety disorders, and panic attacks, as is corroborated by Andrade et al. (2006). The presented set of data come to give visibility in relation to the social disadvantages and the experience of psychosocial suffering. It reinforces the argument that social inequalities lived by the quilombolas populations – once that these are predominantly Black, poor, rural, low education, with no adequate access to health services  – which are determinant to worse mental health conditions. There is a strong association with precarious life and work conditions and patterns of alcohol use, with an incidence of common mental illnesses, as well as with the psychiatric hospitalization levels and deaths registered among the men and women of these regions. In this way: the Black population, which brings with it a set of many individual and context-based variables as components connected to racism (inequalities, segregations and ethnic exclusion) and unfavorable socioeconomic conditions, which might become more apt to developing mental illnesses as some indicators of health-care systems use point that Black ­communities are always disadvantaged when compared to the White population. (Batista & Rocha, 2020, p. 37) (translated by the authors)

4.4  Final Considerations As a conclusion, this study has come to highlight the range among the racially stigmatized populations, necropolitics, and mental health. It is also undeniable that the association between race and social class and the creation of inequality are a part of

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the Black and quilombola population, which becomes an obstacle to accessing rights and social mobility. However, despite the social inequalities reaching the quilombola communities generally, the psychosocial suffering is distributed unevenly among men and women, which needs to be understood through this gender crosscut. Thus, men and women, based on the socially instituted patterns of masculinity and femininity, expose different conditions of psychic suffering and develop distinct strategies of care. In this study, we highlight the prevalence of mental health issues associated with the problematic use of alcohol among men. Women, on the other hand, tend to have problems associated with depression, anxiety, and panic attacks. In this way, the mental health situation of these populations demands a complex and with many approaches, as it is made among many inequalities and forms of violence. When dealing with racially stigmatized populations, unrecognized in their uniqueness, priority targets of structural racism which “implies different subjective process for social actors in which they are implied, be it as prosecutors of racist policies or as targets of such undignified practices” (Birman, 2019, p. 167) (translated by the authors), targets of the necropolitics taking place in the country, living plainly disadvantaged territories when it comes to services and social development, presenting mental health needs that have been made worse through the years, it is possible to see the construction of a psychopathology of racism, as noted by Fanon (2008) and its strong critique of the supposed neutrality to the psychic suffering of the powerful social and political forces which start racist practices, anti-Blackness, and the ostensive genocide of Black populations and the madness of Black and poor populations.

References Andrade, L.  H. S.  G., Viana, M.  C., & Silveira, C.  M. (2006). Epidemiologia dos transtornos psiquiátricos na mulher. Arquivos de Psiquiatria Clínica (São Paulo), 33(2), 43–54. https://doi. org/10.1590/S0101-­60832006000200003 Araújo, D. F. M. S., & Santos, W. C. S. (2019). Raça como elemento central da política de morte no Brasil: visitando os ensinamentos de Roberto Esposito e Achille Mbembe. Revista Direito e Práxis, 10(4), 3024–3055. https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-­8966/2019/45695 Barbosa, B., & Morais, V. (2019). Apoio social e saúde mental em mulheres em contextos de pobreza no Brasil. Revista Interamericana de Psicología, 53(2), 208–218. https://doi. org/10.30849/rip/ijp.v53i2.1059 Batista, E.  C. & Rocha, K.  B. (2020). Saúde mental em comunidades quilombolas do Brasil: uma revisão sistemática da literatura. Interações (Campo Grande), 21(1), 35–50. https://doi. org/10.20435/inter.v21i1.2149 Birman, J. (2019). Desconstrução do racismo. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicopatologia Fundamental, 22(1), 166–169. https://doi.org/10.1590/1415-­4714.2018v22n1p166.10 Borges, L.  M., Lodetti, M.  B., Jibrin, M., & Pocreau, J.  B. (2019). Inflexões epistemológicas: a Etnopsiquiatria. Fractal: Revista de Psicologia, 31, 249–255. https://doi. org/10.22409/1984-­0292/v31i_esp/29001 Brasil (2003). Regulamenta o procedimento para identificação, reconhecimento, delimitação, demarcação e titulação das terras ocupadas por remanescentes das comunidades dos quilom-

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bos de que trata o art. 68 do Ato das Disposições Constitucionais Transitórias. Retrieved from http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/decreto/2003/d4887.htm Brasil (2009). Institui a Política Nacional de Saúde Integral da População Negra. Retrieved from http://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/saudelegis/gm/2009/prt0992_13_05_2009.html Brasil. (2013). Política Nacional de Saúde Integral da População Negra: uma política para o SUS (2nd ed.). Editora do Ministério da Saúde. Brites, R. M. R., & Abreu, A. M. M. (2014). Padrão de consumo de bebidas alcoólicas entre os trabalhadores e perfil socioeconômico. Acta Paulista de Enfermagem, 27(2), 93–99. https://doi. org/10.1590/1982-­0194201400018 Crenshaw, K. (2002). Documento para o encontro de especialistas em aspectos da discriminação racial relativos ao gênero. Revista Estudos Feministas, 10(1), 171–188. https://doi.org/10.1590/ S0104-­026X2002000100011 Dantas, C., Dimenstein, M., Leite, J., Macedo, J. P. S., & Belarmino, V. H. (2020). Território e determinação social da saúde mental em contextos rurais: cuidado integral às populações do campo. Athenea Digital, 20, e2169. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/athenea.2169 Dimenstein, M., Belarmino, V.  H., Silva, I.  T. B., Leite, J.  F., Dantas, C., Macedo, J.  P. S., & Alves-Filho, A. (2019). Consumo de álcool em uma comunidade quilombola do nordeste brasileiro. Quaderns de Psicologia, 21, 1–13. Retrieved from https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/ articulo?codigo=6915302 Dimenstein, M., Leite, J. F., Macedo, J. P. S., & Dantas, C. (2016). Condições de vida e saúde mental em contextos rurais. Intermeios. Dimenstein, M., Simoni, A.  C. R., Macedo, J.  P., Vieira, N.  N., Barbosa, B.  C. N.  S., Silva, B. I. B. M., Amaral-Filho, J. B., Silva, R. C. A., Liberato, M. T. C., Prado, C. L. C., & Leão, M. V. A. S. (2021). Equidade e acesso aos cuidados em saúde mental em três estados nordestinos. Ciência e Saúde Coletiva. https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232021265.04912021. Dimenstein, M., Belarmino, V. H., Martins, M. E., Dantas, C., Macedo, J. P. S., Leite, J. F., & Alves-Filho, A. (2020). Desigualdades, racismos e saúde mental em uma comunidade quilombola rural. Amazônica: Revista de Antropologia, 12, 205–229. Domingues, P., & Gomes, F. (2013). Histórias dos quilombos e memórias dos quilombolas no Brasil: revisitando um diálogo ausente na Lei 10.639/03. Revista da ABPN, 5(11), 05–28. Retrieved from https://ria.ufrn.br/jspui/handle/123456789/1083 Fanon, F. (2008). Pele negra, máscaras brancas. EDUFBA. Foucault, M. (2008). Nascimento da biopolítica. Martins Fontes. Freitas, I.  A., Rodrigues, I.  L. A., Silva, I.  F. S., & Nogueira, L.  M. V. (2018). Perfil sociodemográfico e epidemiológico de uma comunidade quilombola na Amazônia Brasileira. Revista Cuidarte, 9(2), 2187–2200. https://doi.org/10.15649/cuidarte.v9i2.521 Furtado, F. D. S., Saldanha, A. A. W., Moleiro, C. M. M. M., & Silva, J. D. (2019). Transtornos Mentais Comuns em Mulheres de Cidades Rurais: prevalência e variáveis correlatas. Saúde e pesquisa, 12(1), 129–140. https://doi.org/10.17765/2176-­9206.2019v12n1p129-­140 Jomar, R.  T., Fonseca, V.  A. O., Abreu, A.  M. M., & Griep, R.  H. (2015). Perfil do consumo de álcool de usuários de uma unidade de Atenção Primária à Saúde. Jornal Brasileiro de Psiquiatria, 64(1), 55–62. https://doi.org/10.1590/0047-­2085000000057 Leroy, J. P., & Meireles, J. (2013). Povos indígenas e comunidades tradicionais: os visados territórios dos invisíveis. In M. F. Porto, T. Pacheco, & J. P. Leroy (Eds.), Injustiça ambiental e saúde no Brasil: o mapa de conflitos (pp. 115–131). Editora Fiocruz. Mbembe, A. (2018). Necropolítica. Editora n-1. Menegat, E. M., Duarte, M. J. O., & Ferreira, V. F. (2020). Os novos manicômios a céu aberto: cidade, racismo e loucura. Revista Em Pauta, 45(18), 100–115. Retrieved from https://www.e-­publicacoes.uerj.br/index.php/revistaempauta/article/view/47217 Nicolau, E. A., Fraga, K. F. S., Marçola, N. S., Oliveira, T. A., Silveira Madalena, T., & Silva, V.  G. (2020). Relação entre violência contra mulher e uso de substâncias psicoativas pelo agressor. ANALECTA-Centro Universitário Academia, 5(5), 1–20. Retrieved from https://seer. cesjf.br/index.php/ANL/article/view/2367/1586

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Oliveira, F., & D’Abadia, M.  V. (2015). Territórios quilombolas em contextos rurais e urbanos brasileiros. Élisée – Revista de Geografia da UEG, 4(2), 257–275. Retrieved from https://www. revista.ueg.br/index.php/elisee/article/view/3712 Passetti, E. (2013). Transformações da biopolítica e emergência da ecopolítica. Revista Ecopolítica, 0(5), 2–37. Retrieved from https://revistas.pucsp.br/index.php/ecopolitica/article/view/15120 Pelicioli, M., Barelli, C., Gonçalves, C. B. C., Hahn, S. R., & Scherer, J. I. (2017). Perfil do consumo de álcool e prática do beber pesado episódico entre universitários brasileiros da área da saúde. Jornal Brasileiro de Psiquiatria, 66(3), 150–156. https://doi.org/10.1590/0047-­2085000000164 Pessanha, E. A. M., & Nascimento, W. F. (2018). NECROPOLÍTICA: Estratégias de extermínio do corpo negro. Odeere, 3(6), 149–176. https://philpapers.org/rec/PESNED Porto, L., Kaiss, C., & Cofré, I. (2012). Sobre solo sagrado: identidade quilombola e catolicismo na comunidade de Água Morna (Curiúva, PR). Religião & Sociedade, 32(1), 39–70. https://doi. org/10.1590/S0100-­85872012000100003 Quijano, A. (1992). Colonialidad y modernidade/racionalidade. Perú Indígena, 13(29), 11–20. Retrieved from https://www.lavaca.org/wp-­content/uploads/2016/04/quijano.pdf Sampaio, S.  S., & Meneghetti, G. (2020). Entre a vida e a morte: Estado, racismo e “pandemia do extermínio” no Brasil. Revista Katálysis, 23(3), 635–647. https://doi. org/10.1590/1982-­02592020v23n3p635 Santos, M.  P. A., Nery, J.  S., Goes, E.  F., Silva, A., Santos, A.  B. S., Batista, L.  E., & Araújo, E. M. (2020). População negra e Covid-19: reflexões sobre racismo e saúde. Estudos Avançados, 34(99), 225–244. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0103-­4014.2020.3499.014 Santos, M. S. D. (2017). Fatores associados à impulsividade e ao uso de drogas entre homens autores de violência por parceiro íntimo no estado do Ceará (Dissertação de Mestrado). Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Ceará, CE, Brasil. Smolen, J.  R., & Araújo, E.  M. (2017). Raça/cor da pele e transtornos mentais no Brasil: uma revisão sistemática. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 22(12), 4021–4030. https://doi. org/10.1590/1413-­812320172212.19782016 Soares, S. (2018). Raça e psiquiatria: uma análise genealógica da questão racial na psiquiatria brasileira. Século XXI: Revista de Ciências Sociais, 7(2), 252–283. https://doi. org/10.5902/2236672531916 Sousa, J. L., Alencar, G. P., Antunes, J. L. F., & Silva, Z. P. (2020). Marcadores de desigualdade na autoavaliação da saúde de adultos no Brasil, segundo o sexo. Cadernos de Saúde Pública, 36(5), e00230318. https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-­311x00230318 Souza, T. P. (2014). O nascimento da biopolítica das drogas e a arte liberal de governar. Fractal: Revista de Psicologia, 26(3), 979–997. https://doi.org/10.1590/1984-­0292/1246 Viana, A. L. D., Bousquat, A., Pereira, A. P. C. M., Uchimura, L. Y. T., Albuquerque, M. V., Mota, P. H. S., Demarzo, M. M. P., & Ferreira, M. P. (2015). Tipologia das regiões de saúde: condicionantes estruturais para a regionalização no Brasil. Saúde e Sociedade, 24(2), 413–422. https:// doi.org/10.1590/S0104-­12902015000200002 Victora, C. (2011). Sofrimento social e a corporificação do mundo: contribuições a partir da Antropologia. Revista Eletrônica de Comunicação, Informação e Inovação em Saúde, 5(4). https://doi.org/10.3395/reciis.v5i4.764 Williams, D. R., & Priest, N. (2015). Racismo e Saúde: um corpus crescente de evidência internacional. Sociologias, 17(40), 124–174. https://doi.org/10.1590/15174522-­017004004 Zart, L., & Scortegagna, S. A. (2015). Perfil sociodemográfico de mulheres vítimas de violência doméstica e circunstâncias do crime. Erechim: Perspectiva, 39(148), 85–93. Retrieved from https://www.uricer.edu.br/site/pdfs/perspectiva/148_536.pdf

Chapter 5

Psychology in Rural Contexts: An Experience of Mental Health Specialized Support to Family Health Teams Breno Pedercini de Castro and Cláudia Maria Filgueiras Penido

5.1  Introduction This chapter reports the experiences of a clinical psychologist acting in the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde – SUS)1 in the rural area of a small town in Brazil. Our objective is to describe a period of experience transitioning between urban and rural, assistance and management, describing the challenges posed to Psychology. In this case, it is about the practice of a psychologist inserted in a specialized support interprofessional team in Mental Health, in the area of Primary Health Care (PHC). In order to analyze this experience, it is theoretically and technically important to comprehend the health/illness process as a privileged metaphor (Minayo, 2014), which allows us to understand health and illness as socially situated. The psychologist’s experience as a specialized supporter in the mental health area is equally analyzed based on the specific policy of SUS (Brasil, 2008, 2013, 2017) and on literature (Campos, 1999; Amarante, 2007; Figueiredo & Campos, 2009; Chiaverini et al., 2011; Penido, 2013). The experience report has been organized in three parts: the first one contextualizes the supporting psychologist’s practice in rural areas of the town, focusing on the bond between teams and users upon mental health specialized support, whose formative dimension is highlighted. In the second part, we discuss mental health as an acting field and privileged metaphor, which requires extended clinical practice.  Brazilian Universal Health System, which provides free universal health access to the population.

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B. P. de Castro (*) Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Itabirito, Minas Gerais, Brazil C. M. F. Penido Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_5

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In the third one, we delve into some challenges of mental health specialized support in PHC within rural contexts. In this report we imbricate the experiences of assistance (between the years of 2017 and 2018) and management (from 2019) by the psychologist who started coordinating support teams. The second author, who also had some experience as support team manager and is currently a researcher on the subject, joined the psychologist aiming to continue the analysis from other opportunities yielded by this encounter. If we are successful, we will have presented a Brazilian reality of care in the health care area in rural contexts, not similar to the report of successful practices, but as a contribution to the debate about the extended clinical practice and the participation of Psychology in the training of professionals who work in PHC.  The challenging aspects of specialized support, known in Brazil as matrix support, in the rural context, will be in the foreground in this chapter, once it is the work methodology of psychologists in PHC in Brazil.

5.2  R  outes in the Rural Zone: A Construction of Specialized Support Based on Bond It is a small town of about 52,450 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte/Minas Gerais, whose rural zones encompass geographically far and expanding districts and neighborhoods. Away from the center, the rural zones’ territories differ from each other in terms of access to basic sanitation, housing conditions, access by roads, and availability of telephone signal and public transport. These are some of the conditions that influence the everyday experiences of the people who live there and contribute to the composition of the problematic of health social determinants – which challenge the professionals’ clinical practice. Some routes to the users’ houses would take the teams about 2 hours daily, the same time which take the rural zone population to access the services of the Psychosocial Attention Network (Rede de Atenção Psicossocial  – RAPS)2 with headquarters in the urban zone, such as the adult and children/youth health-care urgence/emergence centers, specialized social assistance centers, and emergency units, among others. The health teams, therefore, face the challenge of the referral and counter-referral processes between services which are distant from one another and depend on logistic and material issues, both from service users and teams. The estimated population in the rural zones of the town is between eight and ten thousand people. In order to cater for the needs of these families, there are two

2  Network whose aim is the “creation, expansion and articulation of health care units to people who suffer from mental disorders or who have needs yielding from crack, alcohol and other drug use, within SUS” (BRASIL, 2011).

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reference teams, known as Family Health teams (equipes de Saúde da Família – eSF),3 which are subdivided among eight rural zones along 5  days of the week, similar to the mobile teams around the territories. Psychology is part of the interprofessional team of “Expanded Family Health Care and Primary Care Core” (Núcleo Ampliado de Saúde da Família e Atenção Básica – NASF-AB), earlier called Family Health Support Core (Núcleo de Apoio à Saúde da Família).4 The work methodology of these teams is the matrix support, which operates as an organizational arrangement  – reference team (eSF, in this case) + interprofessional team (NASF) – and that supports a work process based on the rearguard assistance and technical-pedagogic support by the interprofessional team to the reference teams. By proposing a rearrangement of the reference teams with specialized matrix support, Campos (1999) argues that changes in responsibility patterns by health coproduction would be stimulated not only by the rearrangement of the work in health from the guideline of the therapeutical bond between teams and users, but also between teams. By feeling supported, the Family Health team feels safer and, consequently, tends to strengthen its bond with the users, the same way that the bond between teams can be strengthened based on the support relationship (Penido, 2012). The co-responsibility that specialized support fosters is thus based on bonding. In practice, the NASF has two users to be taken in within the PHC: the eSF and the service users themselves. In the case of the eSF, it is intended that the interprofessional team contribute to the increase of the resolve of the eSF through in-service training actions which encompass health promotion and prevention, as well as individual care, privileging collective approaches. In the Brazilian context, training actions in health are guided by the National Policy of Permanent Education in Heath (Política Nacional de Educação Permanente em Saúde, Brasil, 2007), which is based on a permanent education at work and for work, unlike precise and decontextualized trainings. In this context, matrix support is one of its tools. Matrix support is considered by SUS National Humanization Policy a specific device to support and expand eSF professionals’ practice (Brasil, 2006; Penido,

3  Within SUS, the Family Health Strategy (Estratégia Saúde da Família – ESF) is considered the privileged organizer of Primary Health Care (PHC). Its teams, called Family Health teams (equipes de Saúde da Família – eSF), are composed of doctors, nurses, nursing technicians, dentists, oral health technicians and auxiliaries, and Health Community Agents (Agentes Comunitários de Saúde – ACS), who are responsible for a certain area and its respective population. The ACS is a medium level professional who has hybrid characteristics; they are at the same time a health professional and a dweller of the area where the Health Unit is located, i.e., they are also users of the ESF. Among their functions, which count on the supervision of an eSF nurse, are identifying collective and individual risk situations, guiding families and facilitating access to health service. 4  The Family Health Support Cores (Núcleos de Apoio à Saúde da Família – NASF) are the interprofessional teams that work on PHC aiming to increase resolve of reference teams, through specialized support in areas such as Mental Health. In 2018, the name was altered to “Expanded Family Health Care and Primary Care Core” (Núcleo Ampliado de Saúde da Família e Atenção Básica” – NASF-AB).

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2013). Matrix support is a specialized support that can be offered in several areas, Mental Health included. In this case it is typically offered to doctors, nurses/nursing technicians, and health community agents by psychologists and psychiatrists. These teams are expected to fulfill the need to see a specialist by sharing knowledge and sanitary responsibilities, with technical-pedagogic experience that can contribute to expanding the eSF professionals’ autonomy in Mental Health actions. Although this support predicts rearguard assistance by specialist professionals, the principle of knowledge and sanitary responsibilities sharing is still essential to the perspective of fostering more autonomy in mental health actions by the eSF. It is important to notice, though, that such team also contributes to expand mental health professionals’ practices – such as psychologists and psychiatrists – for their geographical proximity to the users and for their potential to access their existential territories (Vieira & Neves, 2017).5 The first author acted as an NASF psychologist supporting teams in the Mental Health area in rural zones. Besides psychologists, the NASF also counted on social workers, physical educators, pharmacists, geriatricians, nutritionists, psychiatrists, and occupational therapists at the time, adding up nine professionals to support the eSF in all the territories. This support team developed a list of actions present in the NASF-specific guidelines, such as individual and shared home visits and collective approaches and meetings with teams of diverse sections. The eSF, on the other hand, occupied part of their time providing medical care on demand in the support centers6 on specific days of the week, besides working on health prevention, promotion, and education actions, within the possibilities of the Family Health Strategy (Estratégia de Saúde da Família – ESF), which is much more challenging in the mobile routine in the rural zone than in the urban zone. Some challenges on the local work process were the high turnover of professionals, the lack of health community agents in many territories, and the number of users  – which was larger than the limit established to each eSF (Brasil, 2017). Additionally, the Health Ministry has currently suspended the direct fund to the NASF strategy. Nonetheless, the local management supports and finances part of the maintenance of the NASF, in spite of the overwhelming need for team expansion in order to cater for both the eSF and the population’s growing demand. We understand that the way specialized support was implemented by the local management seems to have privileged and favored the rearguard assistance line in the relationship between the eSF and the NASF.  This resulted, for instance, in numerous requests for referrals to supporting professionals, decreasing these  We understand that this territory is a living environment that, on the one hand, has a dimension of a territory that is shaped as a geographic location, a populational profile interwoven by sociocultural factors; this territory is defined, above all, as living for having a dimension that is not objective, but an expression process evidencing its processual and qualitative character”. “It is thus this living, processual and qualitative dimension that makes the territory with and on which we operate in the health field, an existential territory” (Vieira & Neves, 2017: 28). 6  Accommodations designed for teams to help service in rural zones. 5

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professionals’ availability of time to technical-pedagogic support, in which the sharing of knowledge and sanitary responsibilities between teams is intended, aiming to expand the professionals’ autonomy in the care of people suffering from mental illness. Specialized support presupposes the work of both teams in the same service, the Basic Health Units (Unidades Básicas de Saúde – UBS). We tried to take advantage of such proximity to facilitate the exchange of knowledge. One of the intentions of these formative moments was to foster the wholeness of user care, and bonding was considered a necessary strategy to reach such state for it allows horizontality in relationships. In the rural areas in question, the mobile logic of the teams would decrease, in some degree, the opportunity of meetings and shared practices, presupposed in the work methodology in order to reach effectiveness in their purposes. In the eSF’s daily routine, mental health demands were sometimes seen as hard to handle and manage, beyond the idea and social stigma associated with people suffering from mental health illnesses still seen today. In the specific case of mental health care, the stigma attributed to people with mental disorders also influences the quality of the bond between these users and the PHC workers (Chiaverini et  al., 2011). The image of the psychologist, in turn, was (still) enigmatic and caused initial reservations by users in the rural area. As we face this scenario, we question which are the possibilities to psychologists’ clinical practice in rural areas for both users: the Family Health teams and the users of the services themselves. From start we identified the limits in the traditional clinical call, guided by the biomedical model and conceptual basis of modern scientific medicine which is directed by a mechanistic and naturalist conception of the health-illness phenomenon. Despite its many conquests in the improvement of men’s health, the biomedical model hinders or limits the dialogue between different subjects, which would, in turn, facilitate the understanding of what happens to the human beings in all their dimensions (Baeta, 2015). When mental health is in the agenda, these limitations attributed to such universalist model gain even sharper outlines, as it can be seen next.

5.3  Mental Health Reception If we intend to debate the execution of Psychology in rural contexts, it is necessary to situate mental health, not only as an acting area of SUS professionals but also as a privileged metaphor. Amarante (2007) points out two basic ways commonly associated with the “mental health” expression, being the first one a field of theoretical and technical knowledge which encompasses the professionals’ performance in public policies, such as SUS, and the second one a sane mental state of mental well-being or yet the absence of disorders which can affect individual and collective subjects throughout life.

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At a first glance, we understand that “mental health” would not be an acting area restricted to psychologists, which indicates the necessary appropriation of these demands by other professionals in their daily work lives. Many of them, however, may be resistant to or afraid of the handling of “patients with mental health issues,” resulting in or reinforcing the already socially constructed stigma of these subjects’ disorder or non-conformity to a living model perceived as normal and acceptable. These aspects are in operation, for example, in discussion meetings of cases in which users’ intense suffering episodes, or even those whose teams did not feel trained to listen or manage, almost automatically resulted in referrals by the psychologist, disregarding the opportunity to reflect on these situations, in a way it could contribute to the clinical practice of both parties. The outcome, which is the eSF’s non-responsibility for the users who are mentally suffering is often taken over by psychologists and psychiatrists under the rubric “specialized demands” to mental health professionals. Evidently, the discussion is not over in the two senses presented by Amarante (2007), who proposes an articulation in which mental health is understood as “an especially polysemic and plural field insofar as it is about the mental health of both the subject and the collective, which are equally extremely complex conditions” and concludes arguing that “any kind of categorization is followed by the risk of reductionism and flattening of the possibilities of social and human existence” (Amarante, 2007, p. 19). A possible path to follow from this other understanding of mental health is to attenuate the ideas of “health” and “illness” as norms and, therefore, the single application to all subjects, despite implicit differences in their existence and suffering conditions. Worldly shared formulas, such as the one which understands health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, may this way raise our questioning upon the possibility of reaching this proposal by collectivity, to a great degree due to the social and economic inequality present on the globe, which impact our lives considerably. So, taking the displacement of the universalizing perspective on the matter as a basis, we propose to address the health/illness process as a privileged metaphor, as presented by Minayo (2014), insofar as it reveals world conceptions that encompass attitudes, from the society from which one talks about: Upon the living, falling ill and dying experiences, people can say much about themselves, about what surrounds them, their living conditions, what oppresses, threatens and frightens them. They also express their opinions about the institutions and about the social organizations and the economic, political and cultural structures. Health/Illness are also metaphors that explain society: their anomalies, unbalances, fears and prejudices, serving as either a coercing or a freeing tool to individuals and their community. Their privileged representation status is owed to the fact that the notions of health/illness are intimately linked to existential themes, being unquestionably meaningful. (Minayo, 2014, p. 258) (translated by the authors)

By approaching the health/illness process this way, we come across the (several) world conceptions and existence conditions that intervene in the subjects and the

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suffering situations, deconstructing thus a single conception of “mental health.” We believe that an ethnographic look may help us in the development of this matter. Upon investigating institutional rhetoric about mental health in specific policies to tackle cases such as alcoholism, suicide, and psychiatric disorders in indigenous societies, Castro (2019) shows that the use of this expression has proven limited throughout the years, insofar as indigenous peoples do not seem to recognize the meaning of this western expression due to the limitation of the individualistic construct of “mind.” The institutional guideline is therefore operating less with nosological categories from western biomedical knowledge, creating an opportunity to unveil the uniqueness of the suffering experienced by the indigenous people, which would take into account, according to the author, the specificities of the people in a historical process of contact – being the territories on the basis of their existence, beyond the permanent political fight. Alternatively, to the “mental health” category, the institutional rhetoric progressively proposes expressions such as “well living” and “psychosocial attention” (still without consensus), no longer focusing on mental health phenomena as an end in themselves, but privileging the idea of well-being in the different indigenous societies and potentializing community projects with that approach. However, Castro (2019) highlights some issues addressed to indigenous peoples which include violations of territories and difficulties in social control. They persist along the way to conveying new institutional meaning to “mental health” and how to act alongside the indigenous people. The health policy is finally perceived as insufficient, or perhaps impotent, to alter the question of territory violation, which requires the work of different sectors in public administration and governance in different levels. From this ethnographic perspective, it is relevant to reflect upon the expansion of the look on collective “mental health,” which reminds us of the place of different sectors in the health practices, in a way to handle the social determinants which do not exhaust in the health sector. The Health Social Determination (Determinação Social da Saúde  – DSS) fundamental assumption is that “the comprehension of human health must go through interdisciplinary analysis of the ways society is organized, of its social and economic structure, understanding that the latter is subordinate to the natural dimension of the production of health, illness and care” (Berlarmino et al., 2016, p. 101) (translated by the authors). The authors also highlight other factors encompassed by the DSS such as presence, quality, and accessibility to public health services and actions and their interface with other sector policies. Our proposal therefore indicates the comprehension of “mental health” as socially situated, analogous to the perspective of the Health Social Determination, which leads the way of the work of different sectors in the professionals’ clinical practice. The health/illness process (Minayo, 2014) carries an internal scheme of explanations, in which one not only observes a specialists’ reference framework but also the experience that emerges from the common sense. Let us take, as an example, the clinical psychologist who works within the NASF as one of the specialists who work in the Mental Health area with two users to take care of, the eSF and the rural

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area users themselves, who bring along world conceptions and their own care practices, in agreement with their existential territories (Vieira & Neves, 2017). Issue 34 of Caderno de Atenção Básica (Brasil, 2013) presents guidelines and technical guidance to handle mental health in PHC and points that practices in this area can and should be carried out by all the professionals. This way, it is important to highlight that the unified objectives of the “mental health care professionals should be the understanding of the territory and the Health team’s bonding relationship with users, more than the choice of one of the different understandings of mental health that a team identifies themselves with” (Brasil, 2013, p. 22) (translated by the authors), being the “relationship” the main tool in mental health practice. Under a different look on individual and collective subjects’ “mental health” and bonding as a possibility of work with teams and users, we reintroduce our question toward the possibilities of clinical work by Psychology. As far as SUS is concerned, we found the Extended Clinic guidelines (Brasil, 2006) within the Humanization National Policy guidelines, understood as a dialectic synthesis between the subject and their illness, without the intention to undermine all the advances accomplished by medicine (Campos, 2005). The psychosocial aspects involved in the health-illness-care process gain importance in this proposal, which promotes an advance in relation to the biomedical model previously referred to. It is forcible to acknowledge the affinity of Psychology with a guideline which reinforces the importance of psychosocial aspects. However, such affinity does not constitute an antidote to biomedical logics. In an unusual way, they are often reproduced within the normalization of the health-illness-care process, which can approach to psychiatric hospitals when it comes to mental suffering. Besides that, it is important to bear in mind that the Extended Clinic guideline is an invitation to all professional categories, which poses obstacles related to the traditional (or insidious) biomedical background of other categories.

5.4  C  hallenges to Specialized Support in Mental Health in Rural Zones In order to return to the same support point in rural zones, it takes the supporting psychologist about 30 days, a dynamic with impacts on the support to the eSF and on therapeutical processes to the users. In general, the mobile team would go to the rural zone to meet some professionals who lived in the territories, such as the ACS, nursing technicians and oral health auxiliaries. The psychologist would share part of the day with these professionals in a support point and the other part with the remaining eSF or an NASF professional in a different meeting point. This dynamic was due to the logistic and the local physical structure present in the assistance of rural zones.

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This setting would hinder the presence of all the professionals in the teams in the same space of practices and training, such as specialized support monthly meetings between the NASF and the eSF in the urban zone UBS. This way, the work required exchange between the teams about demands and assessment action planning, as well as following up7 users with important suffering signs – initially taken in by the eSF throughout the month. Among the clinical practice places reserved for professionals at the time, there are a small annex to the local church, the community association of a neighborhood, or, yet, a rural zone UBS. They are examples of the heterogeneity of settings and conditions presented to the teams and attempts to build something using many hands. Within these settings, the ACS bonding with the community and some professionals’ vast experience with rural zone areas were elementary factors to the team’s work. It is important to remember the absence of crucial community agents for long periods in some territories, a factor that can weaken the longitudinal practice and bonding with the community user. The first psychologist’s home visits were often made together with the ACS, besides the nurse or an NASF professional as a way to write the clinical case. On one occasion, the discussion of a user’s case suffering from acute depressive symptoms, obesity, bullying experiences, and fragile family relations resulted in the planning of shared visits among the eSF, a nutritionist and a psychologist, in different arrangements and moments. The shared actions allowed a more thorough comprehension of the case and a joint set up of a personal therapeutical project. The home visit in particular was a strategic resource to the professionals in the comprehension of the users’ reality of life and the specificities of the rural zones. Oftentimes it was not possible to have users attend the support points due to the long distances and transportation conditions, which meant the teams should come to them. Another snippet of a clinical case that may illustrate this chapter is about a user who went to a UBS in a moment of crisis with typical schizophrenia symptoms. We understand that the presence of alterations throughout time, occasionally without therapeutical interventions, resulted in the team’s difficulty to manage the case as well as a certain resistance to having the user there. A psychologist support was requested, who tried to collaborate so that the eSF could understand the patient’s suffering condition and could also develop a bond with the user that went beyond individual clinical care by the supporting professional. Bearing this in mind, we highlight the importance of moments of articulation between the psychologist and the nursing technician, who lived in the territory and had an important bond with the user; the psychologist’s acceptance of the patient’s

7  The collective approaches were not successful due to both the teams’ and users’ logistic and assistance difficulties, resulting in insufficient time to meet the great users’ demand, who seemed to prefer the private space of individual care with professionals. We also understand that contrary to the management’s expectations of the collective approaches, at the time it doesn’t seem to be technically and therapeutically accurate to resort to the “team” in order to cater for the needs of the growing demand of users in mental suffering, according to a perspective that understands team as just a strategy to provide medical care to more people in a short time.

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family members (with the patient’s awareness); and finally, the possible articulation of the eSF, together with the urgency/emergency mental health center in the urban zone, to administer medication in the territory with the participation of the Nursing department. Other cases in rural zones required similar articulation with a wide network of services. The practice of these teams based on specialized support contributed thus to the user’s access to the service and the maintenance of health-­ care offer. In the reported experiences, the psychologist’s clinical practice benefited throughout the time from the proximity with different professionals who were members of the teams, going beyond doctors and nurses. A possible practice of the Mental Health area supporting psychologist means expanding the listening comprehension of users and their families’ biopsychosocial aspects in assessment and practice, still trying to hold the eSF and other professionals accountable for the subjects in mental suffering and make such professionals feel confident about clinical management. The progressive sharing of knowledge and sanitary responsibilities between the eSF and the supporters seems to contribute thus to the construction of care integrity among users, a dear principal of SUS. Under this perspective, we consider it pertinent to restore the issue of health social determinants which is present in an expanded conception of “mental health” – taking into account the biopsychosocial aspects in the living and suffering conditions of the subjects – as well as in the participation of other professionals besides psychologists and psychiatrists in mental health care. Specialized support in mental health may potentialize the bond development between eSF and users with mental disorders, for it acts directly in the deconstruction of stigmas attributed to users who suffer from mental disorders and builds mental health strategies together with the reference team, improving the conditions of teams to be held accountable for these users and contribute to defend their health (Lancetti & Amarante, 2006; Figueiredo & Campos, 2009; Chiaverini et al., 2011). On the other hand, there may be some obstacles when it comes to bonding in PHC, such as the maintenance of the biomedical assistance model and the tendency to medical specialties (Campos, 1999). Historically, medical specialty in mental health practice only reinforces segmentation and exclusion of these users, which causes difficulties to implement a wholesome approach of health, especially important due to the loss of quality of life associated with these users. Despite the low mortality associated, mental disorders are highly impacting, which highlights the importance of preventive and protective actions, in particular in PHC (Bonadiman et al., 2017). To this point, we expect to have proven that the Mental Health area in SUS is not restricted to psychologists and psychiatrists, and it summons professionals who relate to the clinical case to share their knowledge in formative spaces together with the eSF, based on the bond between teams and users. Not only the psychologist but also other supporters faced challenges in the mobile logic in rural zones, such as long periods of time between one appointment and another with the same eSF, namely, the psychiatrist. We believe that reflecting upon specialized support in the Mental Health area applied by the municipality, now

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under the management perspective, by the same psychologist, may help us understand the matter. Besides the support of the NASF, the PHC counted on psychiatrists who worked in the mental health urgency/emergency center. This matrix support in Psychiatry was performed in the UBS of the urban zone and well as in the rural zone. The objective is that this specialist favored the decrease of the logic of referrals between the eSF and the mental health urgency/emergency center. For that purpose, joint actions were put into practice in order to contribute to the understanding and safety of the management of mental health demands by the eSF, aiming the increase of everyday resolve. Despite his engagement to another job, the psychiatrist shared thus the role of supporter of the eSF, as well as the NASF professionals. On a monthly basis, the eSF counted on the psychiatrist in order to discuss the demands taken in throughout the month which were directly related to mental health. The joint actions expected between the psychiatrist and the eSF professionals were cases discussion, shared care, and specific meetings about topics such as mood disorders, schizophrenia, and psychoactive substance abuse. As shown before, the operationalization of specialized support in rural zones was even more challenging for its logistic characteristic of assistance in these contexts. However, the manager’s priority was the maintenance and the strengthening of specialized support to the eSF of the rural area as frequently as in the urban area. The meetings between eSF and psychiatrists happened, nevertheless, on different days from those of the monthly meetings between eSF and NASF supporters, weakening the integration of the professionals in the same space, a potential moment to share knowledge and sanitary responsibilities. The specialized support in Psychiatry setting, taken over by the previous management, resulted in greater participation of clinical doctors, which reinforced the idea of specialized support in Psychiatry aimed at doctor training. The over appreciation of psychiatric individual care, either by the eSF or the local coordination, accentuated the medical specialty character in mental health. Other non-doctor eSF professionals became thus marginal workers in the training process, eventually weakening the objective of sharing knowledge cast by the demands associated with mental health by all the team. Among the supporting professionals, the psychologist’s participation along with the psychiatrist and the eSF was generally more frequent, what could not be observed in relation to the other professionals. As it happened with other eSF professionals, those who did not have a Psychology/ Psychiatry background also became marginal workers in the discussion processes, weakening the interprofessional perspective and the Mental Health specialized support. Eventually, one could sense misunderstandings about the specialized support methodology, which would diminish the participation of other professionals in the formative spaces. Regarding this scenario, the effort proposed by the manager-psychologist was to contribute to the new meaning of “Psychiatry specialized support” under the perspective of “Mental Health specialized support.” The strategy aimed to affect and

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incentivize the different supporters to build a common space to share knowledge in Mental Health and sanitary responsibilities together with the Family Health teams. This approach was also present in the incentive given to specialists of other services to join the technical NASF meetings, which gathered supporting professionals in the coordination. The technical rearrangement of the Mental Health specialized support by the manager was part of the discussion and alignment process of specialized support in PHC, restoring the perspective of the technical-pedagogical support in relation to rearguard assistance. In practice, the integration of different supporters in diverse formative spaces within the eSF contributes to the integrity of user care, aiming to establish the guidelines of an extended clinical practice by the team of professionals. In the specific case of Mental Health, the fact that extended clinical approach is not limited to psychologists and psychiatrists has a special meaning. Mental Health in Primary Health Care can be understood as a necessary advance in the Psychiatric Reform movement, for its possibility to contribute to the non-­ specialized approach of users suffering from mental disorders. We believe that non-­ specialist professionals, such as PHC general practitioners or nurses, can and must act on mental health cases.

5.5  Final Considerations At last, we understand from the present reported experience that the supporting psychologist who works in rural zones is responsible for contributing to the expansion of the clinical practice in the PHC, based on the importance of psychosocial aspects present in the suffering of the users. Still, the psychologist should be able to share the clinical practice and the sanitary responsibility with the other professionals, which in the case of mental health has a strategic importance, considering the relevance of revising the stigmas associated with people who suffer from mental disorders and guaranteeing the integrity of health care. The emphasis on the uniqueness of these aspects corresponds to the expansion of the look on “mental health” of the individual and collective subjects, according to the social determinants that act on the health-illness-care process. We believe that the expansion of the look on mental health and clinical practice, however, seems to be expected in urban zones as well, just as this report highlighted the operationalization challenges of specialized support in rural contexts. The desirable proximity among workers in the daily work life is not a given and thus requires the appropriation of the matrix support proposal and effort in the process of daily bonding, not only between teams but also between users, an even more challenging arrangement in rural contexts, as shown in the report. To the reader it may seem that the relevance of the psychosocial aspects in the mental health suffering composition would a priori be something obvious and internalized by the variety of professionals acting in the PHC, we could state that if this is true in the literature, this is not the current reality in the “practices basis” of

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health. The acceptance of certain concepts – only because they have been developed by militants, managers, or intellectuals of the sanitary reform – is not automatic, as pointed by Cecílio (2017). The comprehension of the health-illness-care process is a disputed territory. There are choices, but there are also possible compositions. In this chapter, therefore, we approached matrix support as a privileged tool to negotiate possibilities in mental health care and expand the clinical practice of those involved, bringing them closer to the rural zone users’ existential territories. It is a work among professionals based on bonding. In turn, just as a domino effect, we believe that this work also contributed to activate the therapeutical bond between the eSF professionals and the users, as well as between the teams. In this complex practice scenario, Psychology brings about its collaboration through clinical practice and formative dimensions which, in the last instance, do not separate from each other.

References Amarante, P. (2007). Saúde Mental e Atenção Psicossocial (p. 2007). Editora Fiocruz. Baeta, S. M. F. (2015). Cultura y modelo biomédico: reflexiones en el proceso de salud- enfermedad. Comunidad y Salud, 13(2), 81–83. Berlarmino, V. H., Dimenstein, M., Leite, J., Macedo, J. P., & Dantas, C. (2016). Território e determinação social da saúde mental em contextos rurais. In M. Dimenstein, J. Leite, J. P. Macedo, & C.  Dantas (Eds.), Condições de vida e saúde mental em contextos rurais. Intermeios; Brasília: Cnpq; Natal: UFRN; Teresina: UFPI; Fapepi. Bonadiman, C. S. C., Passos, V. M. d. A., Mooney, M., Naghavi, M., & Melo, A. P. S. (2017). A carga dos transtornos mentais e decorrentes do uso de substâncias psicoativas no Brasil: Estudo de Carga Global de Doença, 1990 e 2015. Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia (impresso), 20(supl. 1), 191–204. Brasil. (2006). Ministério da Saúde. Secretaria de Atenção à Saúde. Núcleo Técnico da Política Nacional de Humanização. HumanizaSUS: documento base para gestores e trabalhadores do SUS. 3. ed. Brasília: Ministério da Saúde. Brasil. (2007). Ministério da Saúde. Portaria n. 1.996, de 20 de agosto de 2007. Brasil. (2008). Ministério da Saúde. Portaria n. 154, de 24 de janeiro de 2008. Brasil. (2011). Ministério da Saúde. Portaria n. 3088, de 23 de dezembro de 2011. Brasil. (2013). Ministério da Saúde. Secretaria de Atenção à Saúde. Departamento de Atenção Básica. Departamento de Ações Programáticas Estratégicas. Saúde mental. Cadernos de Atenção Básica, n. 34. Brasília: Ministério da Saúde. Brasil. (2017). Ministério da Saúde. Portaria n. 2.436, de 21 de setembro de 2017. Campos, G.  W. d. S. (1999). Equipes de referência e apoio especializado matricial: um ensaio sobre a reorganização do trabalho em saúde. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 4(2), 393–403. Campos, G. W. d. S. (2005). Saúde Paidéia. Hucitec. Castro, B.  P. (2019). “Saúde mental”, territórios e a participação em povos indígenas [manuscrito]: uma etnografia das retóricas institucionais em instâncias estatais na saúde indígenas de Minas Gerais e Espírito Santo. Dissertação de Mestrado. Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte. Chiaverini, D. H., et al. (2011). Guia prático de matriciamento em saúde mental. Centro de Estudo e Pesquisa em Saúde Coletiva, Ministério da Saúde. Figueiredo, M. D., & Campos, R. O. (2009). Saúde Mental na atenção básica à saúde de Campinas, SP: uma rede ou um emaranhado? Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 14(1), 129–138.

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Lancetti, A., & Amarante, P. (2006). Saúde Mental e Saúde Coletiva. In G. W. d. S. Campos (Ed.), Tratado de saúde coletiva (pp. 615–634). Hucitec. Minayo, M. C. S. (2014). O desafio do conhecimento: Pesquisa Qualitativa em Saúde. Hucitec. Penido, C. M. F. (2012). Análise da implicação de apoiadores e trabalhadores da Estratégia de Saúde da Família no apoio matricial em saúde mental. Escola de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte. Penido, C.  M. F. (2013). Apoio matricial em saúde mental no contexto da saúde coletiva. In S. Paulon & R. Neves (Eds.), Saúde mental na Atenção Básica: a territorialização do cuidado (pp. 17–38). Sulina. Vieira, S. S., & Neves, C. A. B. (2017). Cuidado em saúde no território na interface entre Saúde Mental e Estratégia de Saúde Família. Fractal: Revista de Psicologia, 29(1), 24–33.

Chapter 6

Suicide in the Inỹ Population: Between the Spell and the Disarrangement of “Desire” Jaqueline Medeiros Silva Calafate, Iara Flor Richwin, and Valeska Zanello

6.1  Introduction The colonization of the Americas, which began in 1492, started a long process of genocide and violent extermination of the original peoples (Mamani, 2010). It is speculated that about 1000 diverse ethnic groups lived in Brazil, totaling a population quota estimated between 2 and 6 million indigenous peoples. From 1500 to 1970, most of these groups were extinguished, leaving only 734,000 indigenous people in 2000. After a long period of effort to exterminate indigenous peoples, it was observed, from the promulgation of the 1988 Constitution, an increase of this population in Brazil, resulting from a process of recognition and identity rescue (Instituto Socioambiental [ISA], n.d.-a, b). In the national census conducted in 2010, 256 peoples were identified, totaling 896,917 indigenous peoples (572,083 villagers), speakers of 150 different languages (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics [IBGE], 2010). Although no new census was conducted after 2010, population data from the Indigenous Health Care Information System (SIASI) of 2019 pointed to a significant growth in the village population, which now adds up to 761,660 indigenous people with 305 ethnic groups speaking 274 native languages. This increase is mainly due to the process of ethnogenesis that has occurred in the last 10 years, which consists in the recognition of resurfaced groups (Indigenistic Missionary Council [CIMI], 2004). Despite this ethnic and population rescue, there are several threats that continue to target the existence of indigenous peoples in Brazil, such as mining and agribusiness activities; the construction of hydroelectric dams and highways; and the expropriation of their lands. In addition, it is important to highlight the process of J. M. S. Calafate · I. F. Richwin · V. Zanello (*) Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_6

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systematic and intentional transformation of the ways of living and well-being of indigenous peoples, reducing them to the condition of “poor”.1 The threats of extermination and vulnerabilization of indigenous populations also touch on aspects directly related to the dimension of what, in our Western culture, we call mental health. Alcohol abuse, which is historically used as a strategy of colonization and disaggregation, has been presented as a serious health problem among indigenous peoples (Mendes et al., 2020; Souza et al., 2019). Equally worrisome is the rise of suicides in native communities, which is the central problem of the present study. According to the World Health Organization (2019), suicide is a critical social and public health problem, which is among the top 20 causes of death worldwide and is responsible for about 800,000 deaths a year. The last survey presented by the WHO in 2019 identified that, on a global scale, the incidence of suicide is declining. However, when this incidence is observed in a regionalized way, this decline cannot be identified in all regions and countries of the world. For example, while the overall suicide rate decreased by 9.8% in the period 2010 to 2016, in the Americas region, there was an increase of 6% in the same period. Adolescence and youth have proved to be a phase of significant vulnerability to suicide, which is the second leading cause of mortality worldwide among young people from 15 to 29 years old (WHO, 2019). Specifically in Brazil, data from the Ministry of Health (Brazil, 2019a) indicate a 10% increase in suicide death rates among young people of this same age group, in the period from 2011 to 2017. It should also be noted that suicide rates are higher in groups suffering some form of vulnerabilization, stigmatization, and exclusion, such as migrants and refugees, LGBTQI+ people, people in deprivation of liberty, and indigenous peoples, who are the focus of this study. According to data from the Ministry of Health, between 2011 and 2016, indigenous peoples committed more suicides in Brazil (15.2 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants) than white (5.9), black (4.7), and Asian (2.4) populations. These data from the Brazilian context coincide with findings from international studies, which indicate greater vulnerability to suicide among indigenous populations (especially among young people) from other regions of the world, such as Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Islets in the South Pacific, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Nordic countries, and Russia (Brazil, 2017, 2019b). As pointed out by a United Nations study, this high incidence of suicide among indigenous youth around the world must be understood in a way closely articulated

1  The term “poor” requires a critical problematization when applied in indigenous contexts. It is certain that the process of domination and violation of indigenous peoples, animated by the fronts of economic expansion from the colonial period to the present times, has severely compromised the livelihoods of indigenous families and their objective conditions of the traditional way of life, producing vulnerabilities (Borges, 2016; Teixeira, 2016). However, it is necessary to point out that poverty itself constitutes an operator of capitalist logic and manifests a predominance of the individualistic and monetary perspective, which is oblivious to the forms of social organization and to the parameters of indigenous well-being (Godoy, 2016).

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with the context of traumatic colonization, discrimination, marginalization, and loss of traditional ways of life in community (UNICEF, 2014). As well as among indigenous populations from other regions of the world, the epidemiological study on suicide in Brazil reveals that, if the transition between child life and adult life has constituted a period of greater vulnerability and risk for self-extermination in the general population, this is even more pronounced among the indigenous population. Of the suicide deaths in the indigenous population, 44.8% were committed by young people from 10 to 19 years old, which represents a value eight times higher than that identified among white and black young people of this same age group (5.7% in each; Brazil, 2017). It is important to point out that a look at this period of life among indigenous peoples requires an analytical caution, since adolescence is a Western cultural category, which cannot be projected on to different indigenous cultures. They build their own meanings, interpretations, and rites of passage related to this moment of life. The act of taking one’s own life is a complex and multidetermined phenomenon and can be understood in different ways by different peoples. As highlighted by Souza and Ferreira (2014), the concept of suicide forged in Western societies, which is guided by biomedical perspectives and guided by an individualistic ideology, cannot simply be transposed into indigenous contexts. The Western and biomedical concept of suicide is mainly based on the ideas of a deliberate act performed by the individual himself with the intention of dying (Brazilian Psychiatric Association [ABP], 2014). Thus, to the extent that indigenous societies operate with a notion of social, relational, and related person and that they construct different conceptions and interpretations about intentionality and about death and dying, the very core of this suicide concept is questioned, implying serious limitations for its uncritical applicability in indigenous contexts (Souza & Ferreira, 2014). Therefore, to reflect on the etiology of the phenomenon called suicide in the West, we need to take into account different dimensions  – individual, collective, sociocultural, spiritual, and political – which are configured in intricate interactions (Camarotti, 2009; Nunes, 2016). This also requires an exercise of in-depth investigation and understanding of the cultural and historical bases in which these indigenous perspectives on suicide are constructed: symbolic universes, sociocosmic systems, mythical narratives, and kinship networks; conceptions about person and intentionality; and understandings about death, end of life, killing, and dying (Souza & Ferreira, 2014; Souza, 2016). In addition, the approach to suicide in each indigenous ethnic group should take into account interactions with the surrounding society and the relations of dispute, power, and subjugation with non-indigenous peoples, seeking to understand the territorial issues involved and the objective and social conditions that can compromise their traditional ways of life (Souza & Ferreira, 2014; Souza, 2016; Souza et al., 2020; Staliano et al., 2019; Teixeira, 2016). Despite the severity and complexity of the phenomenon of indigenous suicide, Brazilian scientific production on the subject in the areas of health and anthropology is still scarce (Souza & Ferreira, 2014; Souza et al., 2020), mainly with regard to studies that focus on prevention strategies, attention, and care for this disease. Little research on this subject has also been carried out in the field of psychology

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(Calafate & Zanello, 2021). Such scarcity of knowledge has promoted numerous difficulties in the creation and implementation of social and health policies to cope with such a complex phenomenon, which requires scientific accumulation and caution in its approach. It is important to note that the high rates of indigenous suicide do not occur homogeneously. On the contrary, this phenomenon has been presented in a localized way in specific communities and peoples, in which it emerges as a worrying health problem (Brazil, 2019b). The North and Midwest regions are the ones that concentrate the highest rates in the Brazilian territory. In the Midwest region, the gross number of suicides among indigenous peoples is seven times higher than in the non-indigenous population. In the North region, this number is five times higher (Souza et al., 2020). In this context, the state of Mato Grosso do Sul (Staliano et al., 2019) stands out with the total number of deaths due to indigenous suicide. The people in whom these numbers have been markedly high are the Guarani. The literature has consistently pointed out the relationship of this phenomenon with the struggle for land, including fights with landowners and deterritorialization (Vick, 2011). Second in total numbers of suicides are the Inỹ peoples, Bananal Island, composed of the Karajá and Javaé, in the state of Tocantins. Despite the second place in the total number, the Inỹ appear, until 2015, in the first place in relation to the rates of suicide per inhabitant. The incidence between 2002 and 2015 was 231.1 and 37.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively, while for a non-indigenous population it was 4.7 (Brazil, 2015). The severity of the situation and the high incidence of self-­ inflicted deaths led the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health (SESAI) to place the Inỹ among the priorities of the strategic agenda for suicide prevention (Brazil, 2017). This chapter aims to analyze the wave of suicide among the indigenous peoples of the Bananal Island/Brazil (Karajá and Javaé, which make up the Inỹ people). It is intended, in addition to paying special attention to the interpretations and explanatory models constructed by the Inỹ about this phenomenon themselves, to put in dialogue the areas of psychology and anthropology in the construction of a pluriepistemic discursive space. It is necessary to point out that one of the authors acted as a psychologist in the actions of coping with the phenomenon of suicide among Inỹ peoples, in the period between 2013 and 2016. The position in the Indigenous Special Sanitary District (DSEI)2 in Tocantins emerged mainly by the increase in the number of suicides among these people. Her professional responsibilities included mapping the territories; identifying and recording/reporting deaths and attempts; and following the (attempted) cases. To this end, 20 days a month were spent in the field, with the various indigenous peoples of Tocantins, among them the Javaés, of Bananal Island.

2  The DSEIs are decentralized health units, distributed according to the territorial criteria of the different indigenous communities, which have the purpose of guaranteeing this population’s access to comprehensive health care.

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In addition, the researcher participated in the Research Program for the SUS (PPSUS), with the Federal University of Tocantins, which aimed to develop a suicide prevention plan in Bananal Island, between 2014 and 2015. In this project, monthly visits were made (duration of 4 days, on average) to Karajá Santa Isabel village. In these visits, dialogues were established with leaders, elders, shamans, and local population, held with the objective of achieving greater understanding about community experiences and the explanatory models constructed by the indigenous themselves about the phenomenon of suicide. During this period of activity, several forms of recording were carried out by the researcher: reports, field notebooks, and ethnographic notes. Therefore, this chapter will use both epidemiological data between 2002 and 2015 and from 2019, presented by the Ministry of Health, and the ethnographic notes of the field notebook, referring to the two experiences previously described. Data from 2016, 2017, and 2018 are not available, as the document presented by the Ministry of Health does not detail the number of suicides by indigenous peoples, discriminating only DSEIs,3 responsible for different peoples in the same territory.

6.2  About the Inỹ: Territoriality, Becoming an Inỹ Man/ Woman, and Rituals of Transition to Adulthood The Karajá and Javaé peoples make up an ethnic unit that is known as Inỹ people. Although they emphasize, among them, internal differences, they are understood as unity when they have as a point of reference the other original peoples and non-­ indigenous peoples, named by them as Tori (Nunes, 2016; Karajá, 2019). Each of these ethnic subgroups is distributed in different villages and regions. The Inỹ groups are speakers of the same language, Inỹrybè, which belongs to the Macro-Jê language tree, Karajá linguistic family, but speak different dialects (Nunes, 2013). This population lives immemorially in areas located on the banks of the Araguaia River region. Apparently, there are no records on the presence of these peoples in another region (Nunes, 2013; Rodrigues, 1993; Toral, 1992). Currently, the Brazilian State, based on Article 231 of the 1988 Federal Constitution, recognizes the land rights of these populations on Indigenous Lands (IL), located mostly in the state of Tocantins and, to a lesser extent, in the states of Goiás and Mato Grosso. One may say that the Araguaia River represents the central axis of the Inỹ territoriality and that the Bananal Island, now recognized as a Land of Traditional Indigenous Occupation in its entirety, is the area that houses most of the Inỹ population. The Inỹ culture is characterized by the existence of rituals that mark the transitions and initiations of children to adulthood, which are different for men and

3  This is a public domain document, which can be obtained via demand by the E-SIC (Citizen Information Service).

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women. For men, the Hetohoky (meaning big house) is the most important rite of passage to the adult world. It takes place in September or October and usually lasts 6  months. Boys of approximately 12  years old are called to the big house (casa grande), where only men can be. There they receive the teachings of the elders to be able to enter adulthood. During this period, not only do they learn teachings of conduct and survival (hunting, fishing) but are also initiated into the cosmology of spiritual interaction with animals (ISA, n.d.-a). It is important to note that the ritual organizes everything in community life: for 6  months the living in the village is related to the Hetohoky, which is revived every 6 months by the whole group. In this way, the young man is revisited and invited to rethink his role as a man at all times. For girls, this passage is marked by the first menstruation, when they must be reclusive at home until the end of the cycle, being cared for and seen only by the mother, aunts, and grandmother, who will enchant them for the party that will be offered to relatives. Aunts are responsible for cutting the hair of their nieces in the shape of a quiff, and, in the process, they pass on the teachings about what it is to be an Inỹ woman and how to behave. There are several rituals that build the Inỹ woman. Although many of them are no longer practiced, there are still postnatal and domestic rites that help build this female body: the first feeding of the child, not eating fish after having had the first child, the ceremony performed by the grandmother shortly after the postnatal period (Nunes, 2016). Self-inflicted deaths are a relatively recent phenomenon among Inỹ peoples, at least on the scale on which they have occurred in recent years. As we will set forth below, one-off suicides began to be recorded since 2002. But the period between 2011 and 2012 shows an unprecedented picture, characterized as an outbreak or “suicide crisis” (Nunes, 2013). Before the detailed presentation of the suicide data, it is important to highlight that not all the peoples that make up the Inỹ showed an increased incidence in self-extermination rates, only the Karajá located in the south of the Bananal Island and the Javaé. The villages with the most cases are close to cities, such as Santa Isabel (Karajá do Sul) and Canoanã (Javaé). The following data relate to these two communities.

6.3  Suicide Data Among Inỹ People: Karajá and Javaé According to data from the Araguaia DSEI, there were 39 deaths between 2002 and 2015, only among the Karajá. The first four deaths (2002, 2005, 2006, and 2007) were caused by firearms, the following two (2007 and 2008) by jumping off a communication tower located in the village of Santa Isabel. The other 33 deaths occurred by hanging. Here we can highlight the first recurrence that needs to be understood. The modi operandi are clearly divided into temporally located blocks. The cases began with deaths caused by firearms, and all, from February 2010, were committed exclusively by hanging, which represents 84% of all deaths. The temporal distribution of occurrences also reveals a pattern: sparse cases in the first 6 years and a sudden increase in incidence from 2011 on. Of the 39 suicides

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recorded among the Karajá, 6 were committed by women and 39 by men (84.6%). The average age of the victims is 20.4. Among females, this number is lowered to 18.33. And among men, it is 20.78 years old. In the age group from 10 to 22 there are 27 victims, 69.23% of the total. Only 14 victims are over 20 years old, 35.89%, and 4 are 30 or older, 10.2%. The oldest of them all was only 34. That is, corroborating with the existing literature on indigenous suicide, it was an event that was particularly affecting the youth. Sixteen self-inflicted deaths occurred in the Santa Isabel do Morro village, computing 41.02% of all deaths among the Karajá. Half of the women who killed themselves during this period also lived in this community. The Macaúda and Fontoura villages had taken the second place on the list. According to SIASI data, the village of Santa Isabel do Morro had a population of approximately 700 indigenous people in the period related to these deaths. With regard to the location, Santa Isabel is the closest village to the city of São Felix do Araguaia, a locality that represented, for many years, the most advanced point of the expansion fronts of national society in the region. In 2019, according to data from the Ministry of Health, there were two deaths of suicide by hanging and six attempts, also by hanging. The self-inflicted deaths among the Javaé began in 2012, almost a decade after the Karajá. That year, one death and four attempts were computed. In the following year, 5 deaths and 20 attempts were recorded. Four of the deaths were caused by hanging and one by intoxication (narcotics abuse). In 2014, 2 self-inflicted deaths were recorded, one by hanging and the other from narcotics abuse, and 15 attempts, most of them also by hanging. In 2015, there were 2 deaths and 21 attempts, all of them involved hanging. In 2019, there were 2 suicides by hanging, and 22 suicide attempts were committed by hanging, 4 by intoxication/poisoning and 1 by firearm.

6.4  I nỹ Interpretation and an Anthropological Intercultural Point of View Among the most common explanations given by leaders, shamans, and indigenous communities for the phenomenon of suicide, it can be highlighted: the spell placed by shaman (very frequent explanation); the visions of dead spirits – Kuni; marital conflicts motivated by jealousy; and generational conflicts resulting from the change in forms of relationship between parents and children. We will briefly approach each of these explanations, pointing, concomitantly, to the understanding of the anthropological analysis performed by Nunes (2013), in his extensive ethnography on the Inỹ, as well as by Jijuké Karajá (2019). Most of the indigenous people with whom the field researcher spoke to pointed to the spell as the main motivating cause of the acts of suicide in their community. This spiritual interpretation puts in check the very idea of suicide as a personal and intentional act, since it is practiced by others, the sorcerers, against the victim. Only shamans have the power to break these spells. Thus, in these cases, there would be

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little use to route the person to the care of a non-indigenous person, because their woes would be related to spiritual issues. Two reports can serve as an example here. The first case concerns a young Karajá who hanged himself. In the village, it was said that it was a spell placed by the shaman. According to the narratives, the boy was trying to hunt a tapir, but was warned by the shaman not to kill it, because the animal did not want to be hunted. The boy did not listen to the shaman and killed the tapir anyway. The spell to hang himself would be a kind of shaman’s “revenge” – or the spirit of the tapir in the shaman. In other words, it was not the boy who wished to kill himself, but he was led to desire it, by the spiritual force of others. More than suicide, it would be a homicide case (Nunes, 2016). It is not by chance that most of the communities studied feared sorcerers. The second example was the breaking of a taboo by a young indigenous Javaé. In the Inỹ, the division of roles between men and women is very clear and delimited. Thus, Hetohoky’s ritual is forbidden to women, and they are even forbidden to sing ritual. The young Javaé was very fond of these songs and, several times, hidden in her room, sang the sacred songs. One day she hanged herself, but she did not die. After that, she told the psychologist that she believed the hanging occurred as a sorcerer’s punishment for her transgression. The village elders, in conversation with the researcher about these situations, said that for the Inỹ, the interdictions are like ropes that sustain the cosmos of the whole community; when someone breaks them through a transgression, it is up to the sorcerer to restore cosmological balance. Therefore, the spell can occur both because of the sorcerer’s ill will (based on the desire to harm someone, to take revenge) and as a consequence of the breaking of the cosmological order existing in the Inỹ culture. This break, in addition to transgressions to interdictions (as exemplified above), may also refer to behaviors considered as disrespectful, common in family quarrels and disagreements that resulted in breakups. Suicide was also often related to visions of dead spirits – Kuni. Many indigenous people who attempted suicide by hanging reported that they had visions of relatives who had previously committed suicide, also by hanging. According to their interpretation, these dead relatives called them to the rope, and the hanging ended up happening, in a trance-like state. In this sense, mental confusion after the suicide attempt and the difficulty in giving an explanation about why they went to the gallows were noticeable. Likewise were the reports of family members explaining by means of the Kuni, the cases of suicide (or attempt), when a person was seen happy, playing ball, and playing in the village and then appeared hanged. On the other hand, marital conflicts motivated by suicides and attempts were teased by jealousy. According to Nunes (2016), the love relationships between Inỹ are monogamous. Betrayals and divisions are a cause of great shame for the family, which is why the betrayed family is even allowed to take revenge on the traitor (and his/her family), and the terms of this “revenge” are decided by the leaders. Finally, as an explanation of the indigenous peoples for suicide, the generational conflicts resulting from the changes in the forms of relationship between parents and children stand out. Previous generations understand that young people must behave timidly and quietly in front of their elders. This attitude is interpreted as

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respect, since the mastery of orality is a symbol of power and prestige among indigenous peoples. Currently, some young people have responded harshly or aggressively to older people, changing the standards of respect already established (Nunes, 2013, 2016), which has caused disruptions and disagreements never experienced before. Many of these changes are seen as resulting from contact with the surrounding society, both because of their proximity to the cities and through formal education. In general, basic and elementary school (classification used in the Brazilian society, and that usually occurs from 4 to 11 years old) are present in the villages, when available, but it is necessary to move to the cities to attend high school after this period. This has brought consequences for many indigenous young people: on the one hand, many of them end up not going through the fundamental social markers in Inỹ culture and, on the other, are immersed in the surrounding Tori culture (non-­ indigenous people). This is a common complaint among the older people of the village: young people began to desire the white people objects, which has brought difficulties and disarrangements in personal relationships. First, because it is up to parents, according to Inỹ culture, to fulfill the needs of their children, which would be possible if these needs were to eat certain fish or hunting meat, or to have a Ritxòkò doll made by Inỹ women. In the case of white objects, they will need money to buy them. Most indigenous people earn money through public policies of cash transfer or through the sale of surplus fishing, mowing, or handicrafts. Still, the money is insufficient to buy everything young people want. Not satisfying these desires is not only frustrating them but also failing to perform kinship as it is prescribed in Inỹ culture (Nunes, 2016). According to Nunes (2016), many children understand this not as “my father cannot give me what I want,” but as “my father does not care about me.” This has generated suffering not only for young people but also for parents, who feel put in check in the exercise of their kinship. In short, from the explanations about suicide presented by the Inỹ themselves and also interpreted by anthropology, we can highlight the spell and its effects, the (re) emergence of the dead, and the imbalances of desire, manifested both in the sphere of the breakdown of monogamous relationships and in what is expected of parents in the provision of consumer goods. It is in this last aspect, from the imbalances of desire, that we will stop to deal with the contributions that the field of psychology could bring to the understanding of the phenomenon of suicides among the Inỹ.

6.5  P  ossible Contributions from a Psychological Point of View As we pointed out, the disorders of desire are manifested mainly in the sexual desire for other partners and by the objects of white people. In the first case, the taboo of monogamy is hurt, and, more than that, an expected libido-emotional rule of a

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person Inỹ: that he/she, in becoming an Inỹ man/woman adult, learns to put the satisfaction of the other person before his/her own. According to Nunes (2016), this is the central core of the construction and performability of kinship for these people. Betrayal is, therefore, not a moral problem; it is a disarrangement in this socio-­ parental organization. It is related not only to the partner but to the entire Inỹ group. It is not by chance that revenge is made not only on the traitor but also on his/her family. In the case of the desire for white people objects, there is an appreciation for the society, the people, the goods, and the culture of consumption (Kopenawa & Albert, 2016). In both situations, we can see the presence of more common traits in the surrounding society: one that values one’s own desire (individualistic), to the detriment of what others expect, and the desire to own goods/consume. As mentioned before, many authors relate these factors to the influence of the surrounding culture on the Inỹ (Nunes, 2013, 2016; Karajá, 2019; Rodrigues, 1993; Santos Júnior & Soares, 2016) and the fact that many young people between 12 and 22 years old, who today reside in these communities, could not experience different rites and experiences common to their ancestors, such as the Hetohokÿ ritual, due to the migration to the city for the continuation of their studies. However, little has been discussed or studied about the effects that the presence of electricity – and its consequences, such as the use of technologies, among which television stands out – has produced in these communities. When visiting the villages, it was common to arrive at the houses and find the TV on, regardless of the time of day, but especially at the time of the evening soap operas. Electricity began to arrive on Bananal Island from the 1990s on, reaching each village at different times. Initially, the energy came mainly from electric generators, and, gradually, it began to be supplied by national distribution grids. Thus, in 1990, in the village Canoanã (Javaé), there was a single TV set (powered by energy generated by a diesel engine and only for a few hours), located in the center of the community to be collectively watched, being an object of great curiosity. A few years later, in 1997, the permanent electric light had already been installed, and almost all the villages had televisions (Rodrigues, 2008). The social program Luz para Todos, created in 2003 with the objective of promoting electricity in rural and remote regions of Brazil, had indigenous and quilombola communities among its priorities. In 2011, through this program, the rural electricity network of Bananal Island was installed. The village of Santa Isabel, of the Karajá peoples, was one of the first beneficiaries (Santos, 2011). With greater accessibility brought by the individual distribution of light in homes, the possession of several appliances per family became frequent, with TV and freezer being the most important (Conexão Tocantins, 2011). On the new possibilities of watching television in her residence, an indigenous Javaé said: “Everything’s very beautiful, beautiful people, funny things to see, I won’t miss an instant” (translated by the authors); it is not uncommon to stay on the television all day. If before it was necessary to go to the city to have contact with the surrounding culture, now it was enough to just turn on a device, inside the house (Pechincha, n.d.).

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Television  – as a cultural technology that, in Brazil, privileges the capitalist white culture – seems to have brought important impacts on the community, a phenomenon still little studied in our country4. In soap operas, for example, it is common to exalt romantic, passionate love and personal desire as a compass for behaviors. As Bustamante (2017) states in his study on media impacts on the Wichi people in Argentina, the communication/education processes of the massive media invite us to adhere to certain values. It is a tacit affective/emotional pedagogy. In the Inỹ’s case, it may have helped to promote a “disarrangement” of desire in the face of the rule present in their culture, promoting an imbalance in the socio-affective-­ marital organization. In this case, affective learning operates in the sense of prioritizing one’s own sexual desire (romanticized), to the detriment of what is expected of an Inỹ man or woman which inscribes it in the tradition of the collective. In this sense, in conversations with the indigenous peoples, what was most heard about the cases of suicide or attempt after love conflicts was that the relative “died of passion.” On this dimension, it is worth highlighting a relatively recent phenomenon in the community, which is precisely the existence of young people between 15 and 16 years old who had already married and separated up to five times. This seems to point to a process of weakening traditional practices, in which “interethnic friction“(Bhabha, 2005) has produced its effects. According to Bhabha (2005), this may result in a “third space” between one culture and another, producing fluid identities, which can be profoundly antagonistic and conflicting, as seems to be the case. In addition, it is necessary to highlight the role of advertisement disseminated by television. In a culture of consumption, a characteristic mark of the surrounding society, what is created is not only the desire for a certain object, but the desire itself, which is never fully satisfied (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004; Debord, 1997). The ethnography carried out by the researcher during her time on the Bananal Island reveled that the most desired objects of consumption among young people were sneakers, radios, cellphone devices, and motorcycles. As pointed out earlier, the young person does not understand the impossibility of access to these goods by the parents as a financial problem, but as a breaking of a kinship bond, as a proof of the young person’s unimportance for his/her parents (Nunes, 2016). If the historical process of territorial delimitation of the Brazilian government in relation to indigenous peoples generally produces “poor people,” on the other hand, the massive introduction of televisions in the villages produces consumers, two ends of a conflicting identity continuum, which assumes specific characteristics in its corporate inscription in this group. In short, intense contact with the non-indigenous surrounding community leads young people, often, to a systematic distancing and questioning – not always subtle – of their traditional practices, the differentiated configuration of the way they 4  Unlike other Latin American countries, in which these studies have been conducted. Technology, at the beginning of the dominant culture, has been appropriated by various ethnic groups, which use these means to give voice to their own culture, language, and history (Castells, 2003; Espinosa, 1998; Esteinou et al., 2002; Baca-Feldman, 2016).

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deal with their desires and to a resulting disarrangement in relation to the way they are expected to behave within the Inỹ culture. But this in no way means a total abandonment of their people’s values, which makes them stay even more in a societal “limbo” between the Inỹ and Tori worlds. In this (no) place, the young person is expected to be able to cope with the expectations of the elders in relation to the maintenance of traditions, but in parallel, there is a permanent and irrevocable relationship with the non-indigenous world, which ends up resulting in a huge identity tension.

6.6  Final Considerations The analysis of suicide among the Inỹ corroborates the complexity of the understanding and intervention efforts of this phenomenon. We identified that these efforts require, on the one hand, the mobilization of knowledge about native explanatory models, on kinship and generational networks and on mythical and spiritual narratives, and, on the other hand, the understanding of the relationship with the surrounding society and on the processes of “interethnic friction.” While it is extremely important to understand the role of the spell and the spirits of the dead, it is necessary to understand the subjective impacts arising from the transformations of traditional modes of existence and interactions with the Western world. The introduction of television and the transmissions of values, models, and longings that it operates through its contents seem to have played a fundamental role in the disarrangements of desire, which are at the origin of several conflicts underlying suicide. At the present time, this may be even more highlighted, since it is not only about television, but the vast universe of the Internet, through mobile phones. We identified that there is a lack of scientific studies that address how the introduction of these technologies has affected indigenous communities and the identity challenges related to the processes of subjectivation. Certainly, the effects are not only negative, as some initiatives show, such as the Video in the Villages,5 which seeks to use audiovisual resources for the emancipation and strengthening of territorial and cultural identities and heritage of indigenous peoples, promoting a reconfiguration of their image and representation before Brazilian society. It is certain that we, the non-indigenous people, have nothing to offer to solve the problems of the spell; on the contrary, we have much to learn from shamans. On the other hand, we can use the knowledge of psychology, in dialogue with anthropology, to study the specificities of the subjectivation processes and the forms of emotions and affection configuration in these societies today. In this pluriepistemic perspective, it is necessary to investigate and understand, mainly, the logic of functioning and (dis)rule of desire in this place of interethnic friction and its consequences on the individual subject and his community.

 http://www.videonasaldeias.org.br/2009/vna.php?p=1

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Mendes, A.  P., Alfonso, J.  O. R., Langdon, E.  J., Grisotti, M., & Martínez-Hernáez, A. (2020). Representações e práticas de cuidado dos profissionais da saúde indígena em relação ao uso de álcool. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 25(5), 1809–1818. https://doi. org/10.1590/1413-­81232020255.34442019 Nunes, E. S. (2013). Relatório antropológico preliminar sobre os casos de tentativa de óbito por suicídio entre Karajá do Médio Araguaia (MT/TO). SESAI. Nunes, E. S. (2016). Transformações Karajá: os “antigos” e o “pessoal de hoje” no mundo dos brancos (unpublished Doctor’s Thesis). Universidade de Brasília. Pechincha, M.  T. S. (n.d.). O suicídio karajá fora da lei: reflexões acerca da vinculação entre norma civilizatória e vontade de existir. http://www.publicadireito.com.br/artigos/?cod=33c bad177e0a2ab6 Rodrigues, P.  M. (1993). O Povo do Meio. Tempo, Cosmo e Gênero entre os Javaé da Ilha do Bananal (unpublished Master’s Dissertation). Universidade de Brasília. Rodrigues, P. M. (2008). A caminhada de Tanyxiwè: Uma teoria Javaé da História (unpublished Doctor’s Thesis). Universidade de Chicago. Santos, M. (2011, November 25th). Governo entrega eletrificação e estimula renda: indígenas comemoram. Secretaria da Comunicação  – Governo do Estado de Tocantins. https:// secom.to.gov.br/noticias/governo-­e ntrega-­e letrificacao-­e -­e stimula-­r enda-­i ndigenas-­ comemoram-­60198/ Santos Júnior, R. B., & Soares, T. O. (2016). Atuação do Poder Público Frente ao Comportamento Suicida entre os Indígenas da Ilha do Bananal. Cadernos de Pesquisa em Ciência Política, 5(1). UFPI. Souza, M. L. P. (2016). Narrativas indígenas sobre suicídio no Alto Rio Negro, Brasil: tecendo sentidos. Saúde e Sociedade, 25(1), 145–159. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-­12902016145974 Souza, M. L. P., & Ferreira, L. O. (2014). Jurupari se suicidou? notas para investigação do suicídio no contexto indígena. Saúde e Sociedade, 23(3), 1064–1076. https://doi.org/10.1590/ S0104-­12902014000300026 Souza, R. S. B., Oliveira J. C., & Teodoro, M. L. M. (2019). Construção de um instrumento para avaliar o uso de bebidas alcóolicas em uma etnia indígena de Minas Gerais. Psicologia: Ciência e Profissão, 39, Artigo e176628. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-­3703003176628 Souza, R. S. B., Oliveira, J. C., Alvares-Teodoro, J., & Teodor, M. L. M. (2020). Suicídio e povos indígenas brasileiros: revisão sistemática. Pan American Journal of Public Health, 44, Artigo e58. https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2020.58 Staliano, P., Mondardo, M.  L., & Lopes, R.  C. (2019). Onde e Como se Suicidam os Guarani e Kaiowá em Mato Grosso do Sul: Confinamento, Jejuvy e Tekoha. Psicologia: Ciência e Profissão, 39(n.esp), Artigo e221674. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-­3703003221674 Teixeira, L. C. (2016). A psicologia na promoção do bem viver indígena. In L. C. Teixeira (Ed.), Povos indígenas e psicologia: a procura do bem viver (pp. 235–259). CRP. Toral, A.  A. (1992). Cosmologia e sociedade Karajá (unpublished Master’s Dissertation). Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. UNICEF. (2014). Suicídio adolescente em povos indígenas: 3 estudos. Arte Brasil Editora. Vick, F. O. (2011). Estudo de caso de uma família indígena de Mato Grosso do Sul com alta prevalência de suicídio (unpublished Master’s Dissertation). Universidade Dom Bosco, Campo Grande, MT. World Health Organization. (2019). Suicide in the world: Global Health Estimates. World Health Organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/326948

Chapter 7

Alcohol, Drugs and Indigenous Communities: Report of a Psychosocial Intervention Lázaro Batista and Rossivânia Souza da Silva

7.1  Introduction This text reports the activities of the psychosocial intervention project1 on problematic use of alcohol in the indigenous community Canauanim, rural area of the municipality of Cantá, state of Roraima. Located about 25 km from Boa Vista, the Canauanim Community has approximately one thousand inhabitants, with indigenous people of the Wapichana and Macuxi ethnic groups. The name of the community is of Wapichana origin, with the original spelling (“Kanawa “u”) meaning “Canoe Passage”. With territory demarcated since the beginning of the 1980s, the indigenous people of Canauanim have been fighting for decades for rights and improvement of living conditions while at the same time demanding policies for cultural and environmental strengthening and having to live with the proximity of cattle farms and with the consequences of the close contact of young people with the capital, Boa Vista (Silva, 2013). The activities took place during the years 2018 and 2019 and were the result of a demand from community leaders to the Psychology Course of the Federal University of Roraima for some action with young people and adolescents from the community regarding the use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Initially, the demand was for 1  Due to the variety of meanings that “intervention” may include, it is necessary to politically demarcate that we share the concept that intervention in community contexts should value the protagonism of the peoples or groups involved, valuing respect for their autonomy and not constituting an invasive movement or simply coming “from the outside in”. This perspective and the ethical-political foundations that underpin it are presented in detail later in the methodological section of the text.

L. Batista (*) Universidade Federal de Roraima, Boa Vista, Roraima, Brazil R. S. da Silva Macuxi Ethnic Group, Canauanim Community, Boa Vista, Roraima, Brazil © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_7

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educational actions, in the form of educational lectures. From this initial request and considering the training emphases, it was proposed by the Course the opening of a specific internship field in Community Psychology in the indigenous territory itself, focusing on a psychosocial perspective of working with community residents, especially a group of adolescents between 12 and 18 years. Before detailing the work carried out, we believe it is necessary initially to address the issue related to the consumption of alcohol and other drugs considering the complexity and intersections that involve their presence and use in indigenous communities. As Barreto, Dimenstein, and Leite (2020) point out, this perspective, in the wake of a broader socio-political understanding about the relationship between society and psychoactive substances, understands that the drug phenomenon encompasses a range of both positive and negative consequences, as well as a series of functions and socially situated modes of use. Therefore, it starts from a perspective that is not limited to the neurochemical effects on the body or only the possible harms associated with the use of psychoactive substances, although it is understood that presenting them is an important part of the work of health education. In this direction, we agree with Vargas (2008), when this author defines drug as one among many “sociotechnical objects” that surround us. Although it can be distinguished and classified according to modalities of use, a psychoactive substance has no value or absolute or essential intrinsic characteristics. That is, drugs are objects whose functions and qualities “remain integrally indeterminate until they are reported to the assemblages that constitute them as such” (Vargas, 2008, p. 41) (translated by the authors). In this same line of argument, it should also be noted that the mere defence of prohibition of the use of these substances has not been able to prevent consumption while restricting the broader understanding of the phenomenon (Gomes-Medeiros et al., 2019; Moreira Barbosa, 2012). Alongside this, it is fundamental to realize that the consumption of fermented beverages and other psychoactive substances is considered a very ancient tradition and that it plays an important role in the structure of the distinct indigenous societies of the South American continent. Likewise, we must bear in mind that the purpose and occasion on which traditional peoples make use of beverages differed (and continue to differ) from one group to another. In Brazil, several indigenous peoples still make use of fermented alcoholic beverages, often associated with meetings, collective situations and activities, shamanic rituals and traditional celebrations as they point out (Branco & Vargas, 2017). One can also notice the presence of these drinks as evidence of the unique relationship between peoples and their environment, as demonstrated by the preparation from raw materials of extractive origin, the specific and handmade forms of manufacturing and deposit and the collectivization of consumption (Souza et al., 2005). We emphasize that the variety of the purposes of these uses, with groups that use the fermented beverage for therapeutic purposes or even as food, is fundamental; we also understand that, regardless of the modalities of use, the historical presence of psychoactive substances among indigenous peoples has never been directly correlated to its harmful effects or disorders of physical or biological order on participants, but to the cultural, political and religious meanings of this use (Hermano, 2013).

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A new and harmful fact is what happens in relation to the consumption of distilled and industrialized beverages, which are now more frequently and easily found in these communities. Therefore, it is essential to realize that the abusive use of alcoholic beverages and other drugs has worsened among the different indigenous ethnic groups in the country, demonstrating the situation of vulnerability to which they are exposed (Branco & Vargas, 2017). Similarly, it is essential to understand some elements of the complex web of factors that contribute to the process of indigenous alcoholization.2

7.2  Indigenous Alcoholization and Some Psychosocial Repercussions The first of these factors that deserves to be highlighted refers to the historical relationship itself between domination over traditional peoples and the insertion of alcohol by white colonizers. As Guimarães and Grubits (2007) and Quiles (2013) alert us, among the many historical threats to the survival of the knowledge, economic system and social organization of different indigenous ethnic groups is included the process of colonization and national territorial occupation, with the drastic reduction of groups through different forms of extermination. These include imprisonment, slavery and the proliferation of diseases through contact with white people, as well as the introduction of alcoholic drinks with the intention of enticing members of the communities, weakening resistance, producing social disarray and/ or disqualifying them as social actors (Langdon, 2007): It is from this point of view that it is possible to understand that in Mexican and Brazilian ethnic groups alcohol can fulfil psychotropic, therapeutic, alimentary, sociability, cohesion and cultural integration functions, social identification and belonging, transgression or as an “escape valve”, taking part in religious, professional and/or family rituals. But it can also function as an instrument of social control, of economic exploitation, of racist justifications, or as a legitimiser of intrafamily violence. (Menéndez, 2013, p.  12) (translated by the authors)

In this same direction, this author also emphasizes that this mass consumption occurs together with a perception of social prestige among those who can afford to buy drinks. As a good accessible only to some, those who can afford it are pressured to share it with others, as a sign of generosity. At the same time, this behaviour would end up including the consumption of alcoholic beverages in the list of reciprocal relationships that underpin the indigenous way of life. Thus, Menéndez (2013) 2  Here, when considering the perspective that alcohol use is culturally, socially and historically peculiar to each community, we refrain from using expressions such as “alcoholism” or “alcohol dependence”, as we understand that they still sustain and support a primarily biomedical interpretation. In its place, highlighting the relational and processual character of such phenomenon, we understand that the expression “alcoholization process” synthesizes this other broader and contextual perspective (Souza & Garnelo, 2006; Neves, 2004).

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points out alcohol is currently linked to changes in the new forms of social prestige and forms of socialization. Besides these socio-political and internal notes to the communities, Hermano (2013) also highlights the fact that the use of distilled beverages brings negative consequences for external relations to the group. Among them, he mentions the systematic production of negative ethnic representations, in the sense that alcohol abuse would become justification for the social exclusion of indigenous groups. According to this author, this would be evident, for example, in the frequent questioning of indigenous rights or social initiatives, “accusing them of being drunk, poor, dirty and lazy and, as a result, claiming that they do not deserve to be respected” (p. 43) (translated by the authors). As far as the main health problems affecting indigenous people are concerned, it is noticeable that the intensive consumption of alcoholic beverages is frequently related to mortality to external factors and physical illnesses, such as accidents, fights and being run over by cars, among others (Coimbra Jr. et al., 2003). According to the diagnosis carried out by the National Health Foundation, the abusive use of alcohol appears as one of the most common illnesses among Brazilian indigenous people, above all in regions where there is greater contact with white people, configuring itself as a change in the epidemiological picture of these groups towards the involvement of the so-called social illnesses (Brazil, 2002) (translated by the authors). In the same direction, Guimarães and Grubits (2007) highlight that – besides the notorious increase in prevalence and relationship with deaths due to external causes – the abusive consumption of alcohol among indigenous people is positively associated with child malnutrition, sexual abuse, prostitution and problems resulting from the continuous ingestion of alcohol, such as cancer and diabetes. Age is also observed among indigenous peoples as an important factor in the initiation of alcohol consumption, being associated with the rite of passage into adulthood and some attributes such as strength and courage. However, the early onset and exaggerated consumption causes that approximately at the age of 20 young people present complaints related to consumption (Coimbra Jr. et al., 2003). In addition to pointing to the ingestion and sharing of alcohol as a new form of social prestige and socialization, Menéndez (2013) also points to the changes produced in the family structure itself, in the sense that younger people (as an economically active population) start to face older people differently. In this way, the early use of cachaça by young people appear associated, on the one hand, with an increase in the supply and circulation of the drink in the villages and, on the other hand, with changes in the dynamics of relationships. Finally, as Souza (2013) states, “the set of these interactions promoted a change of the traditional forms of settlement and the wearing down of the moral authority of the elders and an impotence of the families in controlling the early and abusive use of industrialized alcoholic beverages” (p. 86) (translated by the authors). When considering the specific context of Roraima, we see that it does not differ substantially. Despite its culturally important use, the current scenario indicates that the consumption of alcoholic beverages is also considered problematic for different

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peoples. Bort Júnior (2014), when considering the context of the Yanomami, states the presence of alcoholic beverages as a reason for serious damage to native life, due to increased conflicts and loss of interest in cultural traditions arising from new “cultural habits”. A similar diagnosis is pointed out by Hermano (2013), when indicating the frequent cases of indigenous drunkenness attended by the Casa de Saúde Indígena (Indigenous Health Centre) and the gravity of its consequences in the form of loss of lives by traffic accidents, drowning and murders. In view of this, the seriousness of the scenario in the communities is perceptible and as a resource for many leaders the understanding that a way out is represented by attempts at coercion, prohibition and punishment. At the same time, it is also understood the search for knowledge, techniques and instruments that help in the understanding of this picture and – not rarely – in the application of those control devices. It was precisely in this way that psychology was summoned by local indigenous leaders to work with the community.

7.3  P  sychology, Psychosocial Intervention and Community Insertion Such demand for action, in itself, reflects the ways in which psychological knowledge is still socially seen from its impregnated image of biomedical and individualizing knowledge. A representation which finds foundation or support when we discuss the forms from which we intervene. In this respect, pursuing the etymological meaning of the term intervention, Sarriera et al. (2010) point out how often it becomes similar to others such as to intrude, interfere and take part in something, constituting an invasive movement or “from outside to inside”. This same similarity will also appear in the definition given by the dictionary, according to which intervention may mean action of exerting influence on a given situation in an attempt to change its outcome or interference in something with the aim of influencing its development (Ferreira, 2004). In the opposite direction, the sense from which we start here is to suggest that the intervention, as an unavoidable plane of interference of our practices, also forces us to think the ethos, the discursivities, the ideologies, the forms of conception and apprehension of the world, the affections and the chain of senses and knowledge that our ways of thinking and practicing psychology effectively put to work (Sarriera et al., 2010; Ferreira Neto, 2008). In favour of this psychosocial perspective of intervention (Lopes & Nascimento, 2016), we maintain that understanding the forms of consumption of alcoholic beverages within the context of different indigenous societies also enables the perception that any form of coping with its negative aspects requires the production of intervention alternatives that take into account the peculiarities of each ethnic group, beliefs, values and social organization among others.

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In this vein, not forgetting the classic representation, but also highlighting the history of Brazilian psychology itself as oriented to the production of contesting and transforming practices of our social reality, we highlight how such scenarios claim the production of interventional practices in which collective relations, the bonds between the subjects, the capacity of involvement and transformation of the members and the production of spaces for critical reflections on the different aspects of a society are prioritized. In this respect, we advocate that when considering the theoretical, methodological, ethical and practical aspects of every intervention, we should bear in mind that when we direct our gaze towards communities, we should do so imbued with some ethical-political nuances. The first is that regardless of the theoretical and methodological arsenal to which we resort, we must keep in mind that every intervention should “stimulate criticism, launch a new look at the world, without seeing it as something already given”, through the “construction of tools to break with everyday life” (Barros, 2001, p. 165) (translated by the authors). The second is that of acting against the production of regularities, universalisms and general laws in order to stress ways of intervening that move in the direction of estranging and questioning homogeneity, coherence, the naturalness of instruments, knowledge and subjects. Forms of intervening, therefore, on the intervention itself, by daily affirming the power of multiplicities, differences and encounters that are always collective. Third, we emphasize that, as indicated by Dantas et  al. (2018), this ethical-­ political paradigm should somehow contribute to denounce and overcome the conditions of precariousness and vulnerability in which many of the monitored populations are found, generating knowledge that expands access to rights and subsidizes professional actions consistent with the needs and characteristics of the territories. Furthermore, according to these authors, it should also serve to qualify the discussions on the reality of these populations from a perspective that is not centred on the traditional branch of psychology. In the wake of this, any intervention in community contexts cannot do without resorting to the protagonism of these groups/communities to establish themselves as ethically and politically well oriented. In the understanding of Gregorio Baremblitt (1996), this can be done, for example, by valuing horizontal relations and encouraging processes of self-management and self-analysis which help them to produce knowledge about their own problems, their real needs, their limitations and the causes which determine such needs and such limitations. That is, on the one hand, practices in which members of the community can be “protagonists of their problems, their needs, their demands, they can enunciate, understand, acquire, or reacquire a vocabulary that allows them to know about their life” (p.  17) (translated by the authors). And, in addition to that, also sustain an ethical-politically referenced action that allows us to question our own psychological making, through the “constant practice of questioning the effects of our actions; of putting under analysis the forces crystallized in us; finally, to question the ways in which we act, analysing the forces and affections that permeate us” (Filho, 2019, p. 07) (translated by the authors).

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It is in this sense that the insertion of psychology in this context of alcohol and other drug use in indigenous communities requires an approach to the theme and the idiosyncrasies of each people, always through the articulation between the professional, the leaders and the community in general (CFP, 2019). A shift in psychological knowledge that takes the territory as a privileged space for the production of care, sharing responsibility with those who live there. It is a matter of understanding that for traditional peoples and communities, their territory is expressed as a specific part of their collective constructions, of intersubjective relationships between subjects, nature and its spiritual elements. Thus, the challenge is to design and invest in interventions that think these symbolic systems and cosmovisions without hierarchizing or demeaning them. That is, the production of interventional approaches that emphasize the subject as an individual capable of acting and developing care potentials with himself/herself, with others and with the environment (Ximenes et al., 2017). As well as actions that invest, contribute and strengthen the subjective, social, symbolic, affective and cultural characteristics of the territories and knowledge of the accompanied places and populations (CFP, 2019).

7.4  Detailing the Intervention As reported in the literature, although fermented beverages are part of many indigenous rituals, the excessive consumption of alcohol  – arising from contact with white people – is growing among different ethnic groups in the country. As a result, in addition to chemical dependency and increased vulnerability, an increase in other problems such as physical illnesses and mortality related to external factors (accidents, fights, being run over by cars, etc.) can be observed. In the community in question, this problem was presented to us by some members under the demand for intervention of psychology to conduct lectures and monitoring of alleged cases of addiction. In view of this, the intervention was developed in two stages.

7.4.1  Community Diagnosis The first stage of work was aimed at characterizing the demand for intervention and diagnosis of psychosocial needs of the community, putting this demand under analysis, raising other interventional possibilities, potentialities and resources available in the community itself. For example, it was detailing who requests the intervention, what aspects are implicit in the request, how the demand is recognized or received by other community members, etc. As Neiva (2010) points out, this initial diagnosis should rely on the participation of the community in its preparation and can be done based on different information collection procedures, from interviews and observations made during visits to the application of questionnaires.

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From this, priority needs can also be raised, and the intervention project planned, strategies, tactics and techniques to be used can be defined (Neiva, 2010). Here, it is also worth recalling the historical statement by Freitas (1998) that this work should be guided as a participatory decision-making process, in which “horizontal relations of discussion, analysis and definition are established regarding the problems to be considered and the possibilities of solving and/or coping with them” (s.p.) (translated by the authors). As part of this diagnosis, over 2 months, weekly visits were made, meetings with leaders and health professionals and participant observations of some community activities. These activities were facilitated by virtue of the fact that one of the psychology trainees is indigenous from the community followed. His community insertion somehow facilitated the transit and access to other members, as well as the needs assessment. On the other hand, also our insertion as foreigners and her as a member of the community became an object of reflection and analysis of implication. Thus, we proceeded in the same way as José Alvarenga Filho (2019): We problematized our trajectories, affirming the inseparability, also, between ways of existing and ways of thinking. Why was each one – including myself in the analysis – at that stage; what did each one believe could be done; what had already been experienced? I present to the group the perspective from which I work, and we discuss what would be the construction of an internship permeated by the practice of self-management and self-­ analysis. There are many questions and doubts in the air. I myself do not put myself in the position of the one who knows; of the one who speaks from a hierarchy which makes the relationship between supervisor and trainees be experienced in a vertical manner and often with little dialogue. However, between announcing a more collaborative, dialogic and self-managing horizon and the group inventing itself from this perspective, a huge distance from the beginning of the work presents itself. (pp. 07–08) (translated by the authors)

In this way, the diagnostic is also directed to think and problematize the powers and potency that cross and may operate in the work of psychology with communities and traditional peoples. Not only what is required from psycho-knowledge is put under analysis but also the orderings and objectifications that make such representations possible, alive and vivid among those who demand the intervention. From the point of view of what was initially requested, it was noticed that, although the consumption of alcohol was perceived among some residents of the Canauanim Community, the demand was driven by a concern of the elders with the consumption among younger people and the alleged possibility that some of them were being co-opted by organized crime. There were no complaints about alcohol consumption among adults or any understanding that the alleged abuse among young people could be related to the community’s own daily dynamics. Alcohol appeared, in this sense, as a paradoxical element: at the same time very present, but external. In conversations and reports, it was indicated as a component of socialization and, at the same time, as something that, coming from outside, was a producer of social disintegration, rupture of bonds and violence. The request for intervention, however, did not indicate a socializing function. It was restricted to thinking about the deleterious effects on the youngest and denounced a certain orthopaedic or corrective character of the request for

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psychology. The desire was to intervene by means of lectures or expositions on alcohol and other drugs, with the intention of enlightening the indigenous adolescents about the dangers and harmful effects of alcohol. After discussing the initial demand, we suggested as an interventional counterproposal that, instead of a lecture, we could use the community space itself to develop educational and preventive actions aimed initially at the youngest members of the community. But we presented as a condition that such actions would also reach, at some point, the other members of the community. For this second part, we understood that the participation of young people and adolescents would be fundamental, especially because of the possibility of them becoming multipliers of the experiences learned. Considering the problem faced by indigenous communities in relation to the early and exacerbated consumption of alcohol and other drugs, the objective of the intervention was redefined, aiming to create a space for dialogue and reflection and possible changes in the behaviour of members directly or indirectly affected. Following a critical and emancipating perspective of knowledge production, it was also sought to know the representations of the community about alcohol and other drugs, so that they could conceive them as an ingrained sociocultural element. From this recognition, finally, it aimed to disseminate knowledge about risks, particularities and consequences of alcohol and another drugs abuse.

7.4.2  Rounds of Conversation The second stage of the intervention was developed from the holding of rounds of conversation with indigenous Wapichana and Macuxi people aged between 12 and 18 years who had used, were using or even had never had contact with psychoactive substances. Theoretically and conceptually, conversation circles are frequently used as a qualitative methodology with the objective of creating a collective dimension to approach the problem. As a group technique, as indicated by Sampaio et al. (2014), they are useful for enabling dialogical meetings, with the production and re-­ signification of meaning about the participants’ experiences. In addition, it appears as an interesting methodological tool for being based on the horizontality of relationships, involving the subjects as historical and social actors who are critical and reflective of their reality. Afonso and Abade (2008) defend its use in participatory methodologies, by stating that its foundation is based on psychosocial intervention workshops, with the purpose of creating a space in which participants reflect on their daily lives, i.e. their relationship with the world, with work, with their life project. Also, for these authors, for this to happen, it is necessary that the conversation wheels are developed so that people can express themselves, using playful resources or not. Thus oriented, the second stage of the intervention was developed over 08 (eight) weekly meetings, lasting a maximum of 2 hours, with the average presence of 07 (seven) indigenous adolescents. Resorting to the theoretical contribution of

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Community Psychology and to the possibilities of non-conventional settings that it contemplates, all the interventions were carried out in the community itself and with the resources it had available. To this end, the meetings took place weekly in a shed covered with straw and on a dirt floor, located in the centre of the community. In the first rounds of conversation, the participants were asked how they had been referred to participate in the activities. In general, it was noticed that there was some heterogeneity in the composition: some adolescents reported having made sporadic use, usually in the presence of acquaintances or family members. There were also some who reported never having ingested any beverage and who had been referred to the intervention by relatives, as a form of prevention or expression of concern. Because of this heterogeneous composition, the suggestion was made to raise with them themes and activities to be developed in the following weeks, according to their interest or curiosity. We also began to map their prior knowledge about the possible positive and negative aspects of the use of alcoholic beverages. This moment aimed to provide self-assessment on alcohol consumption, enable reflection and favour community participation in the next interventions. Thus, it was thought to break with the prohibitionist logic that only indicates the harm, in a context in which community socialization occurs through the use of alcohol  – often even with the presence of minors. Using the technique of producing collective texts, we noticed a certain alignment of the adolescents with what was stated by the leaders: the use of alcohol and other drugs appeared related to deaths in the community, fights, robberies, car accidents and violence within the family. But there were also “positive” representations, such as the possibility of generating income from sales, the relative social disinhibition provided by alcohol and the correlation between drinking alcohol – a depressant drug – and the reduction of fatigue from daily activities. Curiously, no mention of the use of alcoholic beverages of community origin or traditional use appeared in the reports. In line with the community representation, alcoholic beverages, as psychoactive drugs, were recognized only by the ingestion and consumption of industrialized beverages. Others, such as caxiri, although they produced perceptual and sensory changes, were not read in the same way. This being said, the intervention was also directed towards a survey of the different psychoactive substances (natural and industrialized) present in the community. Based on this survey, we also sought to find out the adolescents’ prior knowledge about their effects and enable them to identify the types of psychoactive drugs, always emphasizing the cultural perspective of their use and the effects resulting from it. Subsequently, the interventions focused on those perceptions indicated as negative, especially paying attention to their consequences for community life, the resources available to reduce harm, ways to detect abusive use and the possibilities of access to forms of care for oneself and for others. Following the line that the repressive paradigm is not effective in preventing the use of psychoactive drugs, we decided to combine the knowledge of the community with self-applicable instruments made available by the World Health Organization. We resorted to the Test for Identification of Problems Related to Alcohol Use-AUDIT, a self-applicable

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instrument to train older adolescents to apply and detect abusive use and dependence in the community (Méndez, 1999).3 First, upon authorization from parents or guardians, with the application among the participants of the conversation circles who had already had contact with industrialized alcoholic beverages. Treated anonymously, the scores obtained by each of them were addressed in an educational manner for their own presentation and training on the modalities of use (recreational, risk use, harmful use and dependence) and related possibilities of post-test action (education, brief guidance, primary prevention – guidance and monitoring – and diagnosis and specialized treatment). As intentionality, we had the idea that the knowledge of younger people about consumption patterns and forms of intervention could help the community itself to develop its own repertoires of responses to future situations. In addition, in compliance with what was suggested during the initial intervention demand, we thought that the training should not be restricted to adolescents but should be sent to the community – especially to health unit professionals and leaders. To this end, after being trained to use the AUDIT, we suggested that the adolescents themselves intervene in the community: taking the space and time in the conversation circles to redo the application of the AUDIT, set up the community planning and presentation of the forms of intervention, evaluate the results and stipulate the activities of the following weeks. As a consequence of this, a certain gap was perceived in relation to how the community could act in situations of alcohol abuse without necessarily resorting to external facilitators. In view of this, the following interventions began to focus on community mapping of forms of social support and mutual support within the community, as well as to survey the knowledge about the network of attention for alcohol and drugs. On this topic, many mentioned the health post as the only reference, although the debate about drug addiction did not seem to be a recurrent object of health actions. So, it was also necessary to strengthen their knowledge about the assistance for people with alcohol and other drugs dependence by the Center for Psychosocial Support-CAPS-AD and the possibilities of access to the service by the community. As a final stage of the intervention project, we conducted a debriefing with the adolescents and community representatives, with an assessment of the activities, a survey of the positive and negative points, the impact of the meetings on the subjects and possible developments. Initially, it was suggested that the participants recall the initial reason for their participation, their expectations, what was new and how they

3  As a screening instrument, the scores obtained from responses to AUDIT items allow the classification of substance use in different levels: if up to 7 points are computed, it is understood that the subject’s relationship with alcohol is of low risk; scores between 8 and 15 points are indicative of risk use; in cases where the answers add up to 16 to 19 points, it would be cases of harmful use of alcohol; finally, there would be the classification of cases of probable chemical dependence, when AUDIT responses add up to 40 points. According to the application protocol itself, from the identification of the risk zone, it becomes possible for the professional to offer personalized orientations, focused on the pattern of consumption.

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evaluated the work as a whole. For most of them, the meetings were a good opportunity to think about the consequences of alcohol and other drugs. They also showed satisfaction in having access to a way of talking about the theme different from moralizing. The knowledge about forms of self-evaluation was also emphasized as something positive, since it could help people reflect on their way of consuming alcohol. The restricted composition of the group and the duration of the project were highlighted as negative points, as very short, because they believe that more people should know what they knew. They also pointed out the difficulty of shyness in expressing themselves, expressing that when they were beginning to feel more comfortable, the meetings were already over. As a last activity, they were suggested to collectively elaborate the information they were most able to keep to themselves or that they would take away from the meeting. And, as a consequence of the perception that the project was relatively short, it was suggested that they themselves produce a preliminary version of an intervention project and referral to the service for cases of abuse, now carried out by health professionals from the community itself. This desire to expand and unfold the intervention was then presented to indigenous students of psychology, who committed to taking it forward. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, however, the actions could not be carried out in the following 2 years.

7.5  Conclusion In conclusion, in this intervention project, we believe that it was possible to perceive psychology as an instrument capable of enabling a space for construction and deconstruction of meanings through the reflexive process of the subjects. Combining community and scientific knowledge, horizontally and dialogically interrelated, we believe that psychology can play an important role in the context of indigenous peoples and that similar actions may open paths to practices in psychology that respect sociocultural diversity. It is noteworthy that, in the context of the Psychology Course at the Federal University of Roraima, situated in the Brazilian state with the largest proportional indigenous population in the country, this intervention was the only theoretical-­ practical action carried out with communities or indigenous peoples during its execution period – which, in itself, speaks to the difficulties in breaking away from the classical epistemological and theoretical-practical framework of psychological knowledge, even in contexts where it is completely misaligned or insufficient to understand the local reality. In particular, speaking of the Canauanim Community, it is also important to mention that this was the first initiative of intervention of psychology in this community and that this was only made possible by the presence of indigenous students in the undergraduate course, who demanded greater approximation between the university and the reality of the places where they came from and where they live.

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It is also important to note the particularity of the audience participating in the intervention, given that the contact of many of the adolescents with psychoactive substances was primary. Considering other subjects that were invited, but did not attend the meetings, this experience also allowed the perception of the need to further expand the contributions of psychology in the context of indigenous communities, so that their aspirations in contact with the population and the ways in which it can help them can be understood. Although limited, therefore, we believe the importance of this experience of interventional practice in psychology in the context of indigenous peoples in Roraima, especially for making it possible to perceive psychology as an instrument capable of enabling a space of construction and deconstruction of meanings, of production of spaces and reflective processes of the subjects and of horizontality of relationships.

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Chapter 8

For a Non-parasitic Life: Resistance and Creation in Rural Communities of Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil Simone Mainieri Paulon, José Ricardo Kreutz, and Robert Filipe dos Passos

“ — What are called those who are born in Bacurau? The child answers: — People!” (Scene from the movie Bacurau)

8.1  Entering the Setting The rural territory places us in front of unthinkable situations. When we are put in a succession of the unthinkable, which ignites sparks of crises outbreaks that appear in different times and contexts, but go back to immemorial times, we create the possibility of operating thought as creative resistance and as a micropolitical power toward a non-parasitic life. Lapoujade (2015) searches in Deleuze this understanding that aberrant movements transport us to what is unthinkable in thought, and it is in this limit of the unlivable that other possibilities of life can emerge. This writing starts from the challenge of coercing thought toward what makes it invent: invent exits, words, images, bifurcations, etc. every movement that escapes the already seen, learned, known. For this, it proposes to explore connections between the cinematographic language, from the movies Bacurau (Lesclaux et al., 2019) and Parasite  (Sin-ae et al., 2019); the philosophic language, especially with the concept of aberrant movements; and the empirical one, sustained in two narratives of interventions that were done in two small communities of Brazil’s south S. M. Paulon (*) Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil J. R. Kreutz Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil R. F. dos Passos University of Passo Fundo, Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_8

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inland. Two communities with very different characteristics and problems, except for the addressing of their demands to Social Psychology, through the university or the public healthcare network of the area. The starting idea is to fictionalize rural scenes that are “impregnated” with unfounded thought and logic. Therefore, unthinkable logics as Lapoujade takes from Deleuze in the sentence with which we opened these reflections, to speak of that that makes reason scream. In this sense, the unthinkable is an aberrant movement. Aberration if we consider thought as cogitatio natura universalis. Aberrant movements break out the linear logic, as the character Plínio expresses in Bacurau, who, in an unpretentious yet assertive way, folds himself as he transforms the calm farmer initially presented into a strong defender of his knowledge and his land. When he bursts the invader’s brains, without hesitation, the voracity of the consumer who tried to turn people into merchandise is ichnographically exploded. And that is how, in this crude way, the power disputes are presented in the strategies of survival, resistance, and health production in the rural environment. In order to force the thought to think about the difference of other images, experiences not yet lived, they claim passage, possible paths toward an expressive movement and of right of the minority in contexts of health in the rural environment. Among the characteristics of minorities, by the way, is the fact that they do not have rights and that they do not even have a preexisting language that makes possible to establish any rights (Lapoujade, 2015). Some problems arise from such philosophical provocations: by what right are these rural communities expropriated from their knowledge? How are thought and land unevenly distributed? Who decides on the distribution and sharing of knowledge about life, health, and death? What are the possibilities of invention that emerge in rural areas? Would there be any possible contribution to Social Psychology of socio-analytical inspiration for the processes of health production and life expansion in these rural communities? Following the methodological clue announced by cartography, we are interested here in going along the movement of affections that the encounters of a(n) (un)certain psychology adventured itself to provoke with local knowledge from two rural communities. Starting from provocations addressed to places of instituted knowledge – a university and a municipal public service – accessed by these communities, the interventions were structured together with the process of approaching local people and cultures. In the toolbox that went along with these approaches, the cartographic disposition was mainly based on Deleuze’s concept explored by Lapoujade, since: Deleuze invests in a logic of the irrational, the aberrant, which, in the end, is a way of founding difference, the experience of the different, the sensitive, the threshold. Hence the need for the map, the cartography of the registration of the movement that must remain in movement, since it belongs to the field of the sensitive and of what is not static. (Cunha, 2019, p. 950) (translated by the authors)

This same movement of following sensitive processes, letting the encounters guide, led us to the unexpected adventure that a calm city in Brazilian inland lives in Kleber

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Mendonça Filho’s action thriller. Dialoguing with this fiction in the present text has as goal approaching our experiences lived in rural cities with Bacurau’s avatar. Bacurau is a kind of germ present in Brazilian cities that, despite seeming calm, they are whirlwinds of events when activated by the intensity of the encounters. The territoriality of these small towns, when analyzed in the perspective of the cosmopolitan and gray experiences of the metropolises, tends to be characterized with certain monotony and time slowdown. Therefore, entering these territories demands a displacement from a psychological urban-centered practice, since the demanded slowdown refers to the need for recalibrating different velocities, as the rhythms and intensities of the encounters allow the cartographer-body to also different territorialities (Dantas et al., 2018). Other rhythms, other landscapes. The second cinematographic piece that offers us support for this discussion is Parasite, of the South-Korean director Bong Joon-ho. The movie’s script initially presents the plot of a poor family that elaborates an exaggerated plan to parasite a rich family, convincing them to hire their services for different functions in their house. However, from a series of plot twists,1 that lead us to layers of parasitism every time deeper, the story offers us a fundamental reflection. After all, who parasites whom? The scene that emblematically activates this analysis layer is the one when the poor family, under a torrential rain, in a sad and long descent back home. When they arrive to the basement where they live, they find out that it is flooded by the sewer water and few belongings are left to be saved. The characters’ descent back to the “rock bottom,” reiterated throughout the plot line, carefully and aesthetically announces a closure that extrapolate the specific scenario that brings together two Asian families. The stories of the cinematographic pieces quoted here, as well as the reports that will be presented throughout this text, emerge from the same background: effects of a parasitic capitalism in contemporary subjectivation modes. The dialogue proposed here between two cinematographic narratives and two scenes of interventions, experienced by the psychologists-authors in rural communities, attempts to focus precisely on the whirlwinds, torrential events, and differences that, as in Bacurau, erupt in the collectivity and in the survival strategies and defense of local sovereignty. In Bacurau, we have scenes that range from (a) a doctor who receives a series of complaints from an apparently ill patient and ends the consultation by telling her to have coffee to cure her hangover; (b) a naked couple blows the brains out of a group of foreign invaders; until (c) a food fair is organized based on the logic of the solidary economy. Finally, the slogan stamped in the street sign that announces Bacurau’s proximity: “if you go, go in peace” is an irony apparently serving to alert an unwary foreigner. However, as the plot line advances to unexpected reactions toward threats that are suffered by this small community, the possible meanings of the initially harmless warning on the street sign get multiplied and irradiate micropolitical comprehensions that disarm any supposedly universal

1  Concept commonly used especially in filmmaking and literature to indicate a turnaround in the plot of a story.

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notions about the functioning of inland cities. Among these possible meanings toward the construction of a peace path, something revolutionary emerges and points to the production of a common. In this sense, movements announce inventive ways of organization and also of resisting to the power instituted by the corporation, by the conglomerate, by the excessive exploitation of reserves, in this case represented by the foreigner who, in this caricature and emblematic narrative, presents himself concretely as an annihilator of the community. In other words, Bacurau is a response to the capitalist parasitism over the forest, the rivers, the communities, the local culture, and the forms of community self-management. It was also against this capitalist parasitic logic that the countryside and the city people declared war over water in Cochabamba (Bolivia), when the local government tried to privatize the population’s access to this “resource” through the “nova lei das águas” (“new law of the waters”) (Drumond, 2015). However, the capital always seeks to enlarge its margins to any possibility of the human action’s expropriation, and it transforms every element of life composition on and out of the land into “natural resource.” The fact is that there are no limits to the exploitation of capitalistic parasitism and to the submission of the planet in its wealth of resources. From the bottom of the earth and the sea, from each surface limit of the planet to the exosphere, there is no “outside” of the capital empire (Hardt & Negri, 2004). The empire wants to eat the land and not be the land, as Krenak (2021) suggests. For a long time now, life on the countryside has offered us this image of the perverse submission of the country to capital’s interests. This process happens as people’s relationship with the land is fetishized, transforming agriculture in industry, people in resources, and food into commodities. As the definition explicates, commodity is “any item in a raw state, of agricultural or livestock origin or of mineral or vegetable extraction, produced on a large global scale and with homogeneous physical characteristics, whatever its origin is. ... whose price is determined by international demand and supply” (Oxford, 2021, s/p.) (translated by the authors). This is the logic of capitalistic parasitism that subverts people’s relationship with the land and monopolizes production, establishing an excluding productivism, which promotes misery and environmental degradation. The homogeneity of agricultural production, shaped by the demands of the international market, corresponds to the production, no less overwhelming, of subjectivities, operating to capture the desire for consumption and the colonization of the unconscious by the signs of capital. The indigenous and defender of ancestral knowledge, Ailton Krenak, affirms on a recent interview (2021): White people, in the ontological sense, are an Other that made a choice radically opposed to ours. They want to eat the world. And we think that we are the world. And we think that the white want to eat us! When they eat the forest, and the bush, and go dragging gold and ore, they are eating us, the land’s meat. (s/p) (translated by the authors)

The intersection of the four narratives that this chapter brings – two fictional from the films Bacurau and Parasite and two interventions with rural communities in a less cinematographic setting, but no less credible  – intends to contribute to the

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analysis of the effects that capital parasitism produces in the subjectivation of the rural context of a current Brazil. The purpose of such analysis is, mainly, to identify collective processes capable of confronting the hegemonic way in which capitalistic exploitation enters, even the life of small rural communities.

8.2  S  ubjetivities Parasitized by the Colony and the Context of the Interventions on the Less Cinematographic Setting The formation of the peasant in Rio Grande do Sul (state of the extreme south of Brazil) follows some historical trails that can give us a sense of how the people of Rio Grande do Sul (“gaúchos”) were constituted in their rural characteristics. To understand the next scenes, we must follow some of the subjective forces that make up our non-cinematographic setting. Currently, this rural área – as a great part of the country – is marked by a massive majority of family farmers, contrasting with the minority of latifundium owners. According to IBGE’s Censo Agropecuário carried out in 2017, 0.95% of Brazil’s properties concentrate 47.5% of the country’s land. The group of 10% of the country’s biggest properties occupies 73% of Brazilian territory’s agricultural area. This context of inequality also offers its contribution to definitely transform the inland landscape of the communities where we were called to interfere. A brief historical contextualization gives us clues on what got the landowner, heir of the sesmarias system, to perpetuate a colonial accumulation logic, replicating “coloniality germs” that are still present in the contemporary family “farmer’s DNA.” According to Zarth (2009, p.  223), the figure of this “unwanted” peasant existed in Rio Grande do Sul. They were caboclos, mestizos descended from Portuguese, also indigenous, African, and quilombola peoples who took care of the gaucho and Brazilian fields. In order to survive, they took possession of the land granted to military landowners, often inherited as war prizes. In order to face these undesirable people, the imperial state apparatus and the first republic of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries made a mathematical calculation to change the identity of the Brazilian population, and this obviously included the southern region in which the non-fictional narratives described here take place. As Carone and Bento (2002, p. 47) point out, according to the 1872 census, just before the abolition of slavery, 55% of the total population in Brazil was black or mestizo. Therefore, the Brazilian Empire should solve the “problem” of a miserable black majority that would take care of the streets and fields. Both them and the elite “knew that the miserable condition of this mass of black people was the result of the misappropriation (in order to be elegant), of the physical and symbolical violence during almost four centuries on account of this elite” (Carone & Bento, 2002, p. 36) (translated by the authors). And the “solution” becomes, on one hand, the “whitening” from miscegenation and divestment on the freed black population, mestizo, and indigenous considered “improductive and unruly.” On the other hand, there is a great

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investment on European immigration. In the eyes of the Empire and, subsequently, the first republic, “in addition to the vision based on ethnic characteristics, there is a conception formulated over the 19th and 20th centuries that refers to an idealized type better represented” (Zarth, 2009, p. 223) (translated by the authors), and these characteristics would be found in European immigrants. In this sense, in the peasant formation of the south area, Europeans began to live with a type of unwanted competitor peasant. In the words of Monteiro Lobato: This disgraceful parasite of the land is the caboclo, a kind of wasteland, semi-nomadic, unsuitable for civilization, but who lives on the edge of it in the shadows of the border areas. As progress comes with the railroad, the Italian, the plow, the valuation of the property, he takes refuge in silence, with his dog, his pestle, the pickup truck and the lighter…. (Lobato, 1950, p. 235) (translated by the authors)

Moreover, this competition is one of the explanations for the structural racism of a parasitic, necropolitical, and colonial logic in the context of Brazilian rural areas. Let us imagine what are the chances of the freed black people (together with mestizos, indigenous), with the immigration phenomenon, to feel territorialized? How to resist, if dispossessed of their language, their name and the possession of land? As Hardt and Negri (2009, p.  4) enunciate, “the power is embodied in property and capital, embedded in and fully supported by the law.” Immigrants came with the power of the name, surname, and long family trees. They came with technical knowledge, with new, more rationalized knowledge about the land, more accustomed to the demands of the Empire and with greater conditions of possession. They received land initially donated and then bought with economic facilities. They technically and morally ignored the caboclo knowledge, formed an ideal profile for the rationalization of agriculture work. They were perfect students for the agricultural schools that were disseminated in the country. Abbreviating a wide spectrum of caboclo revolts in Rio Grande do Sul and also, in contrast, a “caboclization of immigrants and an immigrantization of caboclos,” the rural event that predominated in the social formation of southern Brazil can be expressed through the character “settler.” Ironically self-styled pioneer, they become owners of large land properties, which prospered in the so-called Green Revolution,2 and educated themselves in rural schools and in agronomy colleges, transforming the land that welcomed them into a large monoculture business, updated in the so-­ called commodities. This great owner disseminated scientific research with their agribusiness logic to family farmers, institutionalizing a homogeneous way of making the land rural. Many have left their small domestic food processing businesses, planting diversified foods based on polyculture and subsistence, to make way for soybeans, cattle, tobacco, and rice. It is a modern version of what happened in the cycle of sugar, coffee, pau-brasil tree in the colonial era, which has been updated to

2  Which involves the research with hybrid seeds, genetically modified and that allow the spreading on large scale with advanced research for the expansion of the monoculture logic over the planet.

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the agro-pop3 version of the rural entrepreneur, who, without even have a vegetable garden, goes with his luxury vehicle to the town’s supermarket to buy organic vegetables in order to take care of his own health. No less technological is the case of tobacco production; only this time it is a farm worker. If not, let us see the model of work organization in tobacco; its knowledge and techniques are consolidated in the tobacco production chain since sowing, at each stage of planting, pruning, replanting, harvesting, pressing, and drying and, finally, in preparation for the classification that must strictly meet the standards preestablished by the tobacco company. In a business relationship with the land itself, the struggle of the worker to comply with his production takes place daily in the cycle that extends and intensifies as the final delivery deadline approaches. This demands not only their effort but also the help and the commitment of their whole family on long working hours. Farmers who do not have enough family labor to cope with the strenuous complexity of the work resort to the work of the rural poor, the landless, household, whole families that live on crops and temporary jobs. With this “scientific and technological revolution,” both the entrepreneur and the land worker are building the conditions for hegemonizing the “agri-parasitic” way of subjectifying themselves. This process occurs through the assimilation of the modus operandi of parasitic capital in country work, as well as through structured subjectivation under the banner of consumption. As stated by Safatle et  al.: “the empire of economy is solidary for the transformation of the social field into an index field for something we could call moral economy” (2020, p. 20) (translated by the authors). This way, life in the country also assumes the way of existing as described by Lipovetsky (2007) as Homo Economicus, marked by the search for happiness from consumption. And in this scenario and from this conceptual plot, that does not part material and psychological economy; Social Psychology is invited to enter the scene.

8.3  Scene 1: Bacuralizing with “Nativistas da Serra” (“Sierra Nativists”) In the logic of the “parasitic and unwanted caboclos,” mentioned above by Monteiro Lobato, the first non-fictional scene that we will now describe occurred in the city here called “Nativistas da Serra.” It could be a gaucho version and even more conservative from those presented in Bacurau concerning moral values. In the midst of the scenario of a rural work instituted by multinational tobacco capitalism, of the moralisms instituted on the psychologist being, about the instituted place of working the land, the story of a family breaks out and makes us think about the difference, the bottomless of it all: a family of “partners.” Farmers in this

3  Reference to Rede Globo’s Television campaign “Agro é tech, agro é pop, agro é tudo”. Recovered from http://bit.ly/agroepopglobo

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region call “partners” a type of temporary worker, an underemployment offered to people who live in favors in the barns and warehouses of properties on the side of the roads, waiting for the tobacco harvest period to earn some money. Here we already have a perverse inversion of the term “partner,” used to name the most precarious worker in agriculture, which expresses a lot of the effects of capitalist parasitism. The demand for an intervention with this small rural community arises from the work that the psychologist, second author of this article, performed with the municipality. Knowing the history of unsuccessful attempts to which the public facilities of social assistance and health in the region submitted this family, a work plan was proposed to support this family based on the ethical and methodological perspective of Therapeutic Accompaniment (TA). The TA consists of a clinical device that was created within the scope of the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform “characterized by going out to the city or being at the side of the person with psychosocial difficulties, seeking to help them again in the social circulation, considering their limitations and their historical context” (Cunha et al., 2017, p. 640) (translated by the authors). The team was mobilized and collaborative with the proposal. We set up a team meeting on Fridays. Team meetings were also a relatively unknown expedient by the Unidade Básica de Saúde (Basic Health Unit) – UBS. The case of this family was a kind of group attractor, a device that aroused everyone’s interest, given the frequency with which one of the members of this family was seen at the health service.

8.3.1  C  lapperboard I: Nativistas Da Serra, Diabolical Visions for Who Does Not Bring Money In “Nativistas da Serra,” Ulisses’ family (fictitious name) was attended between May of 2003 and June of 2004. Ulisses is married to Penelope (fictitious name) and has five children: a 21-year-old smiling guy, another 19-year-old volcanic guy, a 15-year-old boy of the forest, and two kids (a 9-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy). A family that offered, at the time, all the indicators of a certain psychotic functioning, outsider to the order of the standard family and that certainly bring elements that allude to a caboclo type of farmer, a native only seen in the poverty of the countryside. Life in warehouses, difficulty in expressing themselves regarding their habits, utensils, their routines, and relationships gave us signs of what we understood at the time as a psychological territoriality, considered an outsider to the rural elements instituted in “Nativistas da Serra.” In addition to this initial perception, the aggressive eruptions of the 19-year-old guy and his delirium in wanting to “bury Ulysses in a hole, because he does not bring money into the house,” as well as his diabolical visual hallucinations, imposed the health team and social assistance to create a follow-up plan for the case. It would be necessary to think about a long-­ term follow-up involving work in the functioning of the whole family. Visits took place weekly. At first it was learned that social assistance had been received with

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stoning from all members of the family. The angry dog sounded as an alarm with its barking and put all members of the clan on standby with stones in hand. The social worker reported that, at the beginning, Penelope used to make ranches (a term used in the region for large purchases in the supermarket, usually monthly) and cook all the food at once. The urgency of life did not allow fractioning, and any type of financial planning was unthinkable for that family’s functioning. In a way, the multidisciplinary work of the team fulfilled the desire expressed in the delusion of the psychotic boy that it was necessary to put money into the house. This entry into the intervention officially inscribed the family in the monetary logic, in the monthly benefit, in food planning, and in the supermarket. Institutionalizing the service on the network, the devil was apparently buried.

8.3.2  Clapperboard II: The Pixurum for Ulisses’ House One of the first actions of the TA psychology service was the drawing workshops with the small children of the family. The idea was to build conditions for the children’s schooling possibilities and, with that, an enunciation of a possible world, normalized by the school community. The immediate result was noticed, because children started to speak and express themselves. From that, together with all the members of the family, we started to discuss how the distribution of spaces in a hypothetical house should be. This need was presented by the health team, since there was a unanimous understanding that the health conditions of this family would have a direct relation with the living conditions. As residents of the warehouses on tobacco growers’ family estates, this wandering family had a very different concept of home. Ulisses used to say: “Any burlap bag next to a wood stove is good for me!”. Finally, the “new house” designed in the workshops with the children would be structured by a covered balcony, a kitchen room, three bedrooms, and a small storage room, with beds for all members of the family. In possession of the drawings, the TA team arranged an audience with the mayor of the city to request a solution worthy of housing for this family. The mayor, initially very indignant, said “If I do it for him, I will have to do it for everyone who comes here to ask for a home.” The team carefully argued that the house for Ulisses’ family would not be limited to a housing demand, but would comprise a care network, inscribed in the mental health policy, in which community care seeks to avoid the recurrence of psychiatric hospitalizations, which are burdensome for the municipality. This convincing argument helped to articulate the team with a resident of “Nativistas da Serra” without heirs, hirer of the family’s services, owner of a large urban area that had a part assigned to “build a balcony for Ulysses.” The City Hall’s construction works secretariat, some professionals from the UBS, the whole family of Ulysses, and volunteers from the community gathered to make a pixurum, an expression of the region to designate a kind of collective effort to harvest tobacco. The families of the communities help each other in the work, according to the needs of each one. When the work is over, everyone celebrates with food, drinks, and music. Inserted in the pixurum, the intervention

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of the psychologist of that small rural community composed a process not only in favor of the autonomy and self-management of this family, since it also intervened in the community’s relations with the state apparatus, the mayor with his public function, and the team in its powers of health production in the collective. In another perspective of inhabiting the pixurunized territory, a story emerges within the story: it is about how the 15-year-old wild boy performed the new space. As a kind of boy from the forest, he tried to segment an entire forest that was near the new house into paths, hiding places and gardens. He made a greenhouse in an intuitive geodesic form and covered it with scraps of bags of fertilizer and burlap. Inside the greenhouse he collected seed samples, taken from a tomato bush, a corn stalk, a bean stalk, and some flowers from the surrounding area. He built a kind of tunnel with a trapdoor to enter his geodesic greenhouse and his plants, in an explicit move to avoid “intruders” in his private universe. An artist of the forest, of the plants.

8.4  Scene 2: Bacuralizing in the Serão and Other Health Rituals The time when this intervention happens, coincidentally or not, is also characterized by a moment of update in capital’s modes of parasitizing. As we live a political and economic crisis of planetary proportions provoked by the pandemic of the new coronavirus, a mental health demand arrives to us from a small municipality with rural characteristics. The first plural person used here refers to a collective that dealt with the intervention, including the third author of this text, part of a multidisciplinary team formed by two psychology professionals, a social worker, and a sociologist. These were teachers from a community university in Rio Grande do Sul’s inland and health professionals from the same territory. This team was built precisely to respond to this addressed demand to the university in the region in the form of consultancy. A series of suicide attempts, some carried out, were perpetrated by people from this small locality, in the short period of approximately 2  months, triggering the demand for external assistance at the initiative of the local health manager. Based on a first listening process together with health, social assistance, and community leaders in the municipality, we developed an intervention that was organized around three axes: (1) care workshops, to welcome health workers, who signaled a condition of significant psychological illness due to the intensity of the workload they had been receiving; (2) matrixing process in mental health to equip health teams in primary care in the municipality; and (3) training process in mental health promotion, with community leaders and representatives from different segments of the community. We will emphasize here the activities carried out within this 3rd axis of the intervention, as it invites us to reflect on the community’s self-management capacity. Such capacity appears already in the first contacts with the population, when the speeches of the different groups that participated in the different moments of the

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intervention signaled an issue that triggered suffering that denoted being central to the community. This dimension of the social relations of the community was named as a “question of social status.” According to the reports and analyses that were collectively constructed in these meetings, the impact of the economic crisis that the country was going through at the time of the intervention directly affected producers, as it reduced their income, promoting a loss of consumption capacity and of the maintenance of a lifestyle already established. As one might have imagined at first, it was not just accumulated debts. In general, it was much more a loss of status in front of the community based on caricature values of capital such as the ability to “change cars every year” or “travel to distant or exotic places.” In a survey carried out with high school students from the municipality’s school, they signaled the existence of bullying practices related to this same distribution of status, expressed in the clothes that children and adolescents wore, in the cell phone model they had, in the association or not with a social club, etc. The monoculture of parasitic capital is not restricted to the determination of the commodities that are chosen for infinite production. There is a sale of a way of life there, impregnated by the simulacra of capital, which are engendered in small rural communities. The logic of accumulating wealth in its encounter with Christian ethics, also associated with a certain compulsion for consumption that is fostered by the desire for recognition, contributes to formulating the subjectivity of Homo Consumericus (Silva, 2009) in its rural version. The consumption capacity, which at first appears as an attribute of recognition of social status, quickly becomes an emotional need. A need to live singularizing experiences that are supported by the search for individualizing happiness through consumption (Lipovetsky, 2007). This paradoxical happiness, so characteristic of the subjective parasitism of capital, takes root in small communities, producing its effects also in sociability and in the citizens’ mental health. The consequence will also occur in the triggering of generalized anxiety, depression, and, in radical terms, attempts and the perpetration of suicide. This itinerary, while repeating the general statistical indexes related to suicide in Brazil and in the world, according to Gonçalves et al. (2011), also gives very specific outlines for this experience. Consistent with the epidemiological data of the country and the world, the men are the ones that mostly commit suicide in this municipality. The suicides that occurred in the months leading up to the intervention were cases of men aged 50–70 years. It is a well-known characteristic of public health policies that men do not seek health services as much as women (Gomes et al., 2007). The entry “Suicide” in the Ministry of Health’s Glossary of Men’s Health clarifies that: “Suicide statistics report that the prevalence of attempts is higher in women, but the mortality data show a proportion four times higher in men, predominantly adults, young and elderly” (Ministry of Health, 2018, p. 94) (translated by the authors). This weakening of the provider man, which occurs with the loss of vigor for work, of the productive capacity and of producing income, makes these subjects vulnerable. And yet, the loss of the condition to maintain this “social status” built

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before the community, associated with the shame of seeking help, precisely because the understanding of this movement is a sign of weakness, gives an overview of the potential risk for the lives of the men of this community. From this context, it was proposed to build a group formed by people with different insertions in the community. The group counted on the participation of health workers, social assistance, education, charity entities, as well as community leaders and organized social movements in the municipality. The intervention was structured in two stages. First, we held training workshops to work on issues that are related to mental health. Subsequently, encouraged by the engagement of the participants, we launched the challenge of building interventions to promote mental health to be developed with the groups to which each participant was linked. Each of the actions were built and monitored by the University’s intervention team and by the municipality’s health professionals. The idea was precisely to expand the reach of mental health promotion actions beyond the provisions of public policies. Proposals for actions emerged in different areas, from promoting intergenerational meetings to exchange life experiences, visits by small groups to bedridden people, awareness campaigns at the town events, and interventions by health professionals in the town bars – since we had found out during the meetings that these were one of the main, if not the only, possible spaces for coexistence for the men of the community. This articulation of different people in favor of the production of collective mental health actions leads us to the figure named by Hardt and Negri (2012) as “the man of the common” (translated by the authors). The expression is rescued from the definition of one of the three strata of the social order of medieval England: the one who fought (the nobility), the one who prayed (the clergy), and the one who worked (the commoners). The English language has preserved the word to designate an ordinary man or woman, without “social standing.” The authors take up this concept precisely to rescue this extraordinary character of the common man, capable of producing a common. The task of the common man and woman in our time exceeds the productive character, as they are also interested in the creation of means “for the free exchange of ideas, images, codes, music and information” (Hardt & Negri, 2012, p. 89). The actions proposed by the community stood out due to the fact that they were built and carried out by different people, in addition to the health teams or experts from the university. It was these ordinary women and men who took on the responsibility of formulating self-organized actions to produce means of mutual care for their community. Therefore, actions that produce a common. By creating bonds of social obligation with others, of meeting difference through the power of singularities, the propositions of the community to face their collective dilemma pointed to what Hardt and Negri highlight as “fundamental and necessary for the constituting a democratic society based on open sharing of common” (Hardt & Negri, 2012, p. 89). Corroborating the territorial diagnosis carried out, those were proposals that were diametrically opposed to the “individualizing mode” of the “weakening social and community ties” that is fostered by the neoliberal logic, creating openings of communication loaded with health potential.

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Since capital operates under the intentionality of corrosion of character through the rupture of solidary ties, as stated by Sennet (1999), it is also through the strengthening of these that it is possible to establish relationships that permeate the dimension of care. To materialize the meaning of these actions for the community, we rescue here the proposal of one of the groups to resume an old social practice of the community called “Serão.” Serão is nothing more than a festive gathering between neighbors in a community, who come together to dine, play, listen to music, dance, and talk into the night. This was a usual practice, especially in the most distant territories, whose access difficulties made visits and meeting possibilities rare. In a nostalgic tone, the participants report that this cultural practice had been lost over time, precisely because of the individualizing character of life and the consequent weakening of bonds between members of the community. In the emotional reports of some participants, the joyful memories of party gatherings and celebrations allowed them to rescue a time when relationships were “different,” according to the participants. As it rescues bonds of solidarity between members of the community, the Serão also asserts itself as a ritual of health, care, and mutual support between men and women who collectively assume the task of producing the common.

8.5  Last Clapperboard: Ending Not So Happy, Not So End Capital appropriates what is most sacred in many cosmologies, which is its relationship with the land and with what it is able to offer them, with the lives it brings forth. This is the meaning given by Ailton Krenak (2019) when stating that we have, over time, alienated ourselves from this great organism that we are a part of, “differentiating land and humanity” (translated by the authors). In the author’s words, it is inconceivable to think of something that is not nature, since “everything is nature. The cosmos is nature. All I can think of is nature” (Krenak, 2019, p. 10) (translated by the authors). This cosmology of nature, integrated with social existence, as thought by Krenak (2019), is activated from a subtle agency, since the hegemonic tendency is to eat the land and not live the land. The experiences presented in two different places in Rio Grande do Sul find traces of this subtlety but, at the same time, the tsunami of the sovereign empire of the republican forms of capitalism. The empire prevails in Bacurau when, for example, the couple of motorcycle characters try to differ from the “people of Bacurau,” for being from another “caste” thanks to their European immigrant descendants from the southern region of the country. The two precise shots eliminating each of the “almost Europeans,” as the couple had presented themselves, closes the scene in an emblematic way, showing how foreigners look(ed) at the natives: Latin-American browns, as any one of the subordinate subjects who took them to that end of the world to play on killing. The becoming-black of the world (Mbembe, 2018) signals that the work in the modern plantation of

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monoculture or the uniformed mass of app deliverers, who cycle 50 kilometers a day in large urban centers to earn 15 reais,4 favors a hegemonizing of exploitation, even though it saves differences for certain groups. The empire imposes itself on “Nativistas da Serra” when Ulysses finds himself captured by the monetary system and a need for financial planning. One only lives in the capitalist economy; otherwise they see themselves buried as a devil. The empire imposes itself in the training experience for suicide prevention, when the slogan of the “question of social status” subsides existence through mass consumption and, consequently, consuming itself until death. From the ritualization of health meetings to the practices of working in the countryside such as the struggle for survival in the unique strategies to fight parasitic capitalism narrated here, we can see how much of Bacurau and Parasite are in these distant southern native estates. If for Hardt and Negri (2012) ordinary women and men are participants in a process that constitutes a more democratic life, as they carry out actions of sharing and opening up to the common, we find clues in these experiences for the construction of lives with higher coefficient of self-determination. As in Bacurau, the parasitic effects of this subtle enemy on the lives of the countryside are quickly identified. When composing alliances with women and men of the common, psychology is allied to the inventive production of strategies of resistance to parasitized lives. If we are guided by the history of the social formation of the countryside, we also identify a perspective of the common, as just as in the two rural communities reported here the resistance movements activate an immemorial of the mass of peasants, influenced by the indigenous population and later by the quilombolas and enslaved people who escaped to the forests. These groups formed a socius that has been invisible for generations, as the concept of farmer was institutionalized as colonial production and, by historical extension, production of this universal homogeneous imposed by the commodities way of subjectifying oneself in the context of “AgroPop.” Krenak (2020) corroborates this understanding by stating that the nuclei that still consider it important to remain attached to the Earth are those that have been forgotten on the margins of the planet, of the rivers and oceans, whether in Africa, Asia, or Latin America. This “sub-humanity” in the perspective of capital, formed by the caiçaras, indigenous, quilombolas, and aborigines, refuses to enter this self-destructive humanity. What we can see when looking at these four narratives, which blur the boundaries between fiction and reality, are the whispers of people who live in the fields, forests, and rivers, who were not literate in the logic of a power that is embodied by capital and republican law, as suggested by Hardt and Negri (2009). They are narratives that make us inhabit another logic, of an inventive intentionality, such as that of indigenous subjectivity in which the land, the river, and the mountain are “relatives” and the planet needs these elements to constitute itself as life, and not as property.

 Brazilian currency. Currently, 15 reais are equivalent to approximately $2.76 in the United States.

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When looking at the creation of another logic in the Deleuzian work, Lapoujade emphasizes that the irrational is not synonymous with illogical, but it is a movement that becomes more logical as it is able to escape any rationality (Lapoujade, 2015). The narratives brought here seem to want to affirm precisely this logic that escapes the universal, urban, hegemonic, and parasitic rationality, contrasting the dimension that the community movements of “pixurum” and “Serão” announce. Movements that affirm life as a possibility of encounter, that strengthen bonds, establish relationships of complicity and solidarity. “Bacuralized” logic, of a false calm, of a violent nudity that may, paradoxically, be playing the role of Bacurau’s street sign in showing us a path that is still unthinkable toward Peace.

References Cunha, C.  M. (2019). Princípios da cartografia e o pensamento da diferença em Deleuze  – O que quer a pesquisa cartográfica? Atos de Pesquisa em Educação, Blumenau, 14(3), 934–959. https://doi.org/10.7867/1809-­0354.2019v14n3p934-­959 Cunha, A. C., Pio, D. A. M., & Raccioni, T. M. (2017). Acompanhamento Terapêutico: Concepções e Possibilidades. Psicologia: Ciência e Profissão, 37(3), 638–651. Retrieved from https:// www.scielo.br/pdf/pcp/v37n3/1982-­3703-­pcp-­37-­3-­0638.pdf Carone, I., & Bento, M. A. S. (2002). Psicologia Social do Racismo: estudos sobre branquitude e branqueamento no Brasil. Vozes. Dantas, C. M. B., Dimenstein, M., Leite, J. F., Torquato, F., & Macedo, J. P. (2018). A pesquisa em contextos rurais: desafios éticos e metodológicos para a psicologia. Psicologia & Sociedade, 30, e165477. Drumond, N. (2015). A guerra da água na Bolívia: a luta do movimento popular contra a privatização de um recurso natural. Revista Nera, 18(28), 186–205. Gomes, R., Nascimento, E.  F., & Araújo, F.  C. (2007). Por que os homens buscam menos os serviços de saúde do que as mulheres? As explicações de homens com baixa escolaridade e homens com ensino superior. Cadernos de Saúde Pública, 23(3), 565–574. Gonçalves, L. R. C., Gonçalves, E., & Oliveira, L. B. (2011). Determinantes espaciais e socioeconômicos do suicídio no Brasil: uma abordagem regional. Nova Economia, 21(2), 281–316. Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2004). Multidão: Guerra e democracia na era do império (1ª ed.). Record. Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2009). Commonwealth. Harvard University Press. Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2012). Declaration. Argo-Navis. Krenak, A. (2019). O amanhã não está à venda. Schwarcz. Krenak, A. (2020). Ideias para adiar o fim do mundo. Schwarcz. Krenak, A. (2021). Os brancos querem comer o mundo. Pandemia crítica  – pela vida. N-1 Edições. Retrieved from https://www.n-­1edicoes.org/ os-­brancos-­querem-­comer-­o-­mundo-­mas-­nos-­nos-­somos-­o-­mundo? Lapoujade, D. (2015). Deleuze, Os Movimentos Aberrantes. N-1 Edições. Lipovetsky, G. (2007). A felicidade paradoxal: ensaio sobre a sociedade de hiperconsumo. Companhia das Letras. Lesclaux, E. (Produtor) e Saïd, B.  S. (Produtor) e Merkt, M. (Produtor), Mendonça Filho, K. (Diretor) e Dornelles, J. (Diretor). (2019). Bacurau [filme]. Brasil: SBS Productions; CinemaScópio; Globo Filmes. Lobato, M. (1950). Urupês. Brasiliense. Mbembe, A. (2018). Crítica da razão negra. N-1 Edições.

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Ministério da Saúde. (2018). Secretaria-Executiva. Secretaria de Atenção à Saúde. Glossário temático: saúde do homem [recurso eletrônico]/Ministério da Saúde. Secretaria-Executiva. Secretaria de Atenção à Saúde– Brasília, DF: Autor. Oxford, English Dictionary. (2021). Commodity. Retrieved from https://languages.oup.com/ google-­dictionary-­pt/ Safatle, V., Silva, N., & Dunker, C. (Eds.). (2020). Neoliberalismo como gestão do sofrimento psíquico. Autêntica. Sennet, R. (1999). A corrosão do caráter: consequências pessoais do trabalho no novo capitalismo. Record. Silva, E. C. A. (2009). Interminável busca da felicidade. Media, 13(1), 297–299. Sin-ae, K. (Productor), Yang-kwon, M. (Productor) e Young-hwan, J. (Productor), Joon-ho, B. (Diretor). (2019). Parasita [filme]. Coréia do Sul: Barunson E&A Corp. Zarth, P. (2009). Colonos Imigrantes e lavradores nacionais no sul do Brasil: projetos de ocupação da terra em conflito. In M. Motta & P. Zarth (Eds.), Formas de Resistência camponesa: visibilidade e diversidade de conflitos ao longo da História, concepções de justiça e resistência nas repúblicas do passado (Vol. II, pp. 261–352). Ed. UNESP/Ministério do Desenvolvimento Agrário, NEAD, 2009. Retrieved from http://repiica.iica.int/DOCS/B1553P/B1553P.PDF

Part III

Social Movements, Communities and Resistance Practices

Chapter 9

Sense of Us in the Face of the Pandemic: A Psychosocial and Community Approach Katherine Isabel Herazo González

9.1  Introduction In the twenty-first century, talking about the sense of Us becomes interesting in the scenario of a pandemic that has exposed inequality, inequity, the injustice system, and poverty as a framework of capitalism that exhorts individualism over the commitment to the common good and the community. Likewise, capitalism is the cause of the unequal spread of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the population, which causes the proliferation of adverse conditions in oppressed communities, placing them in situations of greater vulnerability. Therefore, it is necessary to understand and confront the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic from a community approach in highly vulnerable populations, such as indigenous peoples. Analyzing the living conditions of indigenous peoples in the pandemic, the ways of facing SARS-CoV-2 and the “new normalities” based on the psychosocial and community resources that these social actors have, become crucial elements to address from our work. The exchange of knowledge from a horizontal dialogue, with the inclusion of an intercultural perspective and our American thought as a place of enunciation (Serna & Bosque, 1993), is the starting point of this exploratory documentary research. The argumentation of the chapter is articulated in three moments related to the research findings. In the first moment, the socio-historical panorama of the pandemic in Mexican indigenous peoples is presented, analyzed from a Latin American perspective. Subsequently, we reflect on the meaning of the indigenous peoples as a community psychosocial strength to face the pandemic and “the new normalities,” and finally, we offer a space for a final reflection.

K. I. H. González (*) Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_9

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9.2  P  andemic in Mexican Indigenous Peoples: A Perspective from Our America In less Recovering the historical evolution of the spread of pandemics1 allows us to note that they have occurred recurrently in the indigenous peoples of Mexico and our America throughout the centuries. In the fifteenth century, the Spaniards brought contagious respiratory diseases such as smallpox, influenza, and measles. These diseases spread rapidly among the indigenous population during the invasion and the Colonial period, leaving a high mortality rate, population mobility accompanied by vertiginous demographic changes, an ecological catastrophe, and changes in the socio-political dynamics. The hypothesis held by scientists about the first epidemic caused by the invaders, and of which there is evidence, is that “it could have been the swine flu, although there are dissenting voices. A first wave arrived on the second voyage of Christopher Columbus, in 1493. It spread with enormous ease and caused great damage” (Muñoz, 2012, p. 1) (translated by the author). Over a century, several tens of millions of indigenous inhabitants disappeared from their own map. For example, 90% of the Carib and Arawak populations died in the first 20 years following the arrival of Christopher Columbus and his men in 1492. The fact remains that the high death rate of indigenous peoples not only transformed the demographic map of Latin America and the Caribbean, but also the power relations established during the period known as the “conquest.” In this regard, Hernán Cortés in Mexico, and Pizarro in the Inca empire of Huayna Capac, Peru, used smallpox and measles as a strategic and instrumental platform for the success of their military battles, which translated into political victories. In addition, the beginnings of capitalism in Spain and the traces of the feudal mode of production gave way in our America to a socio-political and economic order that determined the course of the unequal spread of the pandemic in the population, which resulted in the indigenous peoples being the groups placed in a situation of vulnerability. In the twentieth century, the flu dissemination in 1918 marks another historical moment of the pandemics that struck the region. Mexico, in the midst of a critical political and social environment, after the aftermath of World War I and the country’s internal problems during the presidency of Venustiano Carranza, had to face the influenza pandemic. Molina, Márquez & Prado (2013) refer that “before and after influenza there were other epidemics, such as the yellow fever, which attacked Monterrey, Guadalajara, Saltillo, Tuxpan, Veracruz, Tampico, and Campeche, as well as

1  World Health Organization (2010). What is a pandemic? “A pandemic is the worldwide spread of a new disease. An influenza pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus emerges and spreads around the world and most people have no immunity to it. Typically, viruses that have caused pandemics before have come from influenza viruses that infect animals” (accessed 04/22/2020).

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bubonic plague in Mazatlán. All of these occurred between 1900 and 1919” (translated by the authors). In the twenty-first century, the new SARS-CoV-2 has caused an unprecedented pandemic, from its appearance in December 2019 until mid-2020, when the first wave of infections in our America began to shoot up. According to WHO data, the Americas region has the highest number of coronavirus infections as of mid-May 2020 (Wallace, 2020). In this first wave of the pandemic, capitalism and autocratic government regimes have had an impact on the proliferation of coronavirus infections and deaths in the most at-risk and vulnerable groups. What is certain is that, in our America, the strategies, actions, and health programs for the COVID-19 pandemic are mediated by capital; they respond to the relationship between productive forces and production relations, between the means of life and those of capital, between the world and money. Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, is the ultimate expression of this by urging the implementation of economic and health policies that are detrimental to the Amazonian indigenous peoples and in favor of big capital. In South America, Ecuador became the epicenter of the health crisis due to the collapse of the health system (España, 2021). The Ecuadorian government did not have the capacity to remove corpses from homes, especially in the city of Guayaquil. Argentina was one of the countries that adopted drastic measures of compulsory confinement in this first wave, among which the closing of borders and economic activity in hibernation stand out; the same happened in Colombia, a country that also  – amid the situation  – requested 11 million dollars from the International Monetary Fund. To avoid social outbursts, the Colombian government distributed money in the peripheral populations of the cities where the greatest pockets of poverty are concentrated. In Venezuela, the destruction of the health system meant that the spread of the virus in the first wave has left a large death toll, which adds to the political crises in the government of Nicolás Maduro and the pressure exerted by the United States of America on this country. In Chile, with an extreme neoliberal model, the possibility of health coverage is reduced, and the country resorts to measures typical of a state of exception. The actions taken in the face of the pandemic by the governments of Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, and Peru, among others, have called into question the emergence of the democratic systems in place, which have had to adopt health strategies that glimpse speaking “in the future, not only between the democratic state and the state of exception, but also between the democratic and the anti-democratic states of exception” (Santos, 2020, p. 1) (translated by the authors). In Mexico, the second largest economy in the region, the government has avoided applying strict confinement measures to the population in an attempt to mitigate economic damages. As a result, decisions framed in the economic welfare are prioritized, but not in the social welfare of the oppressed population. Despite the pandemic, the construction project of the Felipe Angeles International Airport in Santa Lucia continues, so that the native peoples of the State of Mexico have to face not only the ravages of COVID-19 but also the exercise of structural violence through the implementation of development projects that are far from including and favoring

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them. In addition to this initiative in the country, there is the implementation of the Mayan Train.2 Will these development projects be essential and substantial needs in times of pandemic? Essential for whom? In addition to this situation, there is the problem of indigenous peoples experiencing forced displacement in Chiapas (Bellinghausen, 2020a, b), the assassinations of social leaders, and violent attacks by paramilitary groups, which violate the human rights of the Wixarika and Tepehuanes indigenous peoples (Muñoz, 2020). In the face of the health crisis, the contributions of the Ministry of Health and the General Health Council in collaboration with the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples, the Secretariat of Indigenous Peoples and Neighborhoods and Resident Indigenous Communities, and the National Institute of Indigenous Languages in Mexico have been insufficient to address the health problems of indigenous peoples. The Mexican government’s health care is based on a Eurocentric system that ignores the health-care circuits that are maintained as ancestral self-care practices among indigenous peoples, thus placing them in a situation of maximum vulnerability. Likewise, the coverage, attention, access, and sanitary equipment of the Mexican government’s health service in the phases of prevention, containment, mitigation, and suppression of COVID-19 have been precarious, limited, and with little presence in the indigenous peoples of the country. As a result, indigenous communities have had to use their own resources, knowledge, and forms of organization to face the different phases of the pandemic. The beginning of the vaccination programs, as part of a new stage of the pandemic, is not very comforting since, in the global panorama, according to the Johns Hopkins University, more than 87 million infections and one million 878 thousand 581 deaths are reported. There were 15,769 deaths in 1 day on a global scale (La Jornada, Thursday, January 7, 2021, p. 11). Our America at this stage is at a disadvantage because the capitalist system exposes the human misery of inequality, where only the countries in power and with greater economic resources have greater access to vaccination. Thus, countries with “greater economic development have secured their access to vaccines through contracts with pharmaceutical companies, financing an important part of their research costs, while poor nations are depending almost exclusively on some philanthropic initiatives such as the UN’s Covax” (Laurel, A. Getting to know SARS-CoV-2. In La Jornada, January 13, 2021, p. 3). In view of this scenario, the Commission of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) proposes responding urgently to the needs and challenges derived from COVID-19, attending especially to the reactivation of the economy, facing 2  “A study commissioned by the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) on the Mayan Train contrasts drastically with government discourse: it argues that the flagship megaproject of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government threatens the indigenous populations living in the Peninsula, the biodiversity reserves and the 1288 archaeological sites located 10 kilometers from the tracks” Tourliere (2020). Conacyt report on Tren Maya contrasts with governmental discourse. In Proceso magazine, March 3, 2020.

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environmental and climate change problems, working on gender equality and diversity, and promoting Latin American and Caribbean innovation and integration (La Jornada, January 13, 2021, p.11). In Mexico, after the government’s intention to introduce the population to a “new normality,” in December 2020 and early 2021, in the midst of a new mutation of COVID-19 appearing in the United Kingdom and South Africa, there is a new spike in the number of cases in the country. One million 556 thousand 28 cases of COVID-19 are reported, 135 thousand 682 deaths, and a record of 1314 deaths in 1 day (La Jornada, January 13, 2021, p. 7). According to Ximénez-Fyvie, these figures show that “the lack of effective strategies to cut the chain of contagion has allowed it to reproduce itself millions of times, which has led to the appearance of mutations” (Sánchez, 2021: 7). Moreover, although Mexico is leading the way in vaccination in Latin America and the Caribbean, there is no guarantee that these vaccines will be effective when dealing with a new strain, and there is no certainty as to the duration of immunity. The federal government in Mexico executes a vaccination program that considers health-care workers and the age of the Mexican population, leaving aside a high-­ risk group: people suffering from chronic diseases, as pointed out by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Likewise, in the vaccination stage, a relevant criterion has been omitted: that “precarious socioeconomic conditions and belonging to ethnic minorities are directly related to a high frequency of contagion and death” (Laurel, 2021, p. 3) (translated by the authors), which is why indigenous peoples should be included as priority groups for vaccination. However, the exclusion of these peoples and the lack of a guarantor state regarding their access to and protection of health are evident. Indigenous peoples amid this vaccination stage must face other problems, and an example of them is the lack of access to the guarantee of their customary rights, which is manifested in the absence of prior consultation as a requirement for extractive concessions; a specific case faced by the Maseual peoples of Tlatlauquitepec, Yaonáhuac, and Cuetzalan del Progreso in the face of the Mining Law (Murillo, 2021). Similarly, there is a need to sponsor the inclusion and active participation of indigenous peoples as candidates where the native population is the majority, as is the case of Nayarit state (La Jornada, January 13, 2021, p. 26). In this sense, it can be said that the indigenous peoples of Mexico and our America face great problems and challenges during the pandemic, since it is a matter not only of meeting a health need but also of safeguarding the fundamental rights of these social actors, which are continually lacerated and violated. From this, the following question arises: What are the psychosocial and community tools that Mexican indigenous peoples have for facing the pandemic and the “new normality” in a sociopolitical and economic context that is unfavorable to them and which, on multiple occasions, has violated and infringed their customary rights?

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9.3  S  ense of Us as a Community Psychosocial Strength in Dealing with the Pandemic The psychosocial and community tools that indigenous peoples have for facing the pandemic and the “new normality” are not circumstantial. They are part of the psychosocial structural framework built throughout the historical transformation based on their Mesoamerican legacy and the ontic being of communality. Indigenous peoples recover their experiences and coexist, not from the individualism that underlies the “I,” but from the recovery of a thought created in the “We.” Individuality is known to be incorporated in the Nosotric (We-oriented) Whole, and from there one thinks, feels, and makes life. In this regard, it can be identified that to face the pandemic, indigenous peoples do not respond individually, but from the We. Thus, strategies, plans, and actions to preserve life in the face of the threat of COVID-19 are proposed through decisions taken in assemblies, using forms of organization and participation proper to their own doing, communal being, and from the voice of the We. The sense of Us of the indigenous peoples acts as a social articulator that allows them to prioritize what is common and communal to its members. Thus, safeguarding community health is the interest that prevails in the peoples; in this way, it can be said that in these actors the common welfare is a priority over the individual. The sense of Us in indigenous peoples is understood as the expression of conceiving, being, living, feeling, speaking, and being aware of the We as a corporeal and historical whole. From the We collective life is given, the essence of communality is expressed, and who takes part in it is delimited. In addition, it consists in the particular way that all members of the communality have of understanding how the We absorbs the person, in a way that requires his or her incorporation into the We. It is to feel belonging to the communality and, from it, to shape the collective thinking and acting (Herazo, 2018). According to this definition, the sense of Us is present in the actions developed by indigenous peoples in the phases of prevention, containment, mitigation, and suppression of COVID-19. In the following section, it will be explained how the sense of Us is present in the life of indigenous peoples as an expression of living the We in a context of pandemic. Moreover, the awareness of We is presented as an enabler of actions that articulate the communal, and finally, the feeling of us of indigenous peoples in times of pandemic is explored.

9.4  Living the Us in Pandemic Times Being present and being someone in the world implies living as an action of life. These actions are constituted from collective experiences in indigenous peoples, so that their members refer to life as a substantial element that guides their practices, beliefs, and perceptions (Herazo, 2018: 68).

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Living We implies a complex repertoire of the social fabric that is woven in the space-time relationship in indigenous peoples through their forms of organization and communal participation, such as “faena” and “tequio” (both indigenous words that can be translated as service/work for the common good), but also through their knowledge and ancestral health practices, which are carried out in communal life. Currently, indigenous peoples are resisting the pandemic, the epistemicide of the Sentinel program, and the epidemiological strategies of the Mexican federal government that ignore the life of these peoples. In this regard, the Mexican government has drawn up a plan, with strategies and programs for each phase of COVID-19 without the real inclusion of the peoples’ knowledge, so an intercultural health perspective is lacking. Hugo López Gatell Ramírez, Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion in Mexico, argues that European epidemiological models cannot be extrapolated to Mexico, since the social, economic, and political realities are different. However, the measures adopted do not include the proper incorporation of ancestral knowledge and ignore the way of life of indigenous peoples and their daily health practices based on traditional medicine. Although in health matters there is a structure, responsibilities, and duties at federal and state level that are legally and constitutionally established, indigenous peoples – in Article 2 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States – also have full recognition of their rights in health matters. Art. 2, Section III, of the Constitution provides for “Ensuring effective access to health services by expanding the coverage of the national system, taking proper advantage of traditional medicine, as well as supporting the nutrition of indigenous people through feeding programs, especially for the infant population” (Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, 2013). However, access to health services for indigenous peoples is very limited in times of pandemic, in addition to the fact that traditional medicine has not been included at the federal level in the programs of containment, propagation of the virus, and induction to the “new normality.” Despite the lack of inclusion of traditional medicine in the public agenda in times of pandemic, the truth is that there are subaltern health circuits in indigenous peoples anchored in the experience of the We. These subaltern health circuits operate with a conception of cure or healing different from the Western one, and for this reason it is important that federal plans, strategies, and programs incorporate an intercultural health perspective,3 since this has repercussions on the following and execution of official health provisions in indigenous peoples. For example, in order to prevent COVID-19, herbs and natural vaporizers are used in the daily life of Mexican indigenous peoples; healers are used for preventive activities for respiratory diseases; an antibacterial gel was created based on “hierbabuena” (spearmint), “chuchupate” (osha root), and alcohol; “temascal” (a type of 3  “The perspective of Intercultural Health as an emerging space of the public agenda, which makes ethno-cultural differences visible, alerts about the importance of not sustaining a naive stance around dialogue and interculturality” (Ceriani, 2019, p. 111) (translated by the authors).

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sweat lodge) baths with medicinal plants are used to strengthen the respiratory and immune systems; indigenous midwives are used to deliver babies; sanitary fences are established to isolate and contain the virus; and in general, natural medicine is established as a basic activity in the health/disease/care process. In addition, “tequio” and “trueque” (bartering) are done, both of which are forms of community organization and participation that help to solve community health problems. “Tequio” is a nosotropic practice through which the members of the indigenous peoples carry out jobs and actions for the community in solidarity and free of charge, in order to improve the living and health conditions of the population. Bartering is the relational exchange of material goods or services for other objects or services, without the intermediation of money. This practice is conducted by indigenous peoples to guarantee subsistence when certain foods, products, and services are scarce in times of pandemics. Thus, through collaborative and nosotropic action, both the life and the health conditions of the members of the community can be guaranteed.

9.5  Consciousness of Us in Pandemic Times In indigenous peoples, a clear conscience that is forged from the We that unites is identified. This is because the peoples can read their reality from a perspective that does not fade into individualism, but is based on the communion of its members, who seek to solve their needs together, share values and beliefs, and pursue change from the nosotrification. Indeed, there is an awareness of the role they play in society as a people and of the way they conceive the human being, not as an isolated entity, but as one who relates in and with the world from a sense of Us. The process of awareness of Us occurs through constant dialogue that problematizes the existence of each member of the people as an integral part of the communality. Thus, it could be said that the knowledge that peoples have of their own existence, of the state in which they find themselves and of their values, is a social construction derived from nosotrification. Therefore, the elaboration of moral, evaluative, and ethical character judgments about acting in life  – of what is right or wrong – will depend on this construction made from social interaction, reflection, and criticism they make about their own reality, thereby generating a consciousness of We, forged through the values that are and are lived in the communality: solidarity, cooperation, dignity, respect, fulfillment of the given word, reciprocity, and commitment to what is ours (Herazo & Moreno, 2019). It is interesting to observe that this awareness of the We of which we speak and the framework that supports it have not disappeared or fragmented in times of pandemic by COVID-19; rather, indigenous peoples have signified the pandemic as a problem to be solved from the awareness of knowing how to be united to face this reality, which has put the global economy in the tightrope, and has generated many deaths, unemployment, physical isolation, and aggravating health conditions in the global arena.

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Indeed, there is a clear awareness of being from the ontic character of the plural and of the We in indigenous peoples, which allows them to preserve and guarantee life through collective actions, such as building community fences in the containment and mitigation phase of COVID-19. Although Mexico has not closed its borders, in the interior of the country, more than 300 municipalities have blocked their accesses, establishing sanitary fences where access is only allowed to medical personnel or neighbors with a safe conduct, according to data from the state Human Rights Prosecutor’s Offices (García, 2020). This fact represents a clear example of how indigenous peoples take action in health matters, even despite official regulations, because they know and are aware of their particular situation of life in the world-system and, as a result, make decisions based on the well-being of the community. Additionally, Mayan, Zapotec, Huichol, and Purépecha communities in the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Morelos, Veracruz, Sinaloa, Michoacán, and Quintana Roo survive almost without contagion in the face of the thousands of cases spreading in the big cities, and they want to continue doing so (García, 2020). This is due to the communal actions conducted to contain the spread of the virus. Another expression of the awareness of We in times of pandemic can be seen in the actions taken by native peoples of the State of Mexico, in order to stop the construction of the Felipe Angeles International Airport. The native peoples affected by the construction of this airport have declared themselves in resistance to this megaproject. Although Andrés Manuel López Obrador affirms that they used the legal mechanisms of prior consultation for the construction of the project, “they claim that they have not been considered. That is why they say they are ready to fight for their land and water, since they claim that the water basin of the area would not support a project such as the construction of an international airport” (Infoave, 22/04/2020).

9.6  Feeling the Us in a Time of Pandemic Feelings comprise the awareness of an emotional state that determines mood. From this point of view, feelings underlie the person who can perceive his or her emotions at the intrapsychic level. In indigenous peoples, although this feeling is captured by the subject, its experience is collective in such a way that the vast majority of the members of the peoples recognize themselves as part of the communality, have the same feeling about their actions and daily experiences, and refer to it when they speak in the first person plural: we feel (Herazo, 2019: 67). According to this argument, it could be said that indigenous peoples share the same feeling about what is happening due to the pandemic. It would be worth asking: What are the feelings and affections experienced by Mexican indigenous peoples in times of pandemic? How are the feelings and affections of indigenous peoples articulated to territoriality in the context of the pandemic?

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In indigenous peoples, feelings are constructed and installed in the specific territory of social interaction, and it is in the relational world that affections are given life. Affections are rooted in the earth as a creative mother and the territory is conceived as a subject that is part of Us. The land is an active subject of a community and, therefore, is part of the corporeality of the communality and possesses feelings; it is for this reason that indigenous peoples confer to mother earth the capacity to feel and to be ill. Thus, it is argued that COVID-19 is a reflection of the illness of mother earth and, therefore, it is necessary to look after her and love her. From this perspective, the conception of health-illness-cure intrinsically concerns the relationship established with the habitat. In addition, affections are generated not only between human beings but also between people, mother earth, and nature in general. Likewise, in the indigenous peoples, feelings of fear and anxiety emerge in the face of the aftermath of COVID-19; but also, feeling united to solve the problems derived from the health crisis gives them a feeling of joy that embodies Us in an affective framework of hope and good living. Based on these findings, it could be proposed that the psychosocial intervention in community health should be guided to include the cosmovision of indigenous peoples for the management of anxiety, fear, and other feelings and affections that are products of living the pandemic.

9.7  Final Reflections The social, economic, and political effects of the pandemic on indigenous peoples have been mediated by the inequality derived from capitalism and the expansion of neoliberalism, placing them at a disadvantage compared to other human groups due to the conditions of poverty, lack of access to health services, and the absence of incorporation of intercultural health policies. Faced with this situation, it is necessary that the policies and the hegemonic epidemiological health system incorporate strategies, plans, and actions to territorialize the health care provided due to COVID-19, “new normality” and post-pandemic, considering the cultural diversity and knowledge in Mexico. This requires the inclusion of an intercultural health perspective that contains nosotrified health circuits and itineraries of indigenous peoples, which could be understood as modalities of care and systems of “self-care” that are the expression of ancestral knowledge. In this line of research, it would be relevant to reflect in future works on: What meaning do indigenous peoples give to the epidemiological practices and dispositions established by the current Mexican government regarding COVID-19 and the post-pandemic period? and how can the contradictions of federal, state, and community health strategies be articulated in indigenous peoples? Indeed, there are problems, needs, and questions to be solved regarding the health of indigenous peoples in times of pandemic. However, it is necessary to know

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that indigenous peoples have community strengths such as the sense of Us, which allows them to face the pandemic in a self-managing way and enables them to recreate communal life and promote community health. Thus, it is necessary to emphasize that at the micro level is the communal framework where human possibilities can be found as creative capacities of life and hope. It is in the communal values of solidarity and reciprocity of indigenous peoples that resistance can be sustained in adverse moments; it is in the sense of Us that the peoples can subvert the forms circumscribed by a world-system that oppresses and makes them invisible in times of pandemic.

References Bellinghausen, H. (2020a). Tres días de ataque a tzotziles Aldama. La Jornada, 18 de agosto de 2020. Accessed on 20th Sept 2020). Retrieved from https://www.jornada.com.mx/ultimas/ politica/2020/08/18/tres-­dias-­de-­ataques-­a-­tzotziles-­de-­aldama-­6295.html Bellinghausen, H. (2020b). Devastadora, la situación de pueblos en la región. La Jornada, 12 de mayo de 2020. Accessed on 15th May 2020. Retrieved from https://www.jornada.com. mx/2020/05/13/politica/008n2pol Ceriani, S. (2019). Accesibilidad, itinerarios y circuitos de salud en comunidades Qom de la Misión Laishí, Formosa. In K.  Herazo & B.  Moreno (Eds.), Investigación-Intervención en Psicología Social Comunitaria. Facultad de Psicología, UNAM. Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. (2013). México: Grupo Editorial RAF, S. A. de C.V. España, S. (2021). Mi madre estaba tapada por otro muerto de coronavirus y le habían cambiado el nombre. El País, 5 de abril de 2020. Accessed on 20th Apr 2020. García, J. (2020). Los indígenas de México se cierran para frenar al coronavirus. El País, 21 de abril de 2020. Accessed on 30th Apr 2020. Herazo, K. (2018). Crítica a la psicología social comunitaria. Reflexión epistémica con la inclusión de los pueblos originarios. Facultad de Psicología, UNAM. Herazo, K. y Moreno, B. (2019). Sentido del nosotros en Santa María Tepepan. In K.  Herazo, y B.  Moreno (Eds.), Investigación-Intervención en Psicología Social Comunitaria. México: Facultad de Psicología, Unam. Infobae. (2020), Así avanza el coronavirus en América Latina, país por país. https://www.infobae. com/america/america-latina/2020/05/12/asi-avanza-el-coronavirus-en-america-latina-pais-­ por-pais-hay-383670-casos-y-21528-muertos/. La Jornada, jueves 7 de enero de 2021, p. 11. Accessed on 20th Jan 2021. La Jornada, 13 de enero de 2021, p. 26. Accessed on 20th Jan 2021. Laurel, A. (2021). Conociendo al SARS-CoV-2. La Jornada, 13 de enero de 2021. Accessed on 20th Jan 2021. Molina, A.; Márquez L. y Pardo C. (eds.) (2013). El miedo a morir. Endemias, epidemias y pandemias en México: análisis de larga duración. México: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. Muñoz, A. (2012). La viruela y el sarampión fueron perfectos aliados en el éxito de conquista española de América. SINC. Accessed on 20th Apr 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.agenciasinc. es/Entrevistas/La-­viruela-­y-­el-­sarampion-­fueron-­perfectos-­aliados-­en-­el-­exito-­de-­conquista-­ espanola-­de-­America Muñoz, G. (2020). La violencia contra pueblos no está en cuarentena. La Jornada, 28 de marzo de 2020. Accessed on 20th Apr 2020.

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Murillo, E. (2021). Magistrado pide negar amparo a indígenas contra la Ley Minera. La Jornada, 11 de enero de 2021. Accessed on 20th Jan 2021. Organización Mundial de la Salud. (2010). ¿Qué es una Pandemia? Retrieved from: https://www. who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/frequently_asked_questions/pandemic/es/ Sánchez, A. (2021). Para frenar contagios, ninguna medida sobra: Científica de la unam. La Jornada, 13 de enero de 2021. Accessed on 20th Jan 2021. Santos, B.  S. (2020). La trágica transparencia del virus. Sul2, abril 11 de 2020. Accessed on 4th Apr 2020). Retrieved from https://www.sul21.com.br/ opiniaopublica/2020/04/a-­tragica-­transparencia-­do-­virus-­por-­boaventura-­de-­sousa-­santos/ Serna, J., & Bosque, T. (Eds.). (1993). Panorama de nuestra América. José Martí a cien años de nuestra América. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Tourliere, M. (2020). Contrasta informe de Conacyt sobre Tren Maya con discurso gubernamental. Proceso, 3 de marzo de 2020. Accessed on 20th Apr 2020. Wallace, A. (2020). Coronavirus en América Latina: los países donde más está creciendo el número de casos de covid-19. BBC NEWS, 14 de mayo de 2020. Accessed on 30th May 2020.

Chapter 10

Quilombola Communities in Brazil: Advances and Struggles in the Face of Setbacks Experienced in the Current Neoliberal Scenario Saulo Luders Fernandes and João Paulo Macedo

10.1  Introduction We intent, with this chapter, to locate and update the Brazilian and international scientific community and social movements, the issues relating to the quilombola struggles in Brazil, which has the maintenance of a perverse land ownership structure as a backdrop, which has dragged itself from the early colonial period with the hereditary captaincies until today in the land concentration in the hands of powerful landowners, connected to interests of national and foreign capital, focused in agribusiness, mining, large-scale logging, fossil fuel use, and other natural resources as well as real estate speculation. Such an economic project has received support from the Brazilian state, throughout the ages, and has advanced with brutal attacks against the rural population and traditional peoples, with the invasion and evictions from their land, violence, and other socio-environmental conflicts. The issue of land ownership is, therefore, a vital issue for the quilombola people in Brazil, once that there are in the country, currently, around 6000 quilombola communities in the whole national territory, with 3.200 being formally recognized but only 232 with documentation for land ownership (SEPPIR, 2014; INCRA, 2014; FCP, 2015). Furthermore, there are over 1.600 processes for land titles stalled in federal institutions which shows that the Federal Government has no intention of making their situation regular once indigenous people, quilombolas, and other traditional people are an obstacle to the greed of national and international capital for the country’s natural resources. Added to that there is a lack of willingness by the Brazilian state to take responsibility, which is based on structural, environmental, S. L. Fernandes (*) Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil J. P. Macedo Universidade Federal do Delta do Parnaíba, Parnaíba, Piauí, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_10

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and institutional racism in the face of a historical context of vulnerabilization that impacts these communities such as the lack of infrastructure needed to keep their lives going, meaning health, education, social care, housing, transportation, direct money transfers, and access to rural credit and technical assistance policies and programs. This social scenario is not free of rebellions, insurgencies, and resistance and re-­existence movements by part of the Black population, from the African diaspora, afro descendent, and socially excluded. The mark of these peoples’ struggles has been taking place since the colonial slavery period, where the first quilombos in Brazil were created, reaching the current times with the so-called contemporary quilombos. To treat such issues and the rise of the quilombola movement, we propose to trace the basis for quilombismo in Brazil, a concept named by Abdias do Nascimento1 as a wide set of struggles, revolts, insurgencies, and cultural Black resistances under their own ways of social organization, denouncing violences and proposing policies for Brazilian social reality in the face of the political destruction lived by the Black population in Brazil (Nascimento, 2016). Operationally, we will introduce the movements first of the early quilombos of Brazil, with the gathering and organization of struggle and resistance cores in the face of Black slavery, which begun with kidnappings in Africa and when faced with its unspeakable sacrifice and torture, and was fought in the colony with its slavery-­ based model. The better known quilombo was certainly Palmares, despite the existence of many others, which, in the words of Clóvis Moura,2 represented not just a space for struggle and social political organization, but an important and impotent force, called by the author “quilombolagem” which pushed forward a permanent and radical process of protest and denial of slavery and of the society at the time (Moura, 2001). Next, we understand from the thought of the same authors and under the light of the writings of Beatriz do Nascimento3 that the quilombos and quilombagem – as a force – certainly crosses historical times, getting new understanding as a concept of a movement through many struggles of the Black and quilombola movement against hegemonic forces in the country. Thus, the contemporary understanding of quilombola communities was reached from the legal landmark written on Article n.° 68 of the Constitutional Transitory Dispositions of the 1988 Brazilian Federative Constitution under the understanding of “communities descending from

1  Abdias do Nascimento (1914–2011) was an actor, poet, writer, playwright, plastic artist, university professor, politician, and activist for the civil and human rights of Black Brazilian populations. He founded pioneering entities such as the Teatro Experimental do Negro (TEN), the Museum of Black Art (MAN), and the Afro-Brazilian Research and Studies Institute (IPEAFRO). He was the creator of Zumbi Memorial and the Black Unified Movement (MNU) and worked in national and international movements such as the Brazilian Black Front, Negritude, and Pan-Africanism. 2  Clóvis S. de Assis Moura (1925–2003) was a Brazilian sociologist, journalist, historian, and writer, under the Marxist perspective, and developed the so-called sociology of Black praxis. 3  Maria Beatriz Nascimento (1942–1995), born in Sergipe, was a historian, teacher, screenwriter, poet, and human rights activist for Black Brazilians and women.

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quilombos” and in the creation of Decree n.° 4.887/2003, which recognized these populations’ right to its self-declaration as the only criteria to identify the quilombola communities, based on the Convention n.° 169 of the International Labour Organization (ILO), which recognizes the right self-declaratory right for traditional and first peoples. We know that the recognition of this right is not an effective insurance that the public policy relating to it will be put to practice for these people, neither in terms of access to land and the wider survival of their culture and ways of life. While recognition is a necessary step in this process, it is not its guarantee, especially because land registry and the public policy necessary to establish citizenship to the quilombola people are still neglected and denied. Before this, the fights and struggles in the face of the quilombola issue in Brazil have become more intense before the loss of rights in the current scenario after the coup against Brazilian democracy such as the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and the arrival of Jair Bolsonaro to power.

10.2  D  efinitions and Productions of the Quilombo Through Brazilian History The quilombo presented itself in a variety of social and political discourses, each said by different groups located in social time and locus which determines the interpretations and actions before the phenomena. To slavers,4 the quilombo was seen as a place for runaway Black slaves. For the Black slaves seeking freedom, it was a place of resistance and struggle, a collective territory that appropriated a land, implying the possibility of equality among their peers. For the contemporary Black movement, the quilombo might have meant the organization of Black communities that under specific traditions and histories resist in their territories and seek to ensure their rights, the secure access to land, owned by the Brazilian state. All of these discourses contributed to the creation of the quilombo in the Brazilian social imagination, discourses that acted not only as representations of what a quilombo would be, but as practices that invented and reinvented the quilombo in everyday life. Thus, the first impasse found by the quilombola population is the right to affirm their own identity in their ways of life and not someone else’s: the State, scientific knowledge or oligarchy, and colonial discourses. One can understand that the self-declared identity of quilombola people goes through both through a negotiation process and a dispute face these power sectors, at times seeking some allies, at times facing others to get the legitimacy of recognizing their identity and guaranteeing their rights and territories. The political struggle of the quilombolas communities presents itself, therefore, in ambiguity field between affirming their

4  Large sugar-producing property, with an agricultural function for the production of sugarcane by large areas of cane fields, and another for processing – the casa-do-engenho – for the manufacture of sugar, brandy, and molasses.

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identity, through legislation that ensures that right and, at the same time, guides their ways of life via the State. In this ambiguous field, the struggle and fight for the rights in the quilombola community is created. According to Munanga (1996), the word quilombo comes from the original Bantu language Kilombo, language spoken between the people located between Angola and Zaire, a region of intense slave trade in the colonial period. Originalmente referido como lugar destinado ao pouso de populações nômades e caravanas, também significava acampamento de guerreiros nômades. O autor afirma que em seu processo de amadurecimento, o quilombo africano transformou-se em uma forte instituição política e militar trans étnica, formada por homens guerreiros, de diferentes filiações e linhagens. The organized structure of the African quilombo counted with a central leader among warriors and a strong political, social, cultural, and religious cohesion from the integration of the initiated through rituals to give them training, codes of conduct, and skills as to become warriors and reproduce the quilombola sociability. For Munanga (1996), the quilombos in Brazil had their formation in the same historical period as the African quilombos, an organization probably brought to the colonial structures by Black men and women of these African regions, thus the close relations between one and the other. As a space for resistance against the slaver structure, the Brazilian quilombos gathered not only Black Africans kidnapped from their own original lands to use their forced labor, but other oppressed and ethnically excluded populations, including mixed race, indigenous people, and poor whites. Thus, they fled for regions of difficult access, among the woods and non-­ populated territories, and formed quilombo to reaffirm their culture, ways of life, and the construction of a social organization and politics instituted in opposition of those landowning slavers and the government of the time. Nascimento (2006) points to the same direction, saying that in the regions of Angola and the Republic of Congo, previously called the Kingdom of Congo, there was intense Black slavery traffic. The region was dominated, between 1560 and 1571, by the ethnicities of Imbangalas, Jagas, which expelled the King of Congo and the Portuguese from the capital i in the 1569. The Imbangalas were known for a warrior and nomad society, open to initiated foreigners that were willing to participate or ally themselves against other groups. Because of their nomadic life, they sought to adopt to their social structure youths of the groups they dominated or that joined them. The warrior characteristics and the cultural diversity present in the Imbangala social organization presented themselves similar African Kilombolas groups and also in the quilombolas created in Brazilian lands like Palmares. Thus, the quilombo acted as a place to organize, protect, and strengthen groups that find themselves at the margins of the others that wished to oppressed them. The struggle against domination demands of the quilombola organization a fusion of races and ethnicities. While in the African reality, they could divide and build barriers, in the Brazilian quilombo, it had to become a meeting and strengthening place among oppressed groups. The identity non-delimitation made possible for both the African and Brazilian quilombo to organize and grow as its frontiers and differences were seen as a meeting point and one of cross-cultural production.

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Based on these resistances and of ethnic-racial diversity characteristics, the quilombo is born. However, as Nascimento (2006) says, in the Americas the quilombo fights with another oppressor, the slaving colonial regime, seeking to organize land, in social and political unities of many Black ethnicities and other excluded in the fight against slavery, forced labor, and land ownership concentration. The first official definition of a quilombo is dated from 1740, in the writings of the Conselho Ultramarino (Colonial institution of the Royal Portuguese Crown), which according to Leite (2008), defines it as: “every housing of runaway Black slaves over five unities, which are in depopulated parts, with no ranches or mils to be found” (p.  970) (translated by the authors). The meaning attributed to the quilombo by the Conselho Ultramarino treated it pejoratively, to disqualify its place in colonial society and make political and social repercussions invisible in colonial life. Quilombo extrapolates the notion of runaway Black slaves. This conception was deeply seated in a white slaver-colonial tradition that saw it as a space for Black people who lived in hiding in the forest, surviving off what it offered. It was as though the quilombo did not have political and economic organization beyond that of the colonial order. More than a place for escaped Black slaves, the quilombo was, in its uprising against the Imperial state, as a political territory capable of facing the oppressive power and the exploitation logic and power that it represented. The quilombo, according to Arruti (1997), had a direct impact in the political and social relations of the colony. Impactavam diretamente as relações políticas e sociais da colônia. One can only look at the many Black revolt movements, both urban and rural, which exploded across the country, with the most famous being the Quilombo dos Palmares, considered a historical landmark in the Black struggle, for the political dimension it had in the creation of a Black nation in colonial Brazil. According to Lindoso (2011), Palmares, in its height, reached a population of about 30,000 people, in a region that expanded from the coastal forests and south hinterlands of Pernambuco to the north of Alagoas region, subdivided in nine quilombola hideouts. The quilombos of the region resisted in their royal surroundings (defense structures and fortifications against attacks of the colonial enterprise) for around hundred years, from 1595 to 1695, daving 27 wars. Even after the destruction of Palmares, this quilombola way to organize itself has not disappeared, but spread itself out through the countryside, forests, and hinterlands of this region, in creation of many mocambos, which are now called the quilombola communities or surviving quilombolas, as we will see later. Besides the Palmares quilombo, the Quilombo Grande and the Tijuco one, located in Minas Gerais, in the border of the Rio das Mortes, can also be brought up in their struggle against the colonial regime. The creation of these quilombos, as Nascimento (2006) says, follows the economic cycles and the exploitation of Brazilian history: “Before, the Pernambuco sugar, now the gold of Minas Gerais” (p. 121) (translated by the authors). The war against these large quilombos (e.g., Palmares, Grande, and Tijuco) produces, one can say, for the first time, the centralization movement of the Brazilian state, in the struggle against Black insurrections in the countryside. However, we cannot forget that the Brazilian territory was filled

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of quilombos with similar characteristics, many times marked by struggles and uprisings against colonial power and, later, against the Brazilian Empire, reclaiming from their community ways of living and their economy, another model for labor and societal relations imposed by the slavery-based society (Moura, 2001). As Nascimento (2006) says, the definition of the Conselho Ultramarino, about what a quilombo would be, happened decades after the Quilombo dos Palmares was defeated, as a way to reaffirm the victory of the colonial state over attempts to resist it by the Black population. In a misleading manner, the Empire tried to point out that even if other quilombos existed, those were nothing but a simple grouping of escaped Black fugitives, which did not impact the local reality and the civilization project imposed by colonization. On the opposite, the quilombos established direct relations with area commerce, selling arsenal to make it stronger, as well as its production surplus such as tobacco, corn, and yams, among others. The quilombos, in the ways they organized their social lives, questioned the colonial logic, as the land did not present itself as an individual properties, but a common use territories; instead of the instrumental logic of slavery, labor was free and done for the common good; the beliefs and values were not based in those of the Christian ones of European society, but in African and indigenous matrixes; due to those beliefs, and because of a social and political need, the family unity did not follow the western pattern with reports of polyandry in which one woman had several men and ordered over them the social and work life in quilombos and mocambos (Leite, 2008; Lindoso, 2011). As a continuity of this way of life, the quilombos, even after attacks and attempts to destroy it, resisted and formed, with their specific historical and social characteristics, Black rural territories distributed across the country. Territories that now perpetuate, like their antecessors, the struggle against many forms of domination, now structured by the capitalist order and expansion strategies. Such values and traditions run across generations reaching the current quilombos, keeping relations with territories not as a proprietary but as a life relation. As Santos (2005) says, the territory as a pure concept is an abstract inheritance of modern geography, permeated by colonialism. In the indigenous, quilombola, and other cases, the relationship with the territory is a part of life, being distinctive of that established of those who sought to appropriate, dominate, and exploit economically and financially nature and land. The indigenous, quilombolas, and other traditional peoples keep a reciprocal relationship with the territory, of respect, and a full embrace of life. Thus, the quilombola territory is constituted as a space of desire and affection, which cannot be replaced by other patches of land, since it is over them that their traditions, rites, cycles of labor, and every day knowledge are built. The three centuries of struggle for freedom around the Black condition of Brazil, as Nascimento (2006) says, produced at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, a certain mystique around the concept of quilombo that goes beyond its early conception. The conception of quilombo is increased and begins to gain more meanings as a political category that will substantiate the Black movement toward the utopia of freedom and racial democracy yet to be achieved in Brazil. The concept of quilombagem is updated therefore, presented by Clovis

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Moura (2001). The quilombo starts to operate as a political category that goes both ways, which both nurtures Black social movements in the struggle for rights, the principles of liberty and democracy, and allows the rise of a political identity to the quilombola communities, in the struggle for the right to land and the guarantee of their fundamental rights. The quilombo gains new meanings, not only as runaway Black slaves, as characterized by the Conselho Ultramarino, and not only in the colonial quilombos of the past, such as Palmares. It extents its meaning to the struggle and political resistance of black communities that share oppressions, which through many tactics remained alive in its territories. In the understanding to point at quilombos as a moving concept, Nascimento (2006) made studies in many quilombola communities in the country, pointing to the diversity of social systems created by them when faced with the different social and political contexts. Thus, it was said that the quilombola way of organizing oneself, which also characterizes ancient social movements against slavery, keeps going in urban Black territories, such as favelas, and in rural areas in poverty situation. Nascimento chooses to research in studies to research the existing social, historical, and spatial link among these territories and the perpetuation and attraction they offer for the Black Brazilian population of the twentieth century. Because of this perspective, it could be said that the bigger or smaller success of the permanence and organization of quilombola territories is due to the strengthening or otherwise of the dominant system of the regions in which the quilombos are located and in which relations they keep with these dominant institutions (Ratts, 2006). Thus, Beatriz Nascimento sought to demystify the quilombo as a reference of large colonial organizations such as Palmares and Tijuco, previously cited. For the author, the defeat of these great organizations of resistance in the colonial period did not make impossible for smaller aquilombamentos to rise up, which spread their many social organizational and reproduction ways through many of parts of the country. The widening concept of quilombo is a reference to the studies of Beatriz Nascimento, which allowed the Black movement and communities to find more banners in the struggle for territory and freedom (Ratts, 2006). The transformation of the conception of the quilombo beyond the model used in Palmares was possible from Black social movements. The Black Brazilian Front (Frente Negra Brasileira), which begun acting in the 1930, an organization that would even become a political party, and the Black Experimental Theatre (Teatro Experimental do Negro) which was created in the 1940s were emblematic in the fight against racism and the exclusion of Black people from the project of the country (Leite, 2008). It was however from the 1970s that the struggle gains a new breath along with other popular movements in the context of harder Brazilian political situation because of the military dictatorship alongside a much harder life condition in the cities and rural environments. In 1971, the group Palmares of the state of Rio Grande do Sul acts to create the “November 20th” celebration, the date of the murder of Zumbi dos Palmares, as a “Black Awareness Day,” a counterpoint to the Abolition of Slavery, which is celebrated on 13 of May as a false liberation of the Black people.

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In this history of the widening of the concept of quilombo as a badge of the struggle for freedom, Abdias Nascimento appropriates this conception to start the movement that would be called quilombismo. A political project which emerged in Brazil during the 1970s from the confluence of the struggles to decolonize African countries and the fight for civil rights of the African Americans. The quilombismo had as a flag the ideal of pan-Africanism, the creation of a Black nation that was present across the world as a product of the African diaspora. Such a statement made integration and solidarity between Black struggles across the world possible (Guimarães, 2012). Quilombismo, according to Guimarães (2012), helped characterize the demands of the Brazilian Black Movement as a movement that was (1) anticapitalist, since the Black people has a collective project of equality and social justice, to consolidate a full democracy to the oppressed; (2) in the fight against the dual racialism in Brazilian society that seeks to divide the Black people into black and brown, in a precarious assimilation of the Black people to white society; (3) in the struggle against the segregation and marginalization processes of Black men and women that take place in everyday life, humiliation narratives recurrent since the colonial process; (4) in the fight for the fundamental rights that were still denied to the Black population; and (5) a part of the anti-imperialist movement that seeks to share the struggles of the Black people across the world, as children of the diaspora and the domination relationships that come from it. It is in this conjucture of the political strengthening of the Black movement that, during 1978, in protests of several Black groups around the death under torture of the worker Robson Silveira, the Single Black Movement (Movimento Negro Unificado, MNU) is created, with a national character, gathering different urban Black movements (Souza, 2008). MNU assumes radical racialism as a possible category for analysis, intervention, and strengthening of Black men and women. Influenced by the criticisms made by the Brazilian sociologist Florestan Fernandes (1920–1995), it sought to fight against the repercussions of the slave-based racial order that is still present, which unfolds around modern Brazil around the lying discourse of racial democracy. In this place, both urban Black movements and campesino ones strengthened the quilombola mobilization and the struggle for their rights. The most emblematic cases happened in Maranhão and Pará, due to conflicts and assassinations. Around the 1980s, the local entities of the two Brazilian states, supported by the Pastoral Land Commission (Comissão Pastoral da Terra, CPT), started to mobilize an identification process and organization of the Black communities in the rural zone. In Pará, the first encounter in these communities happened in 1985 in the Black Roots Encounter. In Maranhão, it takes place the 1986 the I Rural Black Communities, articulated by activists of the Center of Black Culture, which culminated in 1987, in the Project “Black Life.” This project had, as an aim to map and identify ways to use and occupy the land, the cultural manifestations and ways of life of rural Black communities of the region (Arruti, 2006). Such mobilizations put the Black social movements of urban centers and major capitals of the country to capitals in the periphery and the countryside, in the

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organization of Black rural populations in other territories. The right to land aims at new discourses to this communities which are not defined only by culturalist understandings based on their traditions but also as ethnic and racial group which, post the abolition of slavery and post-plantation, make use of the land as a way to occupy their territories and organize their lives and every day routines (Ratts, 2006). The MNU in their fight against the lie of racial democracy in the country, in set of its social struggles for the return of democracy to the country, seeking legal and political recognition to the quilombola communities in the 1980s. In this period, many attempts of the movement are made to give the quilombo other meanings within ethnic and racial land conflicts, not making its content so narrow as to only mean the Black resistance of a remote colonial past, but as a bond that continues to link them to that past, as Black resistance territories, even with many attempts to hide its path in the history of Brazil, presenting itself as living histories of the present (Nascimento, 2006). To give new meanings, therefore, to the quilombo is to restructure the historical reads of the past making them converge to the creation of a dignified present that is fair for the communities which resisted to many regimes of oppression. As Benjamin (1940/1994) says, “to historically articulate the past means not to know it ‘as it in fact was’ it.’ It is too appropriate of its memory, as it strikes lightning into moments of danger” (p. 224). Danger, in the case of the quilombola communities, comes in form of rights violations that are still present, which must be faced, not via knowledge of the official history, as it reaffirms dominant power, but through its memory, narratives, and documents of their belonging, “lightning” that reinvents history. Thus, Black communities, through the quilombo as an instrument of the value of liberty, seek through the Black movement to pressure the State in ensuring their fundamental rights. Struggles that lead to the passing of Art. n.° 68 of the Federal Constitution of 1988, as part of the Act of the Transitory Constitutional Dispositions (Atos das Disposições Constitucionais Transitórias, ADCT), which legally back them as quilombola communities in the right of land and conservation of its cultural patrimony. Art. n.° 68 of ADCT refers as this: “To the remaining members of the quilombo communities that are occupying their land it is granted the right of definitive property, with the State issuing them the respective titles” (translated by the authors). Besides the Federal Constitution, the State Constitutions in some federation unities also brought articles about the quilombola territorial rights, such as Maranhão (Art. n.° 229), Bahia (Art. n.° 51 ADCT), Goiás (Art. n.° 33 ADCT), Pará (Art. n.° 322), and Mato Grosso (Art. n.° 16 ADCT), beyond specific land legislation of the quilombola territories in the states of Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, and São Paulo (Souza, 2008). This is the second time, as Valentim and Trindade (2011) say, that the term quilombo is mentioned in the official writing of the Brazilian State, though differently of what was presented by the Conselho Ultramarino of 1740, the concept of quilombo is taken up again as a guarantee of rights. Art. n.° 68 of ADCT of the Federal Constitution of 1988 places new political subjects at play, made different ethnically and racially as the category of remaining quilombos. This difference allows the creation of a policy of differences, which ensures specific treatments to rural Black communities.

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Beyond a legal proposition, Art. n.° 68 of the Federal Constitution of 1988 and the state legislations that support it create alongside themselves a social and political category with the title of “quilombola communities.” As Arruti (2006, p.  66) says: “Despite being, in its literal sense, a legal recognition, the ‘article 68’ is, both and primarily, a social creation act” (translated by the authors). The present recognition in this landmark regulation starts the chain of processes that will recreate the rural Black territories that are already exist, now cut across by the category of remaining quilombos, which changes their ways of thinking about their own existence and relations. This legal appropriation starts the necessary debates in their own communities about strategies and their forms of identity as quilombola, as well as making disputes with subjects and external organs sharper, such as farmers, public works, and multinationals interested in the territories of these communities. Before the creation of the quilombola communities in Brazil, what would the definition of a quilombo linked to their remaining terms? Maybe it was an attempt to install, through the legal and political field, the creation of quilombola communities through a single way of the colonial quilombo imaginary. When affirming another interpretation of the term remaining, it is not intended to deny African ancestrality and its historical roots in which Black communities established themselves, but to seek to present the particular characteristics of how such elements express themselves in every location and community. It is worth questioning the origin of a history that goes through and does not reduce the identity to an original common point, but instead focusing on heterogeneous plans that affirm the political, social, and economic specificities of every quilombola community. For Arruti (2006), the approval of Art. n.° 68 of ADCT was done in a careful analysis of the government, without estimations of how many quilombola communities existed in the country and without understanding what would be the effective way to approve this law. It was approved in a conjecture that favored the Black movement, in a year that marked 100 years of the end of slavery and rise of the democracy in the country. The importance of the approval is unquestionable, as it is from it that the communities began to organize their own recognition. The issue is in the destructuring and the lack of interest of the Brazilian state to put such legislation into practice, especially in what concerns land registry. This is confirmed in the words of Leite (2000): “After twelve years, the processes concluded by based on article 68 can be counted on both hands” (p. 350) (translated by the authors), referencing the bureaucracy and the slowness for the recognition, the regulation, and registration processes concerning the land, keeping the quilombola communities in a transitory situation. Thus, the lack of legitimacy of self-declaration of their identities in the eyes of the communities present in Art. n.° 68 by ADCT presents itself as a central problem in the processes of recognition. It acts as State violence, which does not allow the naming and self-identification of these communities, which submits them, through bureaucratic instruments, the institutions, which authorize or not the identity attributed to a way of life that must be affirmed by those living it. Furthermore, the political practice that appropriates of the rising demands of rural Black populations and frames it in a rigid concept of quilombo, with repercussions to the universalist and

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general conception of the law, which because of lack of knowledge of the historical relations of appropriation and expropriation of specific quilombola territories demands a objectivity of the anthropological reports that stop advances in guarantee of ownership of land to these communities (Arruti, 2009). These are the struggles that find themselves structured over the social and political category of quilombola. Such a category has changed its historical route, with new meanings that can reach many other places, but it has not ended as a political and historical process, as there are still struggles to fight in the attempt to make these still in progress identities real. As Leite (2000) says, about the power over the quilombola identities, in which its creation is criminalized, not followed through or stopped from being fully expressed. Furthermore, it is important to understand that in the quilombola communities, there is not only a still in progress territory, but many territories that overlap and fight for space, a multi-territorial condition, as Haesbaert (2004) would define, that finds itself in the middle of a process. In one the same territory, one can fit many hierarchies and power relations that define these places. In the case of the quilombola communities, these are the agribusiness territories that take for themselves the space of the communities for profit; territories produced by the state with their own public works or conservation policies, which marginalize communities; and the very quilombola identity which, through a legal and political disposition, alters the way that Black rural communities conceive their own territory. These many synergies and territorialities are conflicted, intensified with the passing of Art. n.° 68 of ADCT, which lead Black rural communities, now understood as quilombolas, to a process of deterritorialization over their own land, which in other words, as Haesbaert (2004) says, reterritorialization processes. Haesbaert (2004) proposes the deconstruction of the concept of deterritorialization, as a myth that only serves to legitimize the global world without border, fluid according to the fluidity of financial capital. Beyond deterritorialization, which characterizes territories, reterritorialization is a second appropriation of the setting, both symbolically and materially, by subjects, groups, and collectives that, after they were taken from their land, now produce in the place where they are or will be, with new symbolical, subjective, and material ordering. To ensure the right to land, legislated by Art. n.° 68 of the ADCT, rural Black communities needed to do a process of reterritorialization over their lands. For the permanence of their way of life, they needed to create and relive this place under a new territorial order, which seeks to rewrite their history and appropriate again of their land through their memories, cultural narratives, and work activities, in negotiations with State politics. Amidst such conceptions and struggles, the 1990s are marked by new attempts by the Black social movements to reach social equality and access to policies for their rights, as well as questioning the excluding and racist order of the Brazilian state and society, in struggles that include quilombola organizations and the Black urban movement, looking out for international conventions and treaties, helped by the wider country’s attempt to take on commitments in its political agenda. In the states of Maranhão, Pará, and Bahia, which had historical struggles from quilombola communities organized because of the many conflicts that they still face today,

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there were attempts to integrate new levels of mobilization across locations in the country that could go beyond just regional politics. This movement culminated in 1995, as an integral part of the effort of the Zumbi March, in making the 1st National Encounter of Black Rural Quilombola Communities, made in Brasilia, where the National Provisional Black Quilombola Rural Communities Commission is created. It was in 1996, during the evaluation encounter of the first national encounter, which took place in Bom Jesus da Lapa in Bahia, that the provisional commission was replaced by the National Coordination of Black Rural Quilombola Communities Articulation (Coordenação Nacional de Articulação das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas, CONAQ), as a quilombola social movement, in the struggle for rights and recognition before the Brazilian state, putting the quilombola issues in the national agenda. With the advances of the quilombola movement, from national meetings, broadening their networks, actions, and strategies, whether that meant seeking dialogue with governmental stances or denouncing to international organs conflicts, violences, and right violations suffered by them because of landowners and land grabbers, as well as the carelessness and slowness of the very Brazilian state to regulate and register quilombola lands and their access to public policy. Faced with scenario, in 2002, Congress passed “Convention n.° 169” of the International Labor Organization (ILO), which entered into force in the country on July 25, 2003. Convention n.° 169 of the ILO is from 1989 and was built as a review of Convention n.° 107, dated from 1957, which is the first international document to rule over the rights of indigenous and traditional peoples. The document demands that countries which share it must give guarantees to land rights and promote public policies, social participation, and control of the actions that take place in their traditional territories, in the order to mitigate inequalities and to respect the cultural and ethnic differences of these peoples (Fernandes et al., 2015). The traditional groups are defined by Convention n.° 169, by their different forms of social and political organization in relation to the land and nature and its ways of life, with a history of resistance that differentiate them from the rest of society. Quilombola communities are included in this definition of the Convention as an ethnic and racial group that, because of their history fighting against oppression, with specific social and political organizations and cultural expressions, and for finding in the land a way to perpetuate and build their lives (Fernandes et al., 2015). One of the advances promoted by the Convention n.° 169 of the ILO is the guarantee of recognition of traditional peoples through their self-identification, not handing the role over to the State or other organs, such as research centers, the criteria for their definitions. This advancement is important for quilombola communities because they demand a political position of belonging among their pairs that identifies as equals. The self-identifying criteria create tensions in the power relations between the State and the communities, making them protagonists of the embodiment of their racial and ethnic identity. With the election of Luís Inácio Lula da Silva as President, Brazil starts a new period, in which the hope for a progressive political project is regained, as well as

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for more a more democratic country, with more social rights and political participation, with the implementation of reforms dedicated to social minorities and to the economically excluded. However, it is important to keep in mind that Lula da Silva’s project was kept afloat by a neo dirigisme program and pact between business elites, state bureaucracy, unions, and certain civil society sectors that according to de Paiva and Hillesheim (2016) was still aligned with the boundaries set by capitalism and its neoliberal project, seeing the State as complementary to the market, and establishing policies and actions that focused on social issues, like poverty reduction measures, which did not effectively harm capitalist concentration and accumulation. By repeating the macroeconomic policy of the Fernando Henrique Cardoso government, but with the State as a growth engine by putting public funds at the market’s disposal, quick changes were made, followed by considerable social gains through programs of income redistribution, improvement to the minimum wage, and the important measures in the areas of housing, health, social welfare, and life in the rural environment, which changed significantly the immediate reality of the great swathes of the Brazilian population. In this sense, some actions can be highlighted: Family Allowance Program (Programa Bolsa Família, PBF); National Family Agriculture Program (Programa Nacional de Agricultura Familiar, PRONAF), focused on fighting rural poverty; Lettered Brazil Program (Programa Brasil Alfabetizado, PBA); and Local Development and Solidarity Economy Project Promotion (Projeto de Promoção do Desenvolvimento Local e Economia Solidária, PPDLES), beyond the intersectional articulation between social policy, which resulted into a significant decrease in poverty, child mortality, and formal employment, among other social indexes. However, it all took place within the bounds of what was allowed by capital to make sectors of the economy more dynamic (Wanderley, 2010). From the point of view of the quilombola question, in the early first year of the President Lula da Silva, amidst internal pressures from Black social movements, including the quilombola movement, of progressive sectors of Brazilian society and by international organism, the National Congress ratifies the Convention that will have positive repercussion for the victories of the quilombola communities, especially when Decree n.° 4.4887/2003 is passed, which makes formal the guarantee to the right of land and recognition of the quilombola community via self-declaration, increasing the recognition of the quilombola communities across the country. The importance of Decree n.° 4.4887/2003, despite using the term “remaining” to characterize the quilombola communities, was to seek to define quilombola communities through other principles, not only ancestrality to a past quilombo. Its first advance is to define quilombolas as ethnic and racial groups; this category was not present in Art. n.° 68, and its explicit display shows the importance of concept of race and ethnicity to define and understand quilombola territories. Being quilombola requires a positioning and an ethnic and racial belonging. Beyond that, it establishes that this identity belonging is given through the principle of self-declaration. This principle moves the power to affirm a quilombola identity from the apparatus of the State, with its reports and experts, to the community and its members. To appropriate of their historical practices, self-identifying, in their group and

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members, it is to locate one’s community in the power relations present in their territory and the national scenario. This makes it possible to understand forms of oppression that have repercussion of their daily lives, in the neglect to rights, in the lack of access to public policies and the lack of registration of their lands. Selfdeclaration allows, therefore, that the quilombola understand themselves as an oppressed group, as those that need to claim an identity for themselves because they do not have sociopolitical recognition of their ways of life. Beyond Decree n.° 4.887/2003, which regulates the procedure to identify, recognize, limit, and register the lands occupied by remaining quilombola communities, other important equality policies were implemented in the country, still under the government of the Workers Party, such as the creation of Law n.° 10.639/2003, which implements the mandatory learning of Afro-Brazilian History and Culture at a Basic and High School levels of Brazilian Education; of the National Development Policy for Traditional Peoples and Communities (Decree n.° 6.040/2007); of the National Integrated Health of Black Populations Policy (Ordinance n.° 992/2009); and of the National Integral Health Policy for Field, Forest, River and Sea Populations (Ordinance n.° 2.886/2011), this last one already in the Government of Dilma Rousseff, in the perspective to try to broaden access of Black populations to public policy in the country. With Decree n.° 4.4887/2003, there was an intensification of the recognition processes of the quilombola communities across the whole country, as Fig. 10.1 shows. The date present the advances produced by passing the Decree n.° 4.887/2003, backed by the Convention n.° 169 of the ILO, which shows a rise in recognition in the years that followed since, reaching its peak in 2006 and later fell during the years 2007, 2008, and 2009. Such decrease is due to disputes around the current legislation before the reaction of the agribusiness caucus, with congressmen and

Fig. 10.1  Historical recognition line of quilombola communities between the years of 2004 and 2020. (Made by the authors/Source: Fundação Cultural Palmares, 2015)

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senators connected to their practices and to large concentration of land that saw in the increase of rights to the rural Black campesinos a threat to their political and territorial hegemony (Chasin & Perutti, 2009). An “anti-quilombola” campaign starts to get the attention of the Brazilian media, arguing that the regularization of “quilombo lands” would create a type of field apartheid (Peres, 2008). This campaign was empowered within Congress, through two acts against the Decree n.° 4.887/2003: the first one, proposed in 2004, by the previous Liberal Front Party (Partido da Frente Liberal), currently the Democrat Party (Partido Democratas, DEM), at the Supreme Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal, STF), the Unconstitutionality Direct Action (Ação Direta de Inconstitucionalidade, ADIN) n.° 3.239 of the Decree n.° 4.887/2003, the second one, proposed in 2007, presented in Congress by PMDB representatives with the project of the Decree n.° 44/2007 which aimed to stop the Decree n.° 4.887/2003 (Peres, 2008) from being applied. The idea was to build strategies that made recognition, land demarcation, and, then, the acquired rights by the communities, harder to access, by questioning the self-identification process by quilombola communities from vague and inexact criteria, which could lead, according to the agribusiness caucus, to social groups which were not quilombola, to claim the access the rights ensured to this population (Chasin & Perutti, 2009). In October 2008, the strategies to stop make the Decree n.° 4.4887/2003 effective to strengthen and express in the Normative Instruction IN n.° 49/2008 of the National Institute of Colonization and Land Reform (Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária, INCRA), which establishes specific criteria the process to recognize the quilombola communities. Despite presenting itself as a way to operationalize the recognition processes to help the Decree n.° 4.4887/2003, the normative, despite the quilombola movement’s protests, came to control, as strategies to make it harder, stall, and even stop communities from getting the recognition ensured by Decree n.° 4.4887/2003 (Fernandes & Munhoz, 2013). After intense clashes, the normative was struck down by the IN n.° 57/2009, still operational, which keeps the strategy of care by the State in the definition and attributions of recognition of the quilombola communities; and it also makes recognition of the community self-identifying criteria linked to registry in the Cultural Foundation Palmares (Fundação Cultural Palmares), which already took place, but was done only to follow up with the communities that were already recognized. With the present Normative Instruction, what previously operated as a follow-up of the process now becomes a mandatory document for self-identifying recognition, which, in a dissimulated manner, offers the State the control and power that was previously given to the communities, making it difficult to use the right to self-­ identification previously granted by the Decree and the Convention n.° 169 of the ILO (Fernandes & Munhoz, 2013). These obstacles to the recognition of quilombola communities end up having repercussions in land registration processes because the lack of registration perpetuates the vulnerability situations of quilombola territories, as they don’t ensure the fundamental right to reproduce, care, and perpetuate their ways of life (SEPPIR,

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2014; INCRA, 2014). This context makes the permanent risk to Brazilian democracy worse, following the Dilma Rousseff impeachment in 2016.

10.3  F  rom the Legal, Media, Parliamentary Coup to the Risk to Democratic Stances and Neoliberal Entrenchment: The Quilombola Communities Are Under a Relentless Attack in the Country! As party pacts broke down and conservative opposition forces became stronger, the Dilma Rousseff government, still damaged by the effects of the economic crisis in the everyday life of most of the population, following the selective role of large parts of the mainstream media before corruption charges that involved several countries, but with larger emphasis given to those of Workers Party, and corroborated by the interests of political and economic dominant groups. The President’s impeachment was consummated in August 2016 by Congress, with Judiciary permission, allowing Rousseff’s Vice President, Michel Temer (MDB) to take over. The political platform of the new government focused on strengthening economic elites and the absolute selective focus of social programs and policies, including those pointing to dismantling universal policies through a budget freeze, and an attack on social minorities. In this situation are included labor and pension reforms, which expose the working class to exploitation, lack of protection and impoverishment of the population; followed by loss of acquisition power and loss of professional memory of social policy; the destruction and setbacks imposed by structuring policies in regard to health, like the change in National Basic Care policy and the setbacks announced by the Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs National Policy in the Equality in Health Policies, among others; in the offensives against the human right and equality policies in destructuring of their secretaries in the government; with the demarcation and closing of the rights council advice activities; followed by the increase of indexes that track mysogynistic murders, violence against women, and LGBTphobic crimes; and the insecurity of the indigenous and traditional peoples with the advances of land and socioenvironmental conflicts, invasions, and land expulsions, and the murders of indigenous, quilombolas, and rural leadership because of land grabbers and the uncontrolled expansion of agribusiness, mining, and infrastructure projects (roads, hydroelectrics, dams). In the case of the quilombola populations, President Michel Temer sent the quilombola issue to the Ministry of Education and Culture, transferring the incumbency to a ministerial brief which originally was not created to handle the land issue and has no technical team that can competently do such a task. This decision had such a negative impact nationally and internationally that the Presidency revoked the act and the provisional measure on May 20, 2016, returning the task to INCRA, which, in turn, was linked to the new Ministry of Social and Agrarian Development.

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Then, on May 27, 2016, through Decree 8.780, Michel Temer transferred INCRA to the tutelage of the Civil House, demonstrating that the land issues of Black communities moved from the field of law/land to the field of policies/intentions of government. According to Alexandre Conceição, activist of the cause, “transferring INCRA to the Civil House is like putting a fox to take care of the chicken coop” (translated by the authors). According to Conceição, the head of the Civil House in the Temer Government, Eliseu Padilha “was linked to the agribusiness” (translated by the authors). To allow the issues relating to rural policy and Land Reform to be under his administration “is to make any progress impossible” (translated by the authors).5 In addition, in November 2015, congresspeople from the agribusiness caucus of Congress managed to create and control a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) of the National Indian Foundation (Fundação Nacional do Índio, FUNAI), in order to also investigate the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária, INCRA). The mandate summit of the said Commission supported the Proposed Amendment to Constitution No. 215 (PEC 215), which includes Congress in the limiting of indigenous and quilombola lands. “Together, these congresspeople received more than R$ 9 million from companies and entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector in the 2014 elections” (translated by the authors).6 As a consequence, the aforementioned CPI was nothing more than an instrument for empowering elites against quilombola and indigenous social movements. The irregularities found became a reason for disqualifying these population segments and reasons for publicly attacking them. In Brazil, large landowners and large business owners do not find it difficult to regularize land, often obtained illegally. Furthermore, taking advantage of the Direct Unconstitutionality Action n.° 3.239/2003, which was being judged by the Supreme Court (STF), the Federal Government declared that no community would be registered before the end of the judgment. Thus, the processes were suspended indefinitely at the time. The voting took place in 2012, with the vote from Supreme Court Judge, Cézar Peluso, which admitted the unconstitutional character of Decree n.° 4.887/2003. In 2015, the Supreme Court Justice, Rosa Weber, voted in favor of the quilombolas. There were still nine ministers to vote. In February 8, 2018, by a majority, the Supreme Court declared the Decree n.° 4.887/2003 as valid, ensuring then that lands occupied by quilombola communities are registered. With one decision, Michel Temer made every single state action over the communities descending from quilombos invalid, and with the approval of the Constitutional Amendment n.° 95, about the imposition of a spending ceiling during a period of 20 years, hitting several social policies, it also impacted with the reduction of INCRA’s budget.7 5  See  https://cpisp.org.br/mais-uma-mudanca-titulacao-de-terras-quilombolas-vai-para-a-casacivil/. 6  See  https://jus.com.br/artigos/56344/poder-de-policia-da-funai-impasses-na-prestacao-doservico-publico. 7  See  https://www.conjur.com.br/2021-fev-24/stf-suspende-processos-quilombolas-duranteepidemia.

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Still in 2017, there was the return of the debate of the time lapse mark over indigenous and quilombola lands, which with the decision GM-05, by the Federal Attorney General (AGU), restricted the constitutional right to land demarcation in case they did not prove their occupation of the land under dispute before the promulgation of 1988 Constitution. The theme is being debated in the Supreme Court for definition and orientation of future cases. Another attack came from the approval of the fraught Decree n.° 9.142/2017 which opened the National Copper Reserve (Reserva Nacional do Cobre, Renca), in the Amazon Forest, for mining exploitation, but was revoked later by the Federal Government due to the international repercussions and environmental mobilization. And alongside with the dismantling of INCRA, the National Indian Foundation was torn down via the Decree n.° 9.010/2017, which resulted in the closing of unities of Local Technical Coordination in many unities across the country. The attacks did not cease. Once made President, Jair Bolsonaro turned the rhetoric and action up a notch, making them unstoppable as American Senator Bernie Sanders said. From the beginning, the Bolsonaro government edited the Provisory Measure n.° 870, handing identification, recognition, land demarcation, and registry of the territories occupied by remaining quilombos to the Ministry of Agriculture, Pecuary and Supply, headed by large landowners and agribusiness representatives. In the first 100 days of his government, no quilombola community was registered. After pressures from civil society, started by the indigenous and quilombola movement, to reverse the measure, the Federal Government re-edited the subject with a second Provisory Measure, n.° 886/2019. However, this was made null by the Supreme Court (STF) in keeping the reversal, as it understood that the measure harms the rights of the indigenous and quilombola people ensured in the Federal Constitution of 1988. Hate speech against Black, quilombola, and indigenous and LGBT populations, said by public authorities in Brazil, with a special attention to the President’s discourses as well as ministers, government secretaries, municipal networks, congresspeople, and even members of the Brazilian judiciary, whether through promoting sexist, racist, and homophobic stereotypes with the incitation to restrict their rights, promoting white supremacy, denying racism, and justifying or denying slavery and the genocide of the indigenous and Black population in the country.8 According to the mapping done by CONAQ and the NGO Terra de Direitos (Land of Rights), between 2019 and 2020, 49 racist statements were said by public authorities, with a quarter being said by Jair Bolsonaro, as President of Brazil. In 2017, during the presidential race, during a Jewish Association (Hebraica) in the city of Rio de Janeiro, he said: Quilombolas are another joke. I went to a q­ uilombola [sic] in Eldorado Paulista. Look, the skinniest Afro-Brazilian there weighted seven arrobas.

 To see more: https://quilombolascontraracistas.org.br/.

8

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They don’t do anything. I don’t think they are even good enough to breed (translated by the authors). Within this belief, the political and institutional violence perpetrated by the Brazilian State in favor of the interests of ruralists, miners, and loggers, who in turn favor the accumulation of capital and the expansion of agribusiness, lead to attacks on quilombola and indigenous peoples and their territories, and the omission in the face of such violence directed at these peoples shows that racism and violence go together. In the report “Racism and quilombola violence,” a survey of murders against residents of quilombola communities in Brazil, between 2008 and 2017, indicated a growth of around 350%, that is, from 4 to 18 cases, between 2016 and 2017. Of the 38 murders over the period, there were 2 murders in the South (5.3%), 2  in the Southeast (5.3%), 29  in the Northeast (76.3%), 0  in the Midwest, and 5 in the North (13.1%) in Brazil, the majority being carried out by firearms. In addition to that, there are numerous records of violations of rights such as threats, harassment, and/or intimidation; contamination by pesticides and/ or water pollution and deprivation of the use of other natural resources; restricting freedom with cases involving the arrest, arbitrary, or precautionary detention, of members of the community; and criminalization for civil, criminal, or administrative proceedings, for example, environmental fines and punishment for alleged environmental crimes; and the destruction of houses and plantations by means of arson (CONAQ, 2018). The most recent offensives of the Brazilian state against the quilombola people indicate that the attack saga will not end. Among them is the measure of the Jair Bolsonaro government to remove 800 families from 30 quilombolas communities in the island of Alcântara in Maranhão, descending from those that inhabit the region since the seventeenth century and fought against slavery. The Air Force Command was authorized to carry out the withdrawal of quilombola families to comply with the new agreement between Brazil and the United States for the use of the area as a military air base for launching rockets and satellites, through Resolution No. 11, of March 26, 2020, of the Brazilian Special Development Program, even in the pandemic. The very actions of the Federal Government before the COVID-19 pandemic, as one of the countries in the epicenter of the sanitary crisis in the world, show its genocidal push toward the traditional peoples of Brazil, as it registered, as of 04/30/2020, around 1.059 deaths among indigenous people of different ethnicities according to the Indigenous People Articulation of Brazil (Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil, Apib) and 168 deaths in quilombo communities according to data from CONAQ. Beyond that, there are 16 presidential vetoes in relation to Law Project n.° 1.142, approved in the Brazilian Congress, that proposed a series of emergencial measures to care for indigenous people and quilombola communities in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The vetoed articles were dedicated and the distribution of meals, seeds, and agricultural destined directly to quilombola families, beyond determining the creation of a specific program for credit lines to quilombola families within the Safra Plan

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2020, the inclusion of quilombola communities by the Cultural Foundation Palmares, as beneficiaries of the National Land Reform Program, and the access to emergency wage. The very neglect of the Brazilian state in the face of the pandemic among indigenous communities, quilombolas, and other traditional peoples, which demanded that the people who live around riversides and coasts and in the forests organized their own alternative strategies to self-organize and care, such as cordon sanitaires in the limits of the territories with villages and traditional communities, to stop the entry of people outside the territory that might have been contaminated, and the use of teas, herbs, plant-based baths, agroecological nutrition in territories, beyond affirming their nutritional sovereignty and its capacity to prepare the body for an immunological response to the illness, if it ever reached them. Generally, we point to this balance between the struggles and setbacks lived by the quilombola communities in Brazil as a delicate scenario in the current context before the power of the caudillismo and that the agrarian elites in the country still have, and how both of them have hidden their true faces under a mask of a modern agribusiness and its dirigisme based both in institutional racism which produces discriminatory and violent patterns both in the distribution and in the effectiveness of public policies among the social groups depending on their racial and ethnic bonds (da Fonseca, 2015), and on environmental racism in its omission around degrading environmental conditions in which traditional communities are sent to around the country, like environmental crimes with toxic dumps and toxic waste and creation of polluting industries (Mathias, 2017). Even under hardships imposed by land concentration, violence, and the neglect of public power, the struggle goes on, and the traditional populations and communities carry on existing and rising up again. Land justice will only be reached with an egalitarian distribution of land and with the territorial guarantee to traditional communities and first peoples. It is not limited, under this aspect, to this modest and conservative land reform, restricted to the creation of rural settlement and concession to credit to campesinos, without touching wider land issues (Girardi & Fernandes, 2013), which keeps “islands of settlements in a sea of land concentration” in this extremely unequal continent called Brazil (Antunes, 2006, p. 130).

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Munanga, K. (1996). Origem e histórico do quilombo na África. Revista USP, (28), 56–63. Dez/ Fev. Retrieved from: https://www.revistas.usp.br/revusp/article/view/28364 Nascimento, A. (2016). O genocídio do negro brasileiro: Processo de um racismo mascarado. Perspectiva. Nascimento, B. (2006). Kilombo e memória comunitária: Um estudo de caso. In A. Ratts (Ed.), Eu sou atlântica: Sobre trajetória de vida de Beatriz Nascimento (pp. 111–116). Imprensa Oficial. Peres, A. D. (2008). Movimento quilombola e capitalismo no Brasil. 3° Simpósio Internacional Lutas Sociais na América Latina. Retrieved from: http://www.uel.br/grupo-­pesquisa/gepal/terceirosimposio/angeladomingos.pdf Ratts, A. (2006). Eu sou atlântica: Sobre trajetória de vida de Beatriz Nascimento. Imprensa Oficial. Santos, M. (2005). O retorno do território. Observatório Social da América Latina. Ano 6 n 16 jun. Secretaria de Políticas de Promoção da Igualdade Racial (SEPPIR). (2014). Quilombos no Brasil. Retrieved from: http://www.portaldaigualdade.gov.br/copy_of_acoes Souza, B.  O. (2008). Aquilombar-se: Panorama histórico, identitário e político do Movimento Quilombola Brasileiro. Dissertação de Mestrado. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Antropologia Social. Universidade de Brasília, UNB, DF, Brasil. Retrieved from: https://repositorio.unb.br/ bitstream/10482/2130/1/2008_BarbaraOliveiraSouza.pdf Valentim, R.  P. F., & Trindade, Z. (2011). Modernidade e comunidades tradicionais: Memória, identidade e transmissão em território quilombola. Psicologia Política, 11(2), 295–308. Retrieved from: http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1519-­54 9X2011000200008&lng=pt&tlng=pt Wanderley, L. E. (2010). Enigmas do social. In M. B. Wanderley, L. Bógus, & M. C. Yazbek (Eds.), Desigualdade e questão social. EDUC.

Chapter 11

Artisanal Fishing Work: The Aesthetics of Art and the Ethics of the Common Eugênia Bridget Gadelha Figueiredo and Bader Burihan Sawaia

11.1  Introduction The contribution presented to the debate as an analytical, propositional field is the encounter between the psychosocial dynamics that organize the life (re)production of a traditional artisanal marine fishing community and those outlined by the capital-­ labor relationship. The effort is justified by the accuracy of the historical process of producing social inequality, which is an enduring feature of this encounter, by the product-producer of ethical-political suffering, by the real threat to the ecosystems that are indispensable for the reproduction of various forms of life, and by the limited attention that psychology gives to this sociopolitical body in the composition of our social fabric, its struggles, and the criticisms of the current system. With a total population of approximately five million people, traditional Brazilian communities occupy a quarter of the national territory (BRASIL, 2015). They are composed of indigenous people of different ethnicities, quilombolas, and/or those who organize their way of life around the traditional use and management of the resources available on their territories, such as riverside dwellers, Caiçaras, artisanal fishermen, Pomeranians, rubber tappers, and coconut collectors, among others. The National Policy on Sustainable Development of Peoples and Traditional Communities (PNPCT) defines them as follows: [...] culturally differentiated groups that recognize themselves as such, which possess their own forms of social organization, occupy and use territories and natural resources as a condition for their cultural, social, religious, ancestral, and economic reproduction, using

E. B. G. Figueiredo (*) Federal University of Delta do Parnaíba, Parnaíba, Piauí, Brazil B. B. Sawaia Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_11

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knowledge, innovations and practices generated and transmitted by tradition. (BRASIL – DECREE n. 6,040/2007, p. 3) (translated by the authors)

The understanding that guides Brazilian politics highlights self-recognition, culture, connection to the territory, and subsistence production forms as key factors for the legal-normative-conceptual affirmation of these peoples. This turning point emerges amidst environmental problems, in the late 1990s, to address the issues of communities traditionally resident in areas of disputes prompted by the neo-­ developmental proposals. The debate proposed here is based on the analysis of the process of psychosocial nature of the artisanal fishermen community in Pedra do Sal (PI). The means of subsistence stands out, because, in line with Antônio Cândido (1977, p.  13), we understand that earning livelihoods “is not just an economic activity, but a certain way of weaving life” (translated by the authors). Hence, it must be the most relevant social problem when analyzing a community. Despite its great importance, the work in traditional communities is rarely addressed by psychology, which usually resorts to socio-anthropological categories, such as way of life and culture, therefore not addressing the psychosocial issue discussed in this study: political ethical suffering. Little attention has been given to this sociopolitical body in the composition of our social fabric and its struggles, suffering, and criticisms regarding the current system. These societies have developed specific work processes that are not directly oriented toward profit or maximum efficiency. In their existential spaces, work and nature are not seen as commodities. It is not the commodities but the work that generates food and other supplies that are crucial for the maintenance and expansion of life. Money does not fully occupy the operations of someone’s mind, body, and desire. This is a key aspect to the understanding of the way of life (re)production of traditional peoples, and it determines multiple distinctions in the psychosocial field when we place it against the capitalist mode of production. In this perspective, Diegues (2004, p. 37) clarifies: An important aspect in the definition of this traditional culture is the existence of management systems of the territory resources distinguished by respect for natural life cycles and by their exploitation within the recovery capacity of the animals and plants species used. (translated by the authors)

This production form is in extinction, and it is mandatory that psychology knows/ recognizes it so that it can assist in coping with the disintegration of this activity that constitutes the basis of these peoples’ psychosocial development. In this perspective, our main objective is to open paths for the sociopolitical strengthening of these threatened, exploited, weakened, violated human groups, who are thus subjected to a suffering that deprives them of expanding their life potency and self-regulation power, which can only be overcome in the sphere of the common. We also aim at giving support to psychology so that it does not fall into the trap of instrumentalizing artisanal work and does not collude with the destruction of this form of rural production in favor of progress – a human withdrawal, overwhelmed by the market’s need to promote competition, individualism, possession, and

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consumerism. Psychological praxis in this case must be committed to strengthening the right/power of self-regulation of these peoples, and this implies the knowledge/ recognition of their ways of production, but without confining them in cliché identities. Furthermore, we do not intend to romanticize the way of life of traditional communities that only favors the protection of these human groups but to warn about what Spinoza (2014, p. 28) had already pointed out in the seventeenth century – the distortions that the image of money causes in people/groups, conceiving the ingeniums guided by an inadequate idea/image of joy: Money has provided a convenient instrument for acquiring all these aids. That is why its image usually occupies the mind of the multitude more than anything else. For they can hardly imagine any species of joy without the accompanying idea of money as its cause. (translated by the authors)

The traditional systems of use and management of natural resources do not convey the false idea of profitability coupled with the conservation of the ways of life present in the territory, as the falsity of a sustainable economy within the capitalist production system wants to make us believe, but rather an interconnection with other species, a continuum guided by the principle of sociability (Diegues, 2004) filled with the feeling of the common. In doing so, it shows the presence of a close link between work and a set of affects that govern encounters in the territory, shared images, thoughts, knowledge, and customs that lead to other forms of psychosocial nature, different from those generated by capital. Spinoza also offers us a crucial concept for the analysis of the process of psychosocial nature: the ingenium. It applies to both an individual and a community, as pointed out by Chantal Jaquet (2011, p. 37): In Spinoza, ingenium refers to strong characteristic traits linked to habits of thought, to the way of life, to history [...] The Ingenium is a concept that applies not only to an individual but also to a people, a nation. (translated by the authors)

This concept allows an analytical/propositional movement that reflects the uniqueness, particularity, and universality in the formation of a human life. As pointed out by Spinoza (2010, p. 35), it is the expression of the characteristics of internal and external movements in a being that prompt the constant updating in the coexistence with other equal (because they are generic) and different (because they are singular) beings, in the nets that compose the movement of affects/thoughts in a specific historicity (because they are particular). The Ingenium underlines the dynamics of affective/imaginative production mediated by customs (history, memory, and language) in the makeup of a psychosocial unit, which should not be mistaken with uniformity. In this place, there is the possibility of expressing our needs/desires, the production of means for subsistence, the basis for coping with otherness and the forms of resistance, as well as the opportunity of keeping ourselves involved in an affective-imaginative-relational plot that can support servitude. Moreover, Spinoza asserts that, as we are immanently intercorporeal beings, we can only develop our potencies in common territories of affects comprising different

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ingeniums that converge when interconnected by knowledge and shared affects. In this perspective, Marcín (2008, p. 256) reports on the ingenium: Spinoza’s analysis of social relations is rooted in the concept of ingenium to refer to different human beings […] while coinciding with their reflections and affects, with which they can understand the properties, images, and affects that they share and that keep them cohesive. (translated by the authors)

From this point of view, we rely on the Spinozian’s concept of ingenium to analyze the artisanal fishing work that (re)designs shared (material/symbolic) places. These territories do not refer to the set of self-referenced or monolithic identities marked by a common culture but to a collective and constant (re)creation space of life and always toward external forces.

11.2  The Ingenium Crystallization in Presupposed Identities and the Ethical-Political Suffering It can be stated that the work in traditional communities is arranged in a cooperative/affective perspective. Nevertheless, as they are not bubbles pending in time, in a context of market domination over bodies, it has historically existed a process of social disqualification (Paugam, 2003) and environmental injustice (Zhouri, 2008). The traditional peoples in Brazil and Latin America, from the colonization process until today, are under pressure from this tension between different productive rationalities and unequal dominance of power. This has triggered numerous effects, such as the reproduction in the collective imagination of images associated with laziness and indolence as psychosocial records of the relationship of these communities with the labor market. On this subject, Martín-Baró (1998, p. 46) notes: The image of the lazy Latino is an international version of the lazy native, so characteristic of colonial situations (ALATAS, 1977; FANON, 1972), a stereotype justified by one people’s domination over another, or the oppression of the popular majority by an oligarchic elite. (translated by the authors)

Such images, always updated in encounters and historical times, result in and produce a ruthless ethical-political-affective dynamic of delegitimization of millennial knowledge, denial of history, memory obliteration, language folklore, and spoliation of material/existential territories directed at the rationalization of (re) colonization processes promoting capital privatization, accumulation, and reproduction. Hence, we must keep in view the psychosocial effects of this colonizing dynamic, as well as the possibilities of overcoming it, because although domination arises from unequal power relations, it remains at the psychosocial level. In their life trajectories, these peoples have undergone radical changes resulting from external forces but always orchestrated in their own way, which indicates the potential for resistance and struggle. On the other hand, this orchestration faces expansion limits, particularly in the field of the right to self-regulation. Ethical-­ political suffering is a crucial psychosocial component to the restriction of this

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expansion produced in/by deeply asymmetric encounters between these different dynamics of human life (re)production. In our view, ethical-political suffering represents the most significant psychosocial issue to be overcome. It is defined by Sawaia (2014, p. 87) as: [...] the suffering/passion produced in bad encounters characterized by servitude, heteronomy and injustice, a suffering that is crystallized as a suffering potency, that is, of reaction and not of action, inasmuch social conditions are held, transforming themselves into a permanent state of existence. (translated by the authors)

The loss of autonomy – created by the capital rationality, which is founded on the production of suffering potency as one of the strategies to maintain the status quo – is printed and expressed in the disqualification of its forms of life (re)production, announced in the narratives of the hegemonic productive system as retrograde, primitive, unproductive, a hindrance to development. The action on these peoples of the social metabolism of capital leads to the breaking of the territories’ networks of existence. Moreover, it places them in opposition to the rest of the social body by assigning them the role of an agent that undermines development – which is a useless burden for a society of disposables, one whose joy comes solely from money and consumerism. In encounters with large corporations and the State, their livelihood and psychosocial nature have been compromised, and we must acknowledge that this means much more than simply being unemployed. The Map of Conflicts that encompasses environmental injustice and health in Brazil, presented by FIOCRUZ researchers in 2017, registered 571 outbreaks of conflict in the country. It also indicated significant data on the problem including the following: (a) 48.81% of socio-environmental conflicts take place in rural areas; (b) around 70% of them directly affect traditional communities; (c) 58% of them occur due to the performance of government institutions; and (d) 65.80% of these conflicts result mainly from changes in the use and management of natural reserves and in the occupation of the territory. The Map of Conflicts also shows that the most frequent negative impacts on the health of these communities are violence, food and nutritional insecurity, and reduced quality of life. The latter are directly related to the degradation of the territory’s natural resources and community ties. Observing the data presented by FIOCRUZ researchers also allows us to identify some movements that determine the dynamics of these conflicts and are significant for understanding the problem. Among them are the following: (a) the target of greed is the exploitation of nature reserves; (b) conflicts are concentrated in common ancestral use areas, with great potential for natural reserves to be explored, and this shows the sustainable use of these reserves by the so-called traditional peoples; and (c) the State plays an important role in the dynamics produced, which shows that the projects aimed at the exploration of these reserves are being supported. These are projects that are not aimed at maintaining life but at generating energy, creating monocultures and other activities of highly destructive potential, which serve the foreign market and increase the profits of large corporations.

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Faced with this conflicting scenario between two diametrically opposed (re)productive logics, in which suffering, degradation, death, movements of resistance, and life appear simultaneously, we ask ourselves: How can social psychology mediate in this historical context of domination to support a greater political power of these communities? What contributions can these social bodies make to improve productive and human-environmental relations? Brazilian socio-anthropological studies show that artisanal fishing is a millenary activity. The indigenous people of that territory already practiced it in the continental (rivers, lagoons, streams, etc.) and maritime modalities. Maritime people today represent in the country a population of around 800,000 fishermen living throughout the national coast, with two million people in an activity that produces over 50% of the fish consumed in the country (Brasil, 2015). It is noteworthy that our beach strips have had no economic expression for a long time. This role has been fulfilled by agriculture developed in the Zona da Mata region. Artisanal fishing is undoubtedly linked to obtaining the means of subsistence for a given social class, and it has also become an act of resistance to slave labor in coffee and sugar cane fields (Ramalho, 2010). Prado Júnior (2012, p. 69) explains that this movement would lead to “an intensive, almost exclusive use of the environmental resources, creating a quite distinct intimacy between man and his habitat” (translated by the authors). Thereby, the relationship with the territory is one of the key points for analyzing the artisanal fishing work, together with other traditional groups: firstly, because it does not fall apart in spatial portions, occupied within a utilitarian and patrimonialist logic; secondly, because fishermen need to trace paths between various territories (such as land, sea, lagoon, rivers, watercourses, dunes, and forests), particularly about the forms and possibilities of control; and finally, because the idea of the right to territory is continually confronted by the capital logic. Numerous reasons, such as isolation, invisibility, and lack of political representativeness, among others, become evident when we notice that this activity remained practically unchanged (in its social, political, cultural, and technological aspects) because it did not reach a historical significance in the Brazilian economy, especially until the emergence of public interventions for the development of the corporate fishing sector (Maldonado, 1993). For the Brazilian State, fishing has always been related to international commercial interests. This has been going on since the colonial period, when whale fishing was greatly undertaken by the Portuguese and Basques, who used enslaved labor (Diegues, 1983). The dispute between artisanal and industrial fisheries promoted by the Brazilian State has had a strong influence on the lives of the national fishing communities. It has long intensified conflicts and led to the marine biome degradation along the Brazilian coast. Nevertheless, from the 1990s, many other additional strategies for attracting foreign investments began to develop in a relatively continuous strip of the northeastern coast, particularly those aimed at power generation, shrimp farming, leisure, and real estate tourism. These activities generate transformations that bring spatial and psychosocial changes relevant to the (re)production of life in these communities. Tourism, for

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instance, is “an activity that primarily consumes space” (Cruz, 2001, p.  25), and states and municipalities have devoted special attention to it through development programs aimed especially at supporting the sector, such as the Northeastern Tourism Development Program (PRODETUR/NE). Silva and Ferreira (2012, p. 62), among other aspects, highlight: Tourism activities call for urban, reception, accommodation, and entertainment for visitors’ services network, which yields the production of new spaces adapted to international demand. This means adjusting the place to the interests of the tourist product being offered. (translated by the authors)

As noted by Silva and Ferreira (2012), such tourism real estate projects in the Brazilian northeast were mainly requested by middle−/upper-income Europeans (basically, by Spaniards, Portuguese, English, and Italians) who are looking for new investment opportunities at low prices and outside the Mediterranean region. As for the State’s actions in this process, Gottdiener (1993, p. 148) reports: The state’s role in this process is contradictory. On the one hand, it must intervene in order to preserve the coherencies of social space in the face of their destruction by the capitalist transformations of use into exchange values - that is, of social space into abstract space. On the other hand, its interventions are all specified by the relationship of domination. Hence, the state’s interventions do not rescue social space; on the contrary, it merely aids the hegemony of abstract space by producing some of its own through planning. (translated by the authors)

Apart from seasonal and real estate tourism, there is also the production of wind power and fossil fuels (oil and gas exploration platforms), which have been increasing at a rapid pace in these Brazilian territories. The winds of the northeastern coast have more and more attracted the implementation of wind farms and the practice of water sports, such as kitesurfing. According to the fishermen, the latter contributes to keeping the smaller fish away from the large ones, thus reducing their permanence in the area and, consequently, compromising the activity of coastal artisanal fishing. Regarding the wind power exploitation, it is imperative to pay attention to its relationship with the energy policy and the ideal of sustainability of the hegemonic system, which deems energy production from renewable sources as part of the answers to the environmental issue. More exactly, it is related to the idea of power transition (i.e., the transition from energy production from nonrenewable sources to that from renewable sources): a proposition driven by global climate changes. Nevertheless, the exploration of this energy source that is considered clean (from the point of view of air pollutant emissions) is impacting several ecosystems and possibly the dynamics of the water table. Furthermore, it produces noise and visual pollution, morphological soil changes, destruction of archaeological sites and native forests, and changes in bird migratory routes, which compromise local reforestation, besides the privatization of huge tracts of land to allow the implementation of wind turbines (Meirelles et al., 2006). Moreover, the good produced – the energy – is not available to the communities that inhabit these spaces. Mangroves are also an

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ecosystem threatened by the practice of shrimp farming (shrimp production in captivity). Hence, it is noticeable that these activities, based on the necessary occupation, transformation, and valorization of the territory on a large scale, have been exposing some modes of accumulation by spoliation that markedly affect the countries of peripheral capitalism (Harvey, 2007). They are subjecting both coastal systems and water peoples to unparalleled threats, imposing on them a suffering resulting from the restriction of their right to self-regulation, a suffering of an ethical-­political nature. These dynamics are clearly present in our research context: the village of Pedra do Sal, located in the rural area of Parnaíba (PI). The community is in one of the environmental protection areas (APA) of the Delta do Parnaíba. It has around 1500 inhabitants who traditionally make a living from activities related to the use and management of natural resources, that is, artisanal fishing and extractivism, in addition to the trade they conduct in beach huts. Exploring these preservation areas is, or at least should be, regulated by the Federal Law No. 9985/2000, which establishes the National System of Protected Areas Management (SNUC). However, the APA Management Plan had not even been drafted until February 2018. Pedra do Sal, as a conservation unit (UC) of sustainable use, may have its resources exploited, but in a disciplined and supervised manner by environmental agencies at the municipal, state, and federal levels, which indicates the relevance of the plan. It can be noted that the creation of conservation units in Brazil promotes the appropriation and use of these areas due to regulatory mechanisms supporting the actors that have capital, such as the Law on Public Forests Management (Law 11,284/2006) for Sustainable Production, which provides for the concession of forests to legal entities. Similarly, the limited applicability of laws that hinder or prohibit uses in some categories of the SNUC, added to the lack of numerous environmental management instruments, such as the management, use, and economic ecological zoning plans in several conservation units in Brazil, favors the privatization of protected areas by allowing the appropriation and use of such resources by dominant groups (Silva & Ferreira, 2012). Notwithstanding, socio-environmental conflicts have a remote origin in Pedra do Sal, because the island’s natural wealth, in addition to its strategic location, seems to have always been the subject of disputes. The tribe that inhabited the Piauí coast was annihilated during the Brazilian colonization process for resisting the Portuguese invasion, which wanted to occupy the territory at the time for being, in the first place, indispensable for the circulation of goods and, later, for serving as a warehouse for the beef jerky, meat, and carnauba wax trade. The joint attack of three hereditary captaincies (which today correspond to the states of Piauí, Ceará, and Maranhão) led to the massacre of all indigenous people who lived in the territory, and the genocide seems to have erased the memory of the Tremembé people as well. The name Pedra do Sal originated from the salt formation in granite stone hollows, resulting from the evaporation of seawater deposited on them. As reported by the research subjects, in the mid-nineteenth century, the beach was occupied by artisanal fishermen’s families from other Northeastern states, such as Ceará,

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Maranhão, Rio Grande do Norte, and Paraíba, and some of them were descendants of enslaved blacks. Those families lived on the seashore, in small straw houses, and artisanal fishing was their only source of income. To make their livelihood out of the sea, they used small and fragile vessels, facing the wind, sea currents, storms, reefs, and industrial fishing boats – a reality that persists today. They lived almost in isolation, on the largest island in the Parnaíba Delta, as access to the continent was very difficult, and the negligence of the public authorities was prominent. However, fishermen had to face even more violent and lasting storms. A single family, with the connivance of the public authorities, dominated the whole village – and to this day, it controls the activities in the territory, as if the fishermen had never existed (in the same way as they had done with the Tremembé), even threatening them and selling and leasing tracts of land in the environmental protection areas through Pedra do Sal Ltda.: a family-owned real estate company created for this purpose. It is usual to hear two versions of the conduct and land appropriation process by this family that has a great political influence in Piauí. According to one of the versions, the oldest fisherman in the area at the time, being illiterate, was deceived and signed a paper without being aware of its content. Another version points out that the land was donated by the Church and appropriated illegally. Anyway, the fact is that the community sees no legitimacy in the ownership of the land by “the Silva family.” In 2005, Spanish groups presented a proposal for the construction of a tourist complex in the Pontal do Delta do Parnaíba. It included a hotel, a luxury condominium, a resort, golf courses, and a helipad, among other facilities aimed at the public of high economic power, especially the European. As part of the proposal, the community should be relocated to another place. This led to the mobilization of the community, which managed to block the removal of the village from the territory of Pedra do Sal with the support of the State Prosecutor’s Office, the Chico Mendes Institute (ICMBio), and the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), in addition to the support of some non-­ governmental organizations (NGOs). Ten years later, in 2015, the Spanish group returned to the site with new strategies for carrying out the project. In this new proposal, as the possibility of relocating the local population had been ruled out, those responsible for the undertakings decided to split the project between two municipalities: Ilha Grande and Parnaíba. However, the territory of Pontal do Delta is still the space for the exploration of the enterprises in the coastal region of Pedra do Sal. Moreover, the Spanish group launched a campaign to convince the local population, creating a division of the community between those who advocate for progress, local development, and job creation, in contrast to those who defend isolation and backwardness. To this end, several strategies were adopted, such as the co-optation of leaderships, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and public agents, design of explanatory booklets on development as the main argument for establishing the enterprise, sponsorship of leisure activities, and meetings in schools and with the

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community, among others. The most powerful strategy adopted was undoubtedly the breaking of the sense of community that led residents, fishermen, and community associations to place themselves in antagonistic fields of struggle, highlighting ethical-political suffering, tearing the community fabric, and promoting disbelief in institutions. We understand that the strength of the feeling of community, defined by Sarason (1974, p. 1) as “the sense that one was part of a reality available, mutually supportive network of relationships upon which one could depend” (translated by the authors), is crucial to the strengthening of the community fabric. Notwithstanding, it has not been shown to be powerful enough to ensure the right of self-regulation in the arenas of dispute with capital and consequently to overcome the ethical-political suffering. Processes to strengthen the feeling of the common should be encouraged – an affect that unfolds in an ethical function: conflict resolution, having as a horizon the idea of the right to self-regulation of the various bodies in relation and that plays the political role of appropriating the common interest as a personal interest. For this purpose, it is necessary to know the ingeniums and to give visibility to the ongoing domination processes. When the Pure Resort installation process was in its initial phase, the fishermen reacted through public hearings, in protest acts, and in meetings with businessmen and inspection and control bodies. However, their claims were not heard, and this time not even by the Public Ministry, ICMBio, and IBAMA. Even so, the fishermen knew exactly what was at stake, as clearly pointed out by the speech of Antônio, a fisherman from Pedra do Sal (2015): As a matter of fact, this resort is an allotment that is being settled in fishponds, and therefore we do not accept it. Another problem is kite surfing, which ends up chasing away all our fish from the coast. And with the arrival of this enterprise, the number of sportsmen will increase. We are here defending our right to survive, while they are getting rich with their capitalism. And we want to have democracy to be heard by the authorities. (translated by the authors)

The resistance movement against the installation of the Pure Resort relied on the previous experience regarding the installation of the wind farm as a guiding element for the community’s reflections and coping actions. In 2009, “the Silva family” leased a huge part of the territory for the implementation of 20 wind turbines by the company Tractebel Energia. The project construction caused numerous problems, such as the grounding of lagoons, the destruction of archaeological sites, and the elimination of native forests. Moreover, it led to an increase in traffic in the region, which consequently leveraged an increase in accidents, pedestrian accidents, and death tolls, and especially restricted free access to a significant area of the territory, including the installation of electric fences in the area. In 2014, the company Omega installed a set of three wind farms on site. Harvesting cashews, chestnuts, and other native fruits, extracting carnauba straw to produce handicrafts and roof of the houses, raising small animals, and fishing in the ponds are activities conducted in common areas of ancestral use. However, they become increasingly difficult to be performed. Moreover, these wind farms have not

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generated new jobs for the local community because they require specialized training. The story (re)told by the fishermen from Pedra do Sal faithfully portrays a daily life marked by oppression, State oversight, land disputes, and defense of the right to self-regulation. These men and women, who have been ruthlessly subjected to unequal power relations for centuries, treated as “second-class” citizens and left to their own devices, feel devalued, abandoned, humiliated, and frightened by what is happening and may happen both with their families and regarding the different forms of life that inhabit the territory. Even so, they reiterate the need and desire to keep the art of fishing alive, especially because this activity still makes them recognize themselves as “people freed with their knowledge of fishing” (Pescada, Pedra do Sal fisherman, 2017) (translated by the authors).

11.3  T  he Work-Art of Artisanal Fishing: Body Aches and the Potency of Life As meaningful distinctions between work in the capitalist perspective and artisanal fishing, based on the latter, we underline the small technical and social division of labor; lively and collaborative work; the mastery of the whole process, ranging from manufacture, the use of tools for fishing, to the final product; the close relationship with the territory and with its other forms of life; and the value given to family/communal life. It is present in their know-how an in-depth knowledge of the natural cycles of life and of the body itself. In the art of fishing, the production units are regulated by a strong system of collectivity that exists among those who are on the boat – a place where partnership has a major value, first and foremost in terms of providing each and every one greater security: “[…] Equality and cooperation are key concepts for good fishing. Although the master looks like the leader, fishermen are all considered equal. When the boat bow is put out, that’s it: everything is the same” (Tassara & Linsker, 2005, p. 73) (translated by the authors). In this way, labor relations are marked by horizontality and learning processes, which are regularly shared among fishing bodies. Despite the fact that the arrangement of the fish catching actions is carried out by the master, he is not necessarily the boat owner but the one who most knows the work he performs. In this way, the command of the actions is subject to the previous knowledge rather than on the possession of the means of production. Hence, it differs from industrial fishing, in which employers’ relationships are established based on labor exploitation and on the dissociation among fishermen, work processes, and fish. For artisanal fishermen: [...] the waters are not assembly lines, mere places of mercantile production. They are territories founded on ties of belonging, in which circulates the work power sociability, family links, myths, means of humanizing waters and fish, individual times and rhythms, t­ raditional

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customs, economic logics that do not diverge from other fisheries’ corporate ties. (Ramalho, 2010, 33)

The danger, the unusual, and the uncontrollable that involve working in the marine environment develop a fishing body (necessarily composed of multiple bodies) with its own language. Gestures and words that guide as to the location and type of fish, the most appropriate resource for catching the fish at that moment, and sudden changes in sea currents and in the wind all involve a process of direct communication between its participants, not allowing any inaccuracies or withholding of information. Knowledge and information circulate democratically in this environment. The precision in performing fishing strategies is pointed out as its most beautiful aspect, its art. In this perspective, Maldonado (1993, p. 110) emphasizes: Work ethics, when guided by the “spirit of art,” involves three markedly important aspects: first, the work becomes the center of the individual’s entire life; second, the artist is proud of his/her profession and autonomous condition; and lastly, the distinct values converge towards a synthesis of the relationship between the work and its product. (translated by the authors)

From that perspective, in artisanal fishing, the ethics of the common and the aesthetics of art are expressed in a human activity that does not draw a dividing line between life and work and which is also the foundation of the feeling of freedom that gives movement and strength to the resistance ways. Work-art, whose existence necessarily requires passion, involvement, courage, subversion, suffering, grace, and simplicity, enables us to think, feel, and act outside the world of certainties – an aspect that characterizes the encounter with the sea  – opening paths to face the unusual with the plasticity and diversity of possibilities for reinventing existence, the body itself, and being in/with the world (Moehlecke, 2002). As noted by Ramalho (2010, p. 41): [...] becoming a fishing artist is also a making of the senses, an act that polishes and composes body making, never separated from the cognitive sphere, the fishing knowledge, the existential value, leading the feeling of the senses to acquire form, content and social significance. (translated by the authors)

The artisanal fishermen’s socio-metabolic practices and their relationship with the territory reveal an aesthetic that is not instrumentalized by the utilitarian logic of capital. Although suffering the impact of the tensions of these dynamics imposed by the hegemonic ingeniums, artisanal fishermen feel free, not subject to the market interests and times. As a result, the work-art of fishing, despite causing physical exhaustion, pain, cuts, and marks on the body, does not lead to a decrease in its potency but, on the contrary, to its increase. In this context, controlling as much as possible the time of using the body and the making of its senses are key strategies and components for the fishing aesthetics to be performed, shown, and reproduced as art, aiming at not allowing subjection, captivity, or the success of the struggle against work. Not being subjected to the will

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of others, being free, is a source of beauty, joy, and daily resistance. This is in line with Ramalho (2010, p. 29), who reinforces: This is a social mediation of priority to justify work as a territory of art and a builder of the feeling of freed men, against the sterilized spaces of an aesthetics of existence that hinder the character of the enjoyable, the beautiful, and the autonomy bound up with the productive sphere. (translated by the authors)

Accordingly, what defines the artisanal fisherman is not simply to live off fishing but the complete mastery of the work process in a type of work that challenges his skills applied in each encounter with the sea, allowing him to expand his own body, knowledge, and practices. As reported by Diegues (1983, p. 193), “the control of how to fish and what to fish, in short, the control of the art of fishing is what makes you a fisherman.” Nevertheless, this control relies on a group coexistence that signals a field of collective production of oneself, the other (including non-humans), and the world, which is distinguished by practice (empirical knowledge obtained through the ongoing observation of nature) and by orality. Work-art is not aligned with the alienation processes imposed by the capitalist perspective, and we must not forget that the distinguished contour of dead work also leads to the alienation of human beings regarding their species, that is, man starts to no longer recognize himself as a social, generic, universal being (Marx, 2005). Hence, he loses the dimension of the principle of immanence that involves all bodies, whether human or not, in the composition of living and which should define the ethical radicality of the common as the organizing principle of relations. Looking from this angle, we can notice that the fishermen’s defense about their art involves the fairness of the struggle to be fought with the fish, being a direct defense of sustainable fishing practices, since: [...] the condition of master of the waters must not violate, beyond the healthy community life rules, the “right” of his opponent (lobster or fish) to have an alternative to fight for survival, trying to escape the fishermen’s teleological setting. Lack of respect for the spirit of the art of becoming a fisherman will also sound as an environmental attack. (Ramalho, 2010, p. 35) (translated by the authors)

It will sound like an attack on the environment and on the existence itself, since violating the waters, the land, the animals, and the fish means violating the own body. Because of this, the eternal vigilance essential to territorial defense is simultaneously a unifying element of struggles and a source of suffering. Day by day, our artisans are losing, in an increasingly violent and fast way, their space of creation and their right to self-regulation. The chronic ethical-political suffering of our artisans worsens, composing and decomposing bodies in relation, expressing the ambiguity of this suffering that, on the one hand, can stimulate the potency to withstand, because it is a shared suffering, and, on the other hand, can imprison it.

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11.4  Conclusions Our research trajectory enabled us to see fishermen as follows: first, as social subjects who are not only victims of a system but also its critics and, second, as bodies that can contribute to the required changes for the betterment of human and human-­ environmental relations, since they are ingeniums shaped by the ethics of the common and the aesthetics of art, outlined by the artisanal fishing work-art, which neither externalizes nature nor splits up work and life, entailing the need and freedom of creation, the intuitive apprehension of immanence, the democratization of relationships, the alliance, and cooperation as the cornerstone for human life (re) production. In our trajectory, we looked for new possibilities for analysis/intervention in the psychosocial field, always taking due care so that work would not be seen as a variable that affects the psyche or as a series of activities that psychology must make less arduous and/or more productive but rather as a powerful intersection zone that leverages ingeniums in action, in the composition of living/coexisting with both humans and non-humans. It is worth mentioning that another concern that we had in this research was not to romanticize the way of life of traditional communities, as this would contribute to the crystallization of ingeniums in identities that presumably would have weak political power in the arenas of dispute and permanence of their tutelage by the State. This would also imply a denial of the liberating character of work-art, which enhances life despite hurting bodies. In this continuous search, we employ Spinoza’s concept of ingenium (2003) to propose a unit of analysis of the psychosocial nature process of the human based on the affective-imaginative web, product and producer of encounters, mediated by the customs that may or may not favor: the increase in the potency and power of bodies in relation, the strengthening of the feeling of the common, and the overcoming of ethical-political suffering. We have seen that work-art, which is the foundation of the artisanal fishing ingenium, has historically been subjected and poses the risk of being thoroughly destroyed by the violence it suffers from the interests of capital. Concurrently, it is a psychosocial unit that needs to be expanded and rebuilt; otherwise, it will get stuck in the simulacrum of equality created by the reification of identity. The clinic of Spinozian affects consists exactly in this: in overcoming ingeniums modelled more by the recurrence of the affective-imaginative web and less by the knowledge of the true causes of the affects/images produced. According to Spinozian ethics, affects are a procedural basis on which life is founded, unfolded, and transformed into paths of suffering and potency traced in/by encounters. It is essential to understand the affective life because the opposite would imply that the only thing that would be left to us would be obedience. This is the real importance of the study of affects: their transforming potency in the relationships between men, and of men with themselves, given that we do not act against affects but from them.

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In this sense we state that, to overcome the ethical-political suffering, it is essential to strengthen the feeling of the common. We refer here to the common in the ontological sense as a relational and political production that aims to ensure the potency of self-regulation of bodies in relation. The common is always built by an acknowledgment of myself and the other as potencies in act that are mutually necessary. It is a feeling guided by the ethical-political principle of the right to life and self-regulation. Therefore, we advocate that composing a stronger sociopolitical body together with traditional communities constitutes a political-ecological act in defense of humanity.

References Brasil, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. Decree n. 6.040/2007. Ministério do Desenvolvimento Social. Secretaria de Articulação Institucional e Parcerias. (2007) Povos e Comunidades Tradicionais e Específicas. Brasil, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. (2015). em: http://ibge.gov.br/estadosat/perfil.php?sigla=pa. Candido, A. (1977). Os parceiros do Rio Bonito. José Olympio Editora. Cruz, R. de C. (2001). Política de Turismo e Território. Contexto. Diegues, A. C. A. (1983). Pescadores, Camponeses e Trabalhadores do Mar. Ática. Diegues, A. C. A. (2004). O mito moderno da natureza intocada. HUCITEC: NUPAUB: USP. Gottdiener, M. (1993). A produção social do espaço urbano. Edusp. Harvey, D. (2007). Neoliberalismo como destruição criativa. Interfaces, 2(4), 1–30. Jaquet, C. (2011). A unidade do corpo e da mente: afetos, ações e paixões em Espinosa. Autêntica Editora. Maldonado, S.  C. (1993). Mestres e Mares: espaços e dificuldades na pesca marítima. ANNABLUME. Marcín, L.  R. A. (2008). El concepto de ingenium en la obra de Spinoza: análisis ontológico, epistemológico, ético y político. (Tese de doutorado). Universidad de Salamanca, Espanha. Martín-Baró, I. (1998). Psicologia Política do Trabalho na América Latina. Psicologia Política, 14(30), 609–624. Marx, K. (2005). Manuscritos econômico-filosóficos. Boitempo. Meirelles, A.  J. A., Silva, E.  V., & Thiers, P.  R. L. (2006). Os campos de dunas móveis: fundamentos dinâmicos para um modelo integrado de planejamento e gestão da zona costeira. GEOUSP – Espaço e Tempo, 20, 101–119. Moehlecke, V. (2002). O paradigma estético e a psicologia: ressonâncias. Linhas Críticas, 8(15), 207–220. Paugam, S. (2003). Desqualificação social: ensaio sobre a nova pobreza. Educ & Cortez. Prado Júnior, C. (2012). História econômica do Brasil. Editora Brasiliense. Ramalho, C. W. N. (2010). Estética marítima pesqueira: perfeição, resistência e humanização do mar. Ambiente & Sociedade, Campinas, 13(1), 27–47. Sarason, S. (1974). The psychological sense of community: Prospects for a community psychology. Jossey-Bass. Sawaia, B. B. (2014). As artimanhas da exclusão- análise psicossocial e ética da desigualdade (14th ed.). EditoraVozes. Silva, A.  F. C, & Ferreira, A. (2012). O imobiliário-turístico e o nordeste brasileiro: dinâmicas econômicas e urbanas sobre o litoral. Revista Geográfica De América Central, 2, n. 47E. Retrieved from: http://www.revistas.una.ac.cr/index.php/geografica/article/view/3176. Spinoza, B. (2003). Tratado Teológico-Político. Martins Fontes.

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Spinoza, B. (2010). Ética. Belo Horizonte. Spinoza, B. (2014). Tratado Político. Martins Fontes. Tassara, H., & Linsker, R. (2005). O mar é uma outra terra. Terra Virgem. Zhouri, A. A. (2008). Justiça ambiental, diversidade cultural e accountability: desafios para a governança ambiental. Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, 23(68), 44–67.

Chapter 12

Urban and Rural Articulations in an Agroecological Space in the Brazilian Northeast Benedito Medrado, Jorge Lyra, Jáder Ferreira Leite, and Wanderson Vilton

12.1  Introduction In his text, “The ecology of knowledge”, the Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2007) makes an important reflection about the production of knowledge, seeking to go further than the simple distinction and the mistaken hierarchization between the global and the local and between science and common sense, from an investment in a political dimension on the knowledge practices that strengthen (or stop) some interventions in the world. This process is called by the author “epistemological pragmatism”, which would be justified “by the fact that the life experiences of the oppressed are impossible to understand through an epistemology of consequences. In the world they life, consequences always come before the causes” (p. 89) (translated by the authors). Therefore, in the “ecology knowledge”, such as the one proposed by Santos (2007), the hierarchization of knowledges must not be given through a single, universal and abstract hierarchy but must be understood through an ethic matrix that considers conformity with the context, “looking at the concrete intended or achieved results by the different types of knowledge” (p. 90) (translated by the authors). We need, then, to understand the local experiences beyond its physical geographical dimension; we should always start from its ethical and political dimension. In this sense, as we take agroecological spaces as an object of study, we need to understand them as a production of ecological spaces and knowledges which developed, in the last few decades, in different countries from the commercialization of

B. Medrado (*) · J. Lyra · W. Vilton Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] J. F. Leite Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_12

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healthy products in farmers’ markets, having as a basis the promotion of food sovereignty and family agriculture. The concept of food sovereignty and production systems based on family agriculture and agroecology got a lot of attention in the last four decades. Initiatives that dialogue with traditional knowledges – led by farmers, peripheral urban groups and nongovernmental organizations and from partnerships with government and academic institutions –show that it is possible to ensure food safety through conservation of natural resources and agrobiodiversity of soil and water (Altieri, 2010; Chonchol, 2005; Pretty et al., 2003). In the same manner, from the dialogue of the pedagogical perspective of Paulo Freire of education as an exercise of practice (Freire, 1999) and feminist pedagogy with an emphasis on human rights and the valorization of voices and experiences to build a dialogical knowledge (de Moraes et  al., 2018), readings and experiences dealing with the sustainable production chains have been put in the forefront, caring not only with the techniques to plant and process products but also with the care for health and the respect for the rights of people facing social inequalities. The present work approaches the experience of research-action that was developed from the creation and implementation of community and political and pedagogical action, aiming to sell and purchase food, from a wide agroecological approach that guided the interactions between inhabitants of a periphery neighbourhood of a large urban centre of the Brazilian Northeast and the rural community farmers. The aim is to share reflections made from this experience and to follow some authors who allow us to dialogue and build theoretical and practical approaches with what we could call “agroecological pedagogy”, allowing us to build some links with Brazilian social psychology as well that of wider Latin America, which is strongly marked by the defence of human rights with the basic principle of reflection-­ action (Martín-Baró, 1986/2011).

12.2  About a Community Psychosocial Approach To develop this action-reflection, we took as a reference the chapter of the book by Maria de Fátima Quintal Freitas called Intervenção psicossocial e compromisso: desafios às políticas públicas [Psychosocial intervention and commitment: public policy challenge] and compose the book with works presented in thematic symposiums in the 14th National Meeting of Brazilian Association of Social Psychology – ABRAPSO  – organized by Ana Maria Jacó-Vilela and Leny Sato, Diálogos em Psicologia Social [Social Psychology Dialogues], in 2007. In this text, the author makes a brief argument about the ways in which the teaching of Community (Social) Psychology was incorporated (with larger or smaller scales) in the creation of a wide generation of psychologists in Latin America, particularly in the 1960s or the 1970s. It is interesting to note that Freitas herself marks

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the word “social” in parentheses to show that in some parts of her argument, she is referring to specific issues of community psychology, which, as we see it, also shows fundamental elements to reflect about the conditions of Social Psychology, mainly in the university classes of Brazil and Latin America, which depends on the hegemonic perspective of certain historical times and/or traditions of Psychology’s different school. Freitas (2007, p. 329) emphasizes the difficulty to name and create a systematic practice that attempts to analyse the current condition of the Social Psychology discipline in curriculums across courses in Brazil and other Latin American countries. She comments that the discipline of Social Psychology appears with its many names in the current university: “(Social) Community Psychology; Political Psychology; psychology and public policy; psychosocial intervention in community; psychology, citizenship and issues of the contemporary world”. However, as this author points out, Psychology students currently do not know that this field has not always been at the disposal of future psychologists. The author draws attention to a fundamental aspect about the different ways to name Social Psychology disciplines, in which the offer from them “does not necessarily indicate that these are treated in common ways of actions and similar interventions and with identical epistemological basis” (Freitas, 2007, p. 329) (translated by the authors). In the words of Freitas (2007, p. 330), she considers that, in the beginning of the creation of Psychology classes between the decades of 1960–1970: [...] This happened a lot more because of personal decisions and political opinions of some professors and psychologists that defended an education that was, indeed, committed to social transformation, less elitist and more knowledgeable that surrounded us. (p.  330) (translated by the authors)

However, we also believe that beyond personal decisions, there was a counter-­ hegemonic movement of professors and institutions, such as by the Brazilian Social Psychology Association (Associação Brasileira de Psicologia Social – ABRAPSO) and in some schools in Europe and the United States that contributed to a critical learning of psychology even with dictatorship situations in Latin America, including Brazil, which means there were “a generation of psychosocial workers and researchers that, today, act and work in community projects, in public politics, or within the universities to prepare and create new generations of social and community psychologists” (Freitas, 2007, p. 330) (translated by the authors). When we talk specifically of Community Psychology according to Freitas (2007), it was only in the 1990s that the discipline was effectively recognized as part of the university curriculum “in a constant and mandatory” manner, but the problem pointed out by it remains in what refers to the internal coherence of theoretical, methodological and political issues in the creation of projects of what we call “the psychosocial practices in communities”. It is interesting to point out that simultaneously these reflections in the sphere of schools of Psychology took place in the society, and in the last few years, around the 1990s, there were demands also for Psychology professionals for a different way to act in communities, in public institutions and directly with the population, such as

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the reform in mental health and the growth of the action of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Brazil, committed with the basic rights of the population. This proposal of applied Psychology is reflected in many themes. For a quick notion of how diverse and wide the action field of Social and “Community” Psychology is, Freitas (2007) did an interesting analysis in the Program Book of the II Brazilian Psychology Congress: Science and Profession, which has among its organizers the Federal Psychology Council (Conselho Federal de Psicologia): Having as a reference work and practices in communities,1 independently of whatever methodological theories they hold, it is possible to see that many courses (short or long, training or otherwise) have approached the following themes a) childhood, youth and sexual and social violence; types of actions, punishments and affirmative and citizenship policies; childhood and youth courts, guardianship councils and affirmative and citizenship policies b) relations in the field of health; SUS, social work, managers and ways to manage health; c) different ways to psychosocial intervention, participation and participative management in institution, communities, third sectors and NGOs; and d) solidarity economy, the land and the work conditions/relations. (Freitas, 2007, p. 335) (translated by the authors)

As we can see from this diverse thematic list that reminds us of the consequences of the different acting spaces for social psychologists, a new field has been opened for their actions. However, according to Freitas (2007), before defining market reserves, we must question “the social and professional role of social community psychologists and the commitments they must assume” (p. 336) (translated by the authors), which continues to be one of the important challenges of psychosocial interventions in communities. These challenges refer to four dimensions: (1) the perception of reality, (2) what to do in everyday community work, (3) the relations established and (4) the impacts produced. In the present text, we will seek to dialogue with these challenges from the reflections and practices that followed an experience of Community (Social) Psychology that cuts across the performance of learning students and professors in the field of Social Psychology as well as professionals, educators and other interlocutors that began in 2017 a community initiative to implement an agroecological space in a periphery neighbourhood (Várzea) of a large urban centre of the Brazilian Northeast (Recife), having as a basis the fundamental principles of the debate about agroecology in its interface with the principles of human rights in the feminist field.

12.3  Situating Our Action Research The experience here consists in the development of a community political and pedagogical action turned to direct commercialization and the sustainable consumption of food in the neighbourhood of Várzea, situated in the extreme west of the city of Recife, in the Brazilian Northeast. This action resulted in the creation of the Agroecological Space of Várzea (Espaço Agroecológico da Várzea – EAV), whose  Our emphasis.

1

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mission is to produce political and pedagogical strategies, involving clients and farmers, for the production of conscious consumption and of dialogues about healthy nutrition, ecological production, human rights and cultural, gender, sexuality and race diversity. In general lines, this space has the following aims: (1) to promote direct commercialization between farmers and clients, strengthening family agriculture based in ecology, particularly from the protagonism of women and young agricultors, with a secure channel for the outflow of their products at a fair price that are compatible with production costs; (2) to develop a political and pedagogic training and awareness process, focused in strengthening the capacities of clients and farmers as aware and critical agents in themes relevant for sustainable development in society, focusing mainly in the defence of the environment and the human rights of socially excluded segments, particularly young, black, LGBT people and women; and (3) to preserve, occupy and value the public space of the neighbourhood through artistic, educational and political activities as well as recognizing and stimulating different cultural expressions of the local community. This initiative began in November 2017, with a series of encounters between people from the neighbourhood invited by Professor Marcos Figueiredo, himself also a local with a vast experience and knowledge about agroecological issues, who, in the first encounter, presented some concern that an organic farmers’ market would take place in the neighbourhood without any direct communication with the local community. Thus, the EAV configured itself, always, as a popular resistance initiative and as a fruit of the partnership and solidarity from a place of affection to build collective strategies to promote sustainable consumption and the commercialization of agroecological products, aligned with a critical perspective and the commercialization of agroecological products and with a critical human rights perspective, involving inhabitants of the Várzea neighbourhood in the encounter between families and farmers who live in the rural contexts of the State, even more specifically of Pernambuco’s coastal plain (Fig. 12.1).2 According to data from the local government, the Várzea is the second largest neighbourhood of the municipality in terms of size, occupying an area of around 2.255 hectares, with a population of 70.453 people and a demographic density of 31.24 inhabitants/hectare. It is a tree-rich residential neighbourhood cut by the Capirabe River, where the Federal University of Pernambuco (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco – UFPE), the Federal Institute of Pernambuco (Instituto Federal de Pernambuco (IFPE)) and the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco – UFRPE) are located.3 The Várzea square, where the EAV activities take place, is a strategic place of the neighbourhood and a great stage for cultural activities, being the focus point of 2  The first EAV action took place on March 3, 2018, when the fair opened. This date is celebrated annually, including online, in 2021. 3  Source: CENSO Demográfico, 2010. Results of the universe: characteristics of the population and households. Available at http://www.ibge.gov.br. Accessed in April.2021.

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Fig. 12.1  Aerial view of the neighbourhood. (Source: Benedito Medrado)

political manifestation, as well as artistic manifestations, music festivals, reading rounds, gyms, sports centres and tracks. The historical, cultural and environmental particularities have caused a recent phenomenon of territorial occupation of high-rise buildings that advance over old houses, green areas, granges, fields and orchards, which are responsible for the pleasant climate and the neighbourhood’s landscape. What can be observed, therefore, is that real estate capital is expanding through the East Region of the city, destroying living social spaces and transforming the neighbourhood’s landscape with buildings and new economic developments (stores, schools, etc.), and the incremental flux of automobiles and the following increase of pollution. The struggle for the construction of the Agroecological Space of Várzea is situated likewise in the struggle of the community to the city. Its inhabitants, by organizing themselves, are occupying the public space with community activities, fun and educational, aiming to strengthen a style of sociability that is more solidary and more resistant to the logic of predatory urban occupation, promoted by the economic viewpoint of real estate capital. In this sense, the Agroecological Space of Várzea (EAV) was born as a valorization project of family farming and also of a way of sociability that is more solidary, as a strategy to resist the predatorial urban occupation logic, promoted by the logic of the real estate capital, with the aim of (a) increasing the number of clients who have a critical view of nutritional, cultural, environmental education and social rights, (b) economically strengthening family agriculture and integrating leisure and cultural production spaces for the larger population, and (c) developing political and

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pedagogical strategies for integrating inhabitants and promoting debates of agroecology and human rights. In program terms, EAV was defined in six action axis (as shown on picture 3): (1) commercialization (selling healthy produce at an easily accessible farmers’ market), (2) education (from community actions, involving thematic conversation circles, during the farmers’ market), (3) culture (through fun and cultural and artistic activities to facilitate the approach of complex themes and the interaction between people), (4) health promotion (via integrated practices during the market and other community actions), (5) communication (spreading information and knowledge via adapted language and means to different interlocutors) and (6) network articulation (via partnerships with other groups of organizations that act in the theme of agroecology, food sovereignty and safety and human rights. Thus, in methodological terms, this initiative included the following: • The realization of weekly fairs to sell agroecological products, every Saturday at Praça Pinto Dâmaso (Praça da Várzea) from 7 h to 10 h, with the participation of family farmers and the clients who support the initiative. • The creation of a political and pedagogical stand, which was fondly called “the PF stand”, after a world reference in the field of education (Paulo Freire, who was born in Recife).4 In it, we dialogued and distributed free leaflets and publications such as materials that allude to the promotion of human rights (specially about themes related to feminism, agroecological rural extension, racial equality, LGBT rights, rights to the city and other similar themes), beyond other preserves and inputs. • Dialogue rounds about agroecology, human rights and citizenship, which include dialogue spaces open to the entire community, about themes surrounding agroecology and its cross-sections. • Promoting cultural and political activities during the agroecological fair, valuing local artists with themes related to agroecology, sustainable consumption and human rights, among others. • Exchange between clients and farmers, linking urban and rural contexts, from scheduled meetings between clients and farmers to achieve previously defined actions agreed with the farmers and for the observation of the life dynamics and production of the farmers who sold their produce at the agroecological space at Várzea. This opportunity contributed in widening the knowledge and the experiences in urban agriculture of young people and women from the Várzea neighbourhood who planted and commercialized produce, flowers, medicinal plants as well as artisanal beer in their backyards and little farms. • Horticulture and production benefits workshops, with the participation of farmers as moderators, considering their experiences and knowledge in the themes.

4  This name was produced from a pun with the acronym PF, which is generally used in Brazil to refer to “Prato Feito”, which designates a relatively cheap basic meal served and enjoyed in medium- and low-quality bars and restaurants; it consists, in general, of beans, rice and/or pasta, salad and some type of animal protein.

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Fig. 12.2  Photos of activities. (Source: Benedito Medrado)

• Producing and divulging communication material via a documentary about the urban-rural interchanges and other socio-educational materials about the importance of agroecology, conscious consumption, and the promotion of human rights, for pedagogical and political ends. • Visitations to public schools, developed around young people that developed awareness to themes related to ecological and sustainable production of the project and acted as partners in these visitations. • Organizing a seminar called “Agroecology: education, culture and human rights”, with the participation of clients, farmers, partners and members of other agroecological fairs, with the aim to strengthen agroecological action networks and healthy and aware consumption. The following pictures show some of these activities (Fig. 12.2):

12.4  Dialogues About/with That Experience As you read this, it is possible that you have prepared or had one of your daily meals. However, have you ever stopped to think about the origin of the food you handled? Where is it from? Do you know the hands, feet and people that grew it until it reached you? Is the time and effort required to plant a single potato, bean, lettuce, kale, tomato or sweet potato to get care and reach your home considered when calculating the value of nutrition throughout the day? Let us imagine that this product was acquired in a community farmer’s market of the neighbourhood: one in the neighbourhood of Várzea in Recife, in a university campus of the Federal University of Pernambuco, in the Northeast of Brazil.

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On a sunny Saturday, before being cut short by COVID-19, you wake up at six in the morning and get in your car or take a bus or ride your bike or maybe walk from your house to the neighbourhood’s main square. Upon reaching there, you see some stands with fruits and vegetables, as well as other processed foods (breads, cakes, natural sandwiches), and at the centre, there are some places to sit down, drink some coffee or some tea and talk to other people around you. The tables are laid in front of a stand that is called “Paulo Freire Stand”. On it there are leaflets, posters, texts and many images that invite you to a dialogue about agroecology, feminism, racial inequality, sexual rights and paternity, among others. Here you can get organic food planted and cropped by the people and families in the stands, which are identified by the name of the association they represent. It is also possible that as you enter the square, you will find a talk circle between women and men about some subject or theme, for example, right to water, racism, youth, mental health care, paternity exercise, urban exploration and so on; sometimes, you will also be able to participate to a yoga session or find a talk circle with guests who might have come to share their experiences and ideas that can help us think about our relationships with the city, the field, children, ourselves and others. On other Saturdays, you could also watch and participate in theatre plays and musical presentations with regional artists. You will feel very well, probably, and return home with a series of agroecological products but also with other information, memories, affections and issues that you will access at some point in your day to live in public spaces and create caring relationships with yourself and others in the city. It is possible that you may return to this farmers’ market in Várzea at other times, and every day you will have participated in actions by groups linked to social movements that will present to you a series of values and issues that compose a scenario of discussion in care practices that seeks to situate us in a dynamic that articulates biodiversity policies in our lives. Among other questions, we are situated in a territory that seeks to think about links between differences, awakening in you, but also in us, the willingness that links us to the environment, thinking of us and the Earth as indissociable and non-hierarchized elements. In this line of memory production, we have known for a few months a text written by Ailton Krenak (2020), indigenous leader, Brazilian environmentalist, philosopher, poet and writer of the Krenake ethnicity, which you might have heard of at some point, from a book called Ideas to Stop the End of the World (Ideias para adiar o fim do mundo), which resulted in the lecture at Lisbon University on March 12, 2019. In this text-speech, the author tells us about their relationship with the Earth and how we can build a better relationship with rivers, seas, other animals and plants to think about a better world, allowing us to connect to these elements as part of our humanity, in a less hierarchical way. In this book, Krenak (2020) speaks briefly about this connection with Mother Earth, such as Pacha Mama, Gaia, important to move our relationships with things and people in their aspect of merchandise and technique, a marked aspect in our contemporary society. This aspect would be dimensioned by a partnership and integration relationship with the Earth, which cares for us by providing us with air, water, fruits, vegetables

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and so many other foods that allow us to survive. Attention to this critical understanding of what we have cultivated and fed us would be an element that would ensure our connection with so many elements that surround and care for us. With time, we would like you to approach the reading of this text by connecting to these elements to the Várzea’s fairs, the spaces and environments that we circulate in different ways of life and from places, but that allows us to give that territory (which is not limited in its material architecture) a dimension of care that keeps in mind the construction of our subjectivities from a belonging dynamic and of a relationship that takes community dynamic relevant and familiar in the process of building links to agriculture and the Earth. In this way, we understand that the territory is the relational space “in between”, which allows us to build close and deep relationships, understanding what José Reis (2015) calls an action space across which different actors move through. In this sense, the territory acts over us and also allows us to move through it, composing and allowing us to revisit our experiences, the way we build the experience in ourselves. We can think about these critical compositions taking territory as a connection component with care practices but also how they handle many political and social agents that ensure the strengthening of the labour that we exercise in the territory not only as a product/merchandise and technique: there is something in the experience that we establish in the territory that makes us experience frontier dynamics, which regards the construction process and the deconstruction of ways of being in the world. In this way, we understand that our experience in an agroecological space situated in a specific territory allows us to build conditions to propose possible dialogues about differences, building from a condition dialogue of intersection between different vulnerabilities that are put to the scene and articulated in the construction of a care that is not only with nutrition but with the environment and the places that locate us territorially, dimensioned by gender relations, familiarities, communities and other elements that compose our experiences of being in the world. At the same time, a community psychosocial reading allows to identify, in the development of this experience, the progressive construction with the bond among the different subjects that participated in the strengthening of alliances and other initiatives, such as the ones that resulted (1) in the reactivation of neighbourhood association, (2) in the intense political action during the last electoral process, (3) in the defence of an old colonial house that it will be restored and become the setting for a farmer’s market and (4) in the consolidation and widening of a solidarity space in the neighbourhood for children’s structural, leisure and psycho-pedagogical support. In the same way, there has been an increase in learning about the path and the process of food production and the new meanings around nutrition, family agriculture and sustainable economy.

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12.5  Final Considerations The loss of biodiversity, the intense use of agrotoxins with a serious impact in the natural resources and human health and the growing deforestation in preservation areas to establish monocultures or pastures have been pointed out, among others, as serious problems generated by the food production pattern from industrial agriculture (de Oliveira et al., 2019; Altieri, 2012). This model of agrofood system with the use of a high technological standard is present in several countries in the sphere of the advancement of capital in rural environments through the modernization of agriculture and has counted with the preference of the governing parties to finance the public major capital big international corporations and businessmen that act in the rural environment and greatly control the means of production, circulation, pricing and access to quality food (Costa et al., 2019; de Oliveira et al., 2019; Gracia-Arnaiz, 2019). On the other hand, there have been many criticisms (via debates and/or challenging experiences) to this productive matrix in the face of the proposition of a new paradigm that, under environmental sustainability, defends food production strategies that integrate not only the handling of natural resources and social relationships (Caporal, 2009). In this sense, agroecology has constituted itself as an important field of knowledge capable of pointing out scenarios for a more sustainable agriculture, in a manner that it replaces the terms of the debate about agrofood production through a perspective that believes in profound dialogue between the historically involved knowledge in this production. Thus, Altieri (2012) understands it as “a discipline that makes available the basic ecological principles such as study, projection and handling of agroecosystems that are productive and at the same conserve natural resources, as well as being culturally and socially adapted and economically viable” (p. 105) (translated by the authors). Caporal (2009) emphasizes that an agroecological transition does not mean merely replacing these managements with less harmful forms to the environment but the emergence of new socio-environmental knowledge in the articulation between local knowledge and scientific knowledge that is politically and culturally sensitive. It also implies, according to the author, in a process that demands structural changes that guarantee some conditions for a sustained transition: access to land and other production resources through public policies, participation mechanisms for the agents involved/those in ecologically based agriculture projects and guaranteeing the rights of such agents in view of their sociocultural diversity (gender, ethnic-racial and regional). Many are the agents mobilized by the agroecological perspective: researchers and technicians from state agencies, members of social movements in the countryside and cities, university professors and, above all, family farmers. From their interactions, intense and rich debates emerge, as well as various research initiatives, technical assistance and rural extension. Important political fronts are also opening up for government bodies and other sectors of society to recognize agroecology as

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an important strategy for guaranteeing food security and sovereignty and for sustainable coexistence between productive practices and ecological balance. As Chonchol (2005) warns, all of this occurred amid deterioration in the role of national states in the development and application of sound agricultural policies. According to this author, this process has led “[...] to the disappearance of food sovereignty of many of many countries, along with an intensification of the differences between the most developed and poorer regions” (p. 47) (translated by the authors). As a counterpoint, we can mention the effect of these disputes, in the case of Brazil the creation of the National Policy for Agroecology and Organic Production (Política Nacional de Agroecologia e Produção Orgânica  – PNAPO), created by Decree 7794/2012 in the government of Dilma Rousseff, which prioritized interministerial actions in favour of an ecological transition and identifies important agents of this process. Among such agents, there is a highlight given to the family farmers about which there is massive literature pointing out how, historically, they have contributed to the production of healthy food via sustainable handling of natural resources, ensuring the diversity and the production of GMO-free organisms as well as those free from chemical contaminants (Costa et al., 2019; van der Ploeg, 2013; Altieri, 2008; de Marcos, 2007). In this way, family agriculture has shown itself as important means of productive insertion in societies. In a review study of world data census, Benjamin Graeub et al. (2016) identified that rural family establishments represented 98% of agropecuary units in the planet and are responsible for 53% of the world food production. Also highlighted is the preservation of an important sociocultural patrimony (Schneider, 2016; Wanderley, 2014). Unlike the contemporary agri-food system – which consists of an intense process of industrialization and commercialization of food through long chains, governed by large capitalist corporations with strict control over the domains of production and consumption, causing severe environmental costs (de Oliveira et al., 2019) – family farming has made it possible for urban consumers to have access to healthy and economically accessible food, respecting territorial and cultural diversity in their production processes and leading short sales channels, in order to promote greater interactions, especially of trust and sociocultural exchanges between producers and consumers in urban centres (Letícia Amaral et al., 2020). These interactions have been consolidated, on the one hand, by the changes in the profile of these consumers who are increasingly demanding foods with a higher nutritional content, with a known origin and free of agrochemicals (Schneider & Ferrari, 2015). On the other hand, farmers/family members have shown, especially with the support of public policies, the ability to meet this new profile, in view of the accumulation of knowledge and practices that affect sustainable agriculture. To do so, this requires new political positions and new alliances from this social group that challenge the dominant agri-food model by proposing alternative strategies. We agree with Schneider and Ferrari (2015, p.  57) that the historical resistance produced by small producers to such an agri-food model involves actions of:

12  Urban and Rural Articulations in an Agroecological Space in the Brazilian Northeast 193 (...) recovery and revaluing artisanal process, the “know-how” linked to the historic and cultural patrimony. In practice, new enterprises and ways to approach the market were created, as well as collective organization in associations and cooperatives, in which farmers were the protagonists and counted with the partnership of many agents. (translated by the authors)

Among some of these strategies, commercialization through short chains has a fundamental role in promoting direct sales actions to the consuming public, a fact that brings both agents closer to a project that is also political, as they are the defence of a society project, in which a rural and urban articulation is fundamental for the sustainable production of food and for the revaluation of family agriculture in the scenario of environmental threat experienced today. In the same measure, the approach to significant agendas in the field of human rights and the feminist agenda has potentiated the agroecological initiatives in Latin America. In this context, open markets stand out as an important mechanism for promoting important micropolitical encounters between different subjects and collectives that are investing in the ethical-political and pedagogical project of agroecology. By directly connecting with consumers, farmers offer them the opportunity to learn about the intricacies of their products and share the history of the food for sale, making room for a dialogical experience that restores knowledge made invisible by the dominant logic of agri-food production. In the same measure, they are open to dialogues about social inequalities marked by gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity that make these experiences even more potent.

References Altieri, M. (2008). Small Farms as a Planetary Ecological Asset: Five Key Reasons Why We Should Support the Revitalisation of Small Farms in the Global South. Environment E Development Series 7, Third World Network. Altieri, M. (2012). Bases científicas para uma agricultura sustentável. Editora Expressão Popular/AS.PTA. Altieri, M. A. (2010). Agroecologia, agricultura camponesa e soberania alimentar. Revista Nera, 13(16), 22–32. https://doi.org/10.47946/rnera.v0i16.1362 Amaral, L. S., Santos, C. J., Souza, C. R., Penha, T. A. M., & Araújo, J. P. (2020). O papel das cadeias curtas de comercialização na construção de um modelo de desenvolvimento rural sustentável no semiárido nordestino: o caso da Central De Comercialização Da Agricultura Familiar Do Rio Grande do Norte (CECAFES). Desenvolv. Meio Ambiente, 55, Edição especial – Sociedade e ambiente no Semiárido: controvérsias e abordagens, pp. 494–516. Caporal, F.  R. (2009). Agroecologia: uma nova ciência para apoiar a transição a agriculturas mais sustentáveis. Brasília:The authors Chonchol, J. (2005). A soberania alimentar. Estudos Avançados, 19(55), 33–48. https://doi. org/10.1590/S0103-­40142005000300003 Costa, M. G., Dimenstein, M., & Leite, J. F. (2019). Feminismos e agroecologia: lutas contemporâneas na cidade. In M. L. M. Bosi, S. D. Prado, & L. A. Santos (orgs.), Cidade, corpo e alimentação: aproximações interdisciplinares (pp. 69–98). EDUFBA. de Marcos, V. (2007). Agroecologia e campesinato: uma nova lógica para a agricultura do futuro. Agrária, 7, 182–210. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1808-­1150.v0i7p182-­210

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de Moraes, L. L., Jalil, L. M., dos Santos, J. H., Costa, M. A. G., & Oliveira, M. S. L. (2018). Pedagogia Feminista como processo educativo para a reflexão da política pública de ATER no Nordeste. Revista Interritórios, 4(6), 05–29. de Oliveira, A. L. A., da Cruz, F. T., & Schneider, S. (2019). Sustentabilidade e escolhas alimentares: por uma biografia ambiental dos alimentos. Sustentabilidade em Debate, 10(1), 146–158. https://doi.org/10.18472/SustDeb.v10n1.2019.19280 Freire, P. (1999). Educação como prática da liberdade. Paz e Terra. Freitas, M. F. Q. (2007). Intervenção psicossocial e compromisso: desafios às políticas públicas. In A. M. Jacó-Vilela & L. Sato (Eds.), Diálogos em Psicologia Social (pp. 329–344). Evangraf. Gracia-Arnaiz, Mabel (2019). Itinerarios alimentarios en contextos de precarización: otras formas de comer, otras formas de vivir. In M. L. M. Bosi, S. D. Prado, & L. A. Santos (orgs.), Cidade, corpo e alimentação: aproximações interdisciplinares (pp. 257–278). EDUFBA. Graeub, B., Chappell, J., Wittmand, H., Ledermann, S., Kerr, R. B., & Gemmill-Herrena, B. (2016). The state of family farms in the world. World Development, 87, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. worlddev.2015.05.012 Krenak, A. (2020). Ideias para adiar o fim do mundo. Companhia das letras. Martín-Baró, I. (1986/2011). Para uma psicologia da libertação. In R. S. L. Guzzo & F. Lacerda Jr. (Eds.), Psicologia social para América Latina: O resgate da psicologia da libertação (pp. 181–198). Campinas. Pretty, J., Morrison, J.  I. L., & Hine, R.  E. (2003). Reducing food poverty by increasing agricultural sustainability in developing countries. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 5, 217–234. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-­8809(02)00087-­7 Reis, J. (2015). Território e políticas do território. A interpretação e a ação. Finisterra, L, 100, 107–122. https://doi.org/10.18055/Finis7868 Santos, B.  S. (2007). Para além do pensamento abissal: das linhas globais a uma ecologia de saberes. Novos Estudos – CEBRAP. São Paulo, 79, 71–94. Retrieved from: http://www.scielo. br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0101-­33002007000300004&lng=en&nrm=iso. Acesso em: 02/04/2021. Schneider, S. (2016). A presença e as potencialidades da agricultura familiar na América Latina e no Caribe. Redes, 21(3), 11–33. https://doi.org/10.17058/redes.v21i3.8390 Schneider, S., & Ferrari, D. L. (2015). Cadeias curtas, cooperação e produtos de qualidade na agricultura familiar – o Processo de relocalização da produção agroalimentar em Santa Catarina. Organizações Rurais & Agroindustriais, 17(1), 56–71. Recuperado de: https://www.redalyc. org/articulo.oa?id=87838281006 van der Ploeg, J. D. (2013). Peasant-driven agricultural growth and food sovereignty. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 41, 999–1030. Wanderley, M.  N. B. (2014). O campesinato brasileiro: uma história de resistência. Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural, 52(1), 25–44. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-­20032014000600002

Chapter 13

“The Work That Makes One Live Alive”: The Meanings of Work for Rural Settlers Thelma Maria Grisi Velôso and Valéria Morais da Silveira Sousa

13.1  Introduction The aim of this chapter emerged from the restlessness provoked by a piece of research carried out by one of the authors of this text, which analyzed memories of the struggle of small farmers from a rural settlement on the south coast of Paraíba (Brazil) for land (Velôso, 2002). In the abovementioned research, the category “work” spontaneously emerged in the accounts of small farmers, although it was not the primary object of investigation, and urged a reflection on “the meanings of work for rural settlers.” But what is work? Firstly, in order to define what work is, one has to consider the specificities of the historical and social moment as well as the features of the different categories of workers that exist today. As pointed out by Batista and Codo (2010, p.402), by taking into account the long-gone industrial revolution, which started in England in the second half of the eighteenth century, and the reality imposed by the changes it implemented, a need arose for “men to become accustomed to the new living and working conditions” and to leave behind their “socio-historical past characterized by agriculture and servitude” (translated by the authors). The changes have caused “the children of modernity and capitalist modernization” to comprehend feudal society as being static. Work, once directly associated with human ability, started to assume different contours, which have brought it a direct and intrinsic association with productive processes, in the interior of which the human “soul” was not present: work-machine-man. A new entity emerged to compose the transformation-­creation dynamic. What once was a dyad has now turned into a triad. This scenario presents aspects related to both the transformation of production process technology and, in its interior, the social relations, notably modified. As stated by Seligman-Silva (2011), apart from the aforementioned changes, thinking T. M. G. Velôso (*) · V. M. da Silveira Sousa Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_13

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about work through history makes us think about the new ways of managing and organizing work, which are two aspects that intersect. The author resents the fact that these changes are more related to form than, necessarily, to essence, which leads us to reflect on the fact that significant changes, such as the technological apparatus, do not represent, necessarily, gains for the workers. In addition, it is important to highlight that the so-called productive restructuring, associated with loosening work relations, is an element of significant influence to the worsening of a worrying scenario and points to the need to locate work in time, in space, in social relations, and in other dimensions of life in society, so that it can present itself as a category surpassing the idea that essentially refers to the sale of labor force aiming at financial return and remuneration (Lancman, 2004). Work is a human activity, coordinated by “human,” considering it is done by men and women, and it is directed toward the achievement of that which is not predicted within labor organization or its prescription (Gernet & Dejours, 2011). Evoking its subjective dimension, the fact of working implies “gestures, know-how, bodily engagement, the mobilization of intelligence, the ability to reflect, interpret and react to situations; it is the power to feel, think and create” (Dejours, 2004d, p.28, emphasis added) (translated by the authors). Showing no pretense to exhausting a reflection with regard to such dense and enigmatic category and recognizing that, in order to understand it, psychology “unfolds itself through several positions, with varied epistemological and/or ontological approaches and affiliations” (Santos & Traesel, 2018, p. 20) (translated by the authors), it is important to point out that the notion of work we began with in this study is aligned with the Dejourian perspective, which considers the existence of a “social remuneration” that points toward work as an “integration and determination factor of the group with certain social rights,” besides pointing out its “psychic function: it is one of the great foundations for the subject’s constitution and its network of meanings” (Lancman, 2004, p.29) (translated by the authors). The “meaning of work” concept, according to Antal, Debucquet, and Frémeaux (2018, as quoted in Ferraz & Fernandes, 2019, p. 166) (translated by the authors), has not reached a consensus in literature; however, convergence is found among researchers that “it deals with an alignment between individual aspirations and perceived achievements,” a thought we share with and which evokes the dimension of subjectivity and its relation to work, as pointed out by Alves (2011, p.128), while proposing an “investigative agenda which can articulate multidisciplinary fields within a critical perspective,” aiming to unveil the existing relationship about what the author believes to be the nexus between the ideology of capital and the “grasp of subjectivity.” In the dynamic of the construction of the meaning of work, it is important to highlight “the person as the subject of social life,” as pointed out by Rey (2011, p.116), when he states that such a person: is not an isolated individual, but a key piece to generate new practices and social fabrics. In any social context, the person is capable of generating alternatives of subjectivation which can lead to the genesis of new spaces of subjectivity and social action. (translated by the authors)

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We have noted that the meaning of work points to a fruitful interface among the person, the subjectivity, and the several social contexts, particularly the contexts of work. From the standpoint of psychodynamics of work, there is a dialectical relationship between pleasure and suffering while working, and it is within this context that meaning is produced, insofar as confrontation with the reality of work beyond its prescription is established, considering that work always implies a confrontation with the real, since it “operates within a field in which the subject (the person at work), the real (in other words, the prescribed organization which determines parameters through which one works), and the other one act” (Dejours, 2004b, p.305) (translated by the authors). Although the discussion regarding the meaning of work, as we have already stated, is non-­consensual among researchers, we perceive the need to “understand the meanings of work as a unity, in the field of ideas, of negative and positive aspects, which appear, at first sight, as dilemmas, but express contradictions of the real” (Ferraz & Fernandes, 2019, p.182) (translated by the authors). Thus, we take the knowledge of the working person with regard to his own experiences as an axis which sustains the meanings produced. Taking as a starting point the findings on the meanings of work for rural settlers found by Velôso (2002), the defined aim of this chapter is to reflect upon the meanings the Brazilian land reform settlers build on work they do as family farmers. This reflection will be deepened by means of the results of some pieces of research carried out in different fields of knowledge with settlers who have experienced different paths (wage earners, squatters, and so on), dialoguing with the social psychology of work and some concepts of psychodynamics of work. Searching for some alignment between these two theoretical perspectives, we understand that, for both, work is just as much a central category in the analysis of working conditions (Sato et  al., 2017) as it is in the process of self-fulfillment (Sznelwar, 2004). Although, within the field of social psychology of work, few studies concerning the countryside have been conducted, as pointed out by Scopinho (2017), it is important to highlight that this perspective, which “dedicates itself to the study of work relations and conditions” (Scopinho, 2017, p.128) (translated by the authors), has, in its theoretical-methodological framework, the ability to shed light on the understanding of the meaning given to work by the rural settlers, given that, as noted by Sato (2003), it concerns a discipline that attaches importance to the social and human problems at work and that takes into account phenomena such as identity, social interaction processes, perception and social cognition processes, as well as subjectivity. This is a psychology that builds upon the reading of social psychology and social sciences and that considers the importance of understanding work according to the worker’s own perspective, since he is the one who experiences it directly (Sato et al., 2008). By taking the theoretical dimension of the psychodynamics of work as the basis for the meaning given to work in the rural environment as well, we take into account their viewpoint on the relationship between the subject who works, work itself, work organization, and working conditions (Dejours, 2004a) and the fact that the meanings given to this work are varied and point to both pleasure and suffering experiences and thus are dynamic. We align ourselves with Dejours’ thought that

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“the relationship between work organization and man is not a rigid block, but it is in a continuous movement” (Dejours, 2004a, p.58) (translated by the authors). When talking about movement, we emphasize the dynamism existing in the relationship among work, man and the land, leading us to the question: which “working” are we dealing with here?

13.2  Working on the “Land for Work” Land concentration in Brazil is an unquestionable historical fact (Casttelan et al., 2020), and the Brazilian land reform process was triggered off especially from the collective organization of the rural population that, through several social movements, pressed the State apparatus and, in certain contexts or governments, managed to have its claims met and public policies created “for landless people, rural workers, and traditional populations as rural settlement programs, rural extension, education and commercialization, for instance” (Penna & Rosa, 2015, p. 57) (translated by the authors). According to Santos and Hennington (2013), the so-called rural settlements are agricultural production units, areas for dwellings, work, and sociability. Accordingly, El Khalil and Carvalho (2019, p. 181) highlight that the struggle for land and the constitution of rural settlements, apart from providing the right to a piece of land, also guarantee “health, quality of life, work and income.” The struggle for land has guaranteed the “social production and reproduction out of the capital logic, that is, it is the guarantee of the peasant’s way of life” (translated by the authors). The significant growth of the struggle for land movement in this country happened in the 1990s, exactly when the neoliberal policies were implemented, as mentioned by Coletti (2006). In this context, the growth of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) – Landless Rural Workers Movement – is noticed, and as stated by the author, it has become the biggest demonstration of the political struggle for land movement in the country, as well as one of the most relevant social movements of opposition to the neoliberal project. In a context of both bankruptcy of thousands of small farmers and the rise in rural and urban unemployment rates, the movement has expanded and summoned these categories to struggle for land ownership and the constitution of rural settlements. As highlighted by the author, the progress of the movement and the consolidation of the rural settlement policy happened in a context which has been favored by economic, social, and political aspects, such as the weakening of the political power of the agrarian bourgeoisie and rural landowners, bearing in mind the neoliberal policy concerning the strengthening of the financial capital. The struggle process to constitute a settlement even within propitious contexts does not exclude violence, since, in many cases, the occupation of unproductive land holding and the requirement of expropriation have culminated in tragedies and deaths. Another aspect to be highlighted, as pointed out by Coca (2013), is the existence of different kinds of struggle which have generated different kinds of

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settlements, not only those which were created through expropriation but also those created through land regulation, purchase, recognition, or donation. However, whenever the rural settlers have legal ownership over the land and turn it into a space of living and production, they exert dominance over the territory, which is to say, they have power. In a study conducted on governmental actions directed to implementing land reform from 1995 onward, Casttelan et al. (2020, p. 159) concluded that one cannot state that a proper land reform has been conducted in the country, since, despite the attempts to begin an agrarian reorganization policy, “its execution has not met the needs of the agrarian issue in any moment in history” (translated by the authors). According to the aforementioned authors, the actions taken were merely palliative and sought to control agrarian and ideological conflicts and tensions provoked by the land struggle movement. Nowadays, due to the political setback the country is going through, fine-tuned with neoliberal interests, the situation has worsened, and, according to the authors, there is a possibility for land expropriation and redistribution process to become extinct. Obviously, within this context, rural settlements are also being affected, since public policies which were used before for this category are now being considered of little use, which is extremely worrying, since the reform limits itself neither to “land access” nor to the “legal recognition of its ownership,” the reason why actions should also be taken in order to keep the rural farmer as an autonomous worker (Coca, 2013, p. 194) (translated by the authors). The Brazilian land structure is notably unequal (Carvalho, 2015 as quoted in El Khalil & Carvalho, 2019) and is characterized in different ways, in geographic, economic, demographic, and cultural terms. Such features directly interfere with the way of life of the rural population and in the meanings attributed to work (Santos & Merlo, 2019). Rural settlers form a heterogeneous group with different life paths. Rural settlements, in many cases, gather people of different origins, cultures, motivations, and so on; therefore, the settlers are “bearers of different territorialities” (Terra, 2019, p. 198) (translated by the authors). However, the literature review we have conducted shows many points in common with regard to the meanings the settlers give to work. Thus, adding to these pieces of research, we are interested in the meanings the rural settlers build on work on the pieces of land they conquered, as a result of the struggle for land, where they develop family farming and raise animals, such as poultry, pigs, horses, cattle, and goats, which serve for consumption and commercialization at street markets or by means of “middlemen” who buy their products and resell them. Regarding family farming, as highlighted by Santos and Hennington (2013, p. 1595), work and ways of life are interconnected, “mostly in small rural production in which social production and reproduction happen at the same time and territory” (translated by the authors). Work does not have a fixed workday. Sometimes, it begins before sunrise and ends at sunset. It depends, among other aspects, on the time of the year and climate conditions, and therefore, it is subject to conditions defined by nature and the decisions of the small farmers. Time is not determined by clock but by weather, product maturation, etc. (Santos & Merlo, 2019). However, the aforementioned authors highlight that these decisions on how to deal with time and work are increasingly undergoing changes on account of the requirements of

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the market and technologies, which replace “wait time” with “production time,” getting close to functioning as a business. It obviously does not occur without resistance though. In the research carried out by Santos and Merlo (2019, p.204), for instance, it has been noted that female farmers establish “different appropriations of their time and work” and “subvert patterns in pursuing some freedom for their creativity and doings” (translated by the authors). Although social reproduction within this group is conditioned to capitalist relations (Marcelites & Christoffoli, 2019), this kind of agriculture has survived and strengthened, and these small farmers have kept a world view which still follows particular ethical, moral, and cultural values. Therefore, work acquires a different meaning from a specific relationship with land for work (Lima et al., 2019). The peasant condition is constituted, as stated by Tafuri and Gonçalves Júnior (2020), through an educational experience lived by way of a specific relation to land for work in the course of different life paths – struggle for land, for instance, is a social practice that generates educational processes. Thus, it is imperative to distinguish the working process developed in a peasant family economy from what is developed in a capitalist company (Woortmann & Woortmann, 1997). The aforementioned authors stress that the peasant know-how distinguishes radically from factory work, which is fragmented, repetitive, and where knowledge and labor force operate separately: In contrast, the peasant working process is conscious. The ‘father-boss’ is not an equivalent to the modern businessperson, since he holds knowledge. He is the holder of a kind of knowledge which allows him to rule over the working process, that is, to conduct family work. This knowledge is then passed to the ‘labor force’, to the children who, by working, are also becoming ‘full connoisseurs’. Furthermore, among peasants, ruling is an ideological process: children, after a certain age, get to know the working process just as much as their father, and the same holds for women and eventual wage-earners. (Woortmann & Woortmann, 1997, p. 13, emphasis added) (translated by the authors)

These authors add that, through work, besides producing food, the small farmer also produces culture – it is a chaining of technical and symbolic actions, in which ideas are also reproduced. Within the peasant universe, work is foundational, which is to say it is a “category of thought or of a founding concept,” a way “of thinking, of representing,” giving support “to a theoretical construction or to a world view” (Woortmann & Woortmann, 1997, p.  146) (translated by the authors), elements which also characterize other professional categories or work collectives but which are, in this study, highlighted within the context of small farmers in rural settlements. Work expresses an ethical and moral conception and becomes a material activity only by means of an ideal activity  – knowledge. It is the mastery of know-how, which confers to the father the power to direct agricultural activity and, by extension, the family. At the same time that practical work is also symbolic work, it is penetrated by gender and age questions and is human-defining. The symbolic use of work tools directly reflects on gender spaces. Therefore, when the hoe is new, it belongs to the father and designates the work category, but as it begins to wear out, becoming lighter and less productive, it is passed to women and designates the help

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category. At last, as it gets severely worn out, it is then passed to children, to have some fun with, and designates leisure. Therefore, there is a relationship between the life cycle of tools, people’s life cycle, hierarchy, and gender (Woortmann & Woortmann, 1997). The authors add that working the land is valued by small farmers although in a less utilitarian and market-oriented way – the land is basically land for work. With regard to this, Amorim et al. (2011, p.1) point out a certain level of hybridization between the peasant rationality and the market-oriented economic rationality although stating that, “within the settler’s work,” there is a clear appreciation of elements such as “autonomy, alternativity, non-instrumentalization of work and unity with pleasure and leisure” (translated by the authors), which brings to light the prevalence of peasant rationality, in whose essence a sense of work which shows resistance toward the capitalist and proletarian patterns is noted. In the analysis of the accounts of rural settlers, carried out by Velôso (2002), the author highlights that, for them, “working for yourself” is a moral duty: “it is nice to die working, rather than stealing or killing.” For them, work is the opposite of vagrancy. “Working for yourself” provides freedom/autonomy and ensures subsistence; it is that which makes “one live alive” – “those who do not work are living already dead,” despite the adversities of “work life.” In this sense, working the land requires youthful vitality. It is a craft one learns slowly, as know-how is transmitted from the parents, and, little by little, it empowers the small farmer. This practice ensures what Amorim et al. (2011) call family reproduction, making reference to the care the elderly have toward their property preservation, which does not relate to any kind of enterprise in the capitalist sense but is attentive to the value of continuity with regard to work carried out by past generations. A crucial and recurrent aspect, not only in Velôso (2002) but also in other studies (Amorim et al., 2011; Rosa & Svartman, 2018; Santos & Hennington, 2013; Tafuri & Gonçalves Júnior, 2020), is that the settlers draw a rigid distinction between “work for yourself” and “work for others.” “Work for yourself,” in contrast to “work for others,” entails an extremely valued autonomy. Acquiring the land is what makes this autonomy possible and means “the freedom of life and work” (Sant’Ana et al., 2009, p. 288) (translated by the authors). Such autonomy implies the organization and management of the work processes. Small farmers decide, for instance, what to plant and its quantity, as well as the final destination of their produce (Rosa & Svartman, 2018). “Working for others” implies being subject to rules, hierarchy, and control, whereas “working for yourself,” apart from ensuring the fair return of what has been done, makes it possible for the worker to choose “what to do” and “how to do it” (Santos & Hennington, 2013, p. 1558) (translated by the authors). Taking ergological epistemology for their analysis, the aforementioned authors point out that “working for yourself” joins three dimensions: doing what is needed to “lead a material life,” the “dimension of being,” and “being with the others.” With regard to the dimension of what is needed to “lead a material life,” we related it to the sense that evokes survival and subsistence to the settler and his family, as well as his concern about the future and the need for minimal material conditions for subsistence, as Amorim et al. (2011) have pointed out in a research carried out with

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settlers, by indicating certain influence from market economy, without losing sight of the specificities of country life. With regard to the “dimension of being,” it points toward one’s self-recognition at work concerning the position they occupy. These aspects go back to the identity in debate with work as a category, an important relationship with the social psychology of work due to the way it points toward the discussion regarding the place work occupies in the subject’s constitution (Coutinho & Oliveira, 2017). As to the dimension of “being with the others,” it corresponds to the reconstruction of the world on the basis of values shared by the community, which is characterized as a possibility to produce health. We reiterate the viewpoint of Santos and Hennington (2013), as we start from a perspective in which the notion of health and the means of work associated with the notion of cooperation, as referred by Dejours (2004a) as an experience which articulates with people’s will to work together, are elements which, when acting in a joint way, are potential vectors to health production. Still with regard to the relationship between work, health, and disease and reinforcing the meaning related to “work for yourself,” we associate the important statement by Clot (2013) that we need to live/work in contexts we create, since, when done otherwise and this possibility is reduced, the result is that we no longer recognize ourselves in what we do – an open field for the loss of health and the emergence of disease. “Work for yourself” signals a way of life which fits the predominance of self-­ management, of cooperative life, of sharing, and of collaboration. The settlers referred to in the study of Santos and Hennington (2013, p.1598) signal meanings which, by expressing these peculiar features to working the land, take as a comparative reference “the wage-earning work on farms around the settlement or the city – working for the other” (translated by the authors). Among these findings, we have observed elements which suggest meanings of work which are relevant to the important assumption of the social psychology of work, considering that it pays attention to “singular conditions in which work happens, without abstracting them from macrosocial processes which determine them, though” (Sato et al., 2017, p.14) (translated by the authors). A careful reflection cannot lose sight of the fact that, whenever these small farmers refer to “working for others,” they have, as a reference, precarious work conditions that are commonly ruled by subordination and subjection relations, such as work in the sugarcane field or cutting sugarcane at the mills. As studies such as Franco-Benatti et al. (2020) highlight, work in the cane fields, in addition to being underpaid and not respecting work regulations, is done under terrible conditions, exposing the workers to a variety of risks (chemical, physical, biological, etc.) that directly interfere with their physical and mental health, and to tight control, determined by the rhythm and need for productivity of the sugarcane industry. In the study conducted by Amorim et al. (2011), whose objective was to understand and highlight the specificities concerning the work of settlers, it is emphasized, among other findings, their resistance to proletarianization and social exclusion to which they had been submitted in the cities. According to the authors, many of them had experienced unemployment and lack of conditions to maintain a good quality of life through work. Their return to the land happened just as much as

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a result of their struggle for land as for their love for fieldwork as a place of enjoyment and abundance. Under the perspective of the social psychology of work, it was once more observed the singular aspect, the “psychosocial phenomenon, faced in a critical, complex way and determined by the power relations which shape the broader social context” (Bernardo et al., 2017, p.21) (translated by the authors). The return to land movement is a response/resistance to the capitalist production model to which they had been submitted, as they experienced the need to leave their land in pursuit of survival through work with proletarian bases. Returning to land is returning to work, which evokes autonomy “in doing work, in control over the product from work, in relation to market and leading one’s own personal life” (Amorim et al., 2011, p.13) (translated by the authors). Although nowadays, as warned by Santos and Merlo (2019), small farmers are experiencing tension between the possibility of self-management of work – the experience of autonomy and freedom in which time is mediated more by nature than it is by clock – and the imposed needs of neoliberal capitalist market, we agree with Santos and Hennington (2013, p. 1600) when they state that, by “working for yourself,” “creative self-management and the workers” greater autonomy do not eliminate macrosocial constraints and impositions, but enable them to effectively explore the dimension of “use of oneself”, according to their motivations, desires and choices” (Emphasis added) (translated by the authors). The pleasure of “working for yourself,” as highlighted by Tafuri and Gonçalves Júnior (2020, p. 22), “brings feelings of peace and quiet” which autonomous work, among other aspects, makes it possible. Besides, producing healthy food for oneself and others also contributes to the settlers’ appreciation of working the land. Despite “the exhausting nature of working in the fields and the fatigue present in every mark inscribed in the bodies,” this work “presents itself as a sign of freedom and self-determination” (translated by the authors). By analyzing the path taken by a couple until they became rural settlers, Rodrigues and Castro (2015) point out that the fundamental aspects that stand out are the necessity of producing food and being able to eat it, the freedom to “working for yourself,” and its resulting pleasure, apart from the feeling of belonging to a community – the settlement. Resorting to what Dejours (2004c, p. 127) states with regard to work, by conceiving it as “a central concept for one’s self-fulfillment and social bond constitution” (translated by the authors) and considering its potential capacity for being a vector for pleasure experiences, it has been noted that the possibility of selfmanagement in the experience of work of rural settlers promotes the sense of pleasure given by them. Working is feeling pleasure when it means “working for yourself,” managing it, and benefiting from it. The opposite of these experiences, that is, the impediment of self-fulfillment, tends to promote suffering insofar as “it confronts people with external impositions” (Lancman, 2004, p. 32) (translated by the authors). However, this very suffering can also take on a defensive and creative logic. The creative suffering is faced with the real and “finds the path which enables them to overcome the resistance to the real” (Dejours, 2004d, p. 27) (translated by the authors), evoking creativity and bringing

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“a contribution that benefits identity.” On the other hand, whenever “there is nothing but fixed, rigid and inevitable pressure, causing repetition and frustration, boredom, fear or impotence,” this is when one experiences pathogenic suffering (Dejours et al., 1994, p.137) (translated by the authors). Suffering manifests itself in the accounts of the settlers interviewed in the research by Velôso (2002) in the following way: that work ends suffering, ensures subsistence, but is also suffering; one suffers when subject to work overload and is not supported by the head of the family (the father), for being either sick or absent; one suffers because suffering is inherent in work – the worker is the one who works, struggles, and suffers and the one who brings work closer to sacrifice. In the narratives analyzed by this author, “the conception of work, the land and man is produced in the context of a popular traditional Catholicism, in which work is, at the same time, part of the good life concept and also a punishment” (Velôso, 2002, p. 164). There is an ambiguity in the meaning given to “working for yourself”: on the one hand, it sets us free and ensures subsistence; but on the other hand, it is painful, a sacrifice which demands physical effort – it is life but also death, because it destroys. For Dejours (2007), suffering related to work is experienced in different forms and typified from different origins. The lack of support from the head of the family (the father), as mentioned above, leads us to an experience which lacks recognition, precisely on the part of that who, culturally, passes knowledge along and ensures work continuity. Recognition in the sense of gratitude, as pointed out by Dejours (2004a, p.72), “although in most cases given with parsimony,” ranks among experiences the settlers had as an integral part of their social relations, especially those related to family bonds. According to the author, “the meaning given to suffering actually depends on recognition. When the quality of my work is recognized, my efforts, anxieties, doubts, disappointments, discouragements also acquire meaning” (Dejours, 2007, p.34) (translated by the authors). Another aspect which is directly linked to the meanings settlers give to work concerns the relationship between work and entertainment/leisure. According to Velôso (2002), work, as already mentioned, is considered a moral duty, whereas leisure is not valued in the accounts. In another study on youth in a rural settlement, Silva and Barone (2006) have found out that leisure is developed in the very work universe  – as, for instance, a bull riding activity that has been improvised in the settlement. The lack of leisure appears as something negative and depends on the creativity of the youth. On the other hand, Amorim et al. (2011) found out that work and leisure are intimately related in the way the settlers live, considering how they express pleasure while working, which is possible because work is directly related to a certain level of autonomy and freedom. For the rural settlers, work has a certain value in itself, which extrapolates its utilitarian sense. Therefore, the meaning of work, associated with experiences of leisure and entertainment, signals that, for these settlers, there is no separation between the two of them, which opposes what Enriquez (2014) signals, when he reflects on work as the “essence of man,” focusing on leisure, entertainment, and playing as other attributes as regards being human, besides work itself, thus suggesting that there might be some time set aside for leisure, an aspect we agree upon; however, it is worth noting the way these settlers,

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interviewed by Amorim et al. (2011), make a direct association between their experience “at work” and the possibility of experiencing leisure as they work, since they do it autonomously and freely. From this short incursion into the meaning of work related to entertainment and leisure, the existence of different theoretical considerations is inferred, which warns us, once again, about the peculiarities of this context and invites us to broaden the analyses of the relationship between work and entertainment/leisure in rural settlements. It is also important to highlight, as put by El Khalil and Carvalho (2019, p. 174), that the changes favored by the expansion of capitalism, via public policies, in the ways of life of Brazilian countryside have resulted in an extremely conflicting modernization process. “These changes create, territorialize and legitimize agribusiness and attach a situation of marginalization to peasantry” (translated by the authors). Coletti (2006, p. 143) asks himself: How economically viable are rural settlements in the medium and long terms? When even rural bourgeoisie has lost economic and political importance with the adoption of neoliberal prescriptions, what is the actual possibility of (dignified) survival of these settlements and family farming within the scope of such policies? (translated by the authors)

Obviously, we do not have answers for such complex questions, especially within today’s political and ideological context; however, we reiterate that the resistance and struggle of peasants build and rebuild working strategies to remain on the land, providing meanings to work that oppose the capitalist logic. Although peasantry recreates and transforms itself, it does not disappear, and this process gathers, at the same time, the maintenance and dissolution of the system of values and forms of sociability (Amorim et al., 2011). If, on the one hand, nowadays, capital territorializes itself through agribusiness, on the other hand, peasantry territorializes itself by means of rural settlements (Coca, 2013). Thus, as we have just seen, it reinforces a particular way of life and work.

13.3  Final Considerations In this chapter, we are concerned with the meanings the rural settlers from the agrarian reform in Brazil give to work in the pieces of land achieved through struggle for land; we aimed to strengthen and give more visibility to studies within the rural scope besides contributing to the consolidation of rural psychology. The rural settlers have developed family farming and established a relationship with working the land from a certain ethical and moral conception, which opposes, in several aspects, the capitalist logic. Working the land, for them, is a moral duty, the complete opposite of vagrancy, and makes survival and freedom possible when you “working for yourself” – this is what “makes one live alive.” The pleasure that arises from “working for yourself” is directly related to autonomy and freedom to manage the working process and to

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decide the destination of your produce, making it different from “working for someone else.” When the power to act, to do, to create, and to recreate is hindered, an opening to experiencing suffering is noted. However, it is important to notice that, for some rural settlers, suffering is inherent in work when it is a sacrifice involving physical effort. We are concerned about clarifying that the excerpt of the Brazilian peasantry reality presented in this chapter refers to the peasants who, involved in different economic, social, and political contexts, keep themselves in a clear change and recreation; they follow the nuances of the historical realities in which they are inserted, but do not disappear. On the contrary, during this study, we came across rural settlers who are present in Brazilian rural areas, thus demarcating their existence. Far from having a romantic view, we recognize that, in a neoliberal context, there is a large number of new dynamics that change behavior in labor markets, and, regarding the rural settlements, the lack of support from public policies associated with the macrosocial changes, in the current Brazilian situation, has led a large number of rural settlers to search for other alternatives of work, thus creating new obstacles and challenges. Nevertheless, we also admit the historical peasantry resistance as well as the struggling capacity of the movements involved in the struggle for land. In this context, it seems urgent the need to continue with the studies on rural settlements and to overcome the small number of pieces of research into the field of psychology and, more specifically, social psychology of work, since this field has been more concerned about urban issues. It seems urgent to join many other people who believe in what a peasant once said: “Finding a way out is needed where there is no door” (translated by the authors).

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Rey, F. G. (2011). Subjetividade e Saúde: superando a clínica da patologia. Cortez. Rodrigues, A., & Castro, M. F. (2015). O direito fundamental ao trabalho digno e os processos de subjetivação: uma leitura cruzada entre Direito, Marxismo e Psicanálise numa experiência empiricamente vivenciada. Direito & Praxis, 6(3), 134–158. https://doi.org/10.12957/ dep.2015.15660 Rosa, M. P., & Svartman, B. P. (2018). Os sentidos do trabalho camponês na produção de tabaco: submissão nos marcos da agricultura capitalista. Revista AMAzônica, 22(2), 121–148. Retrieved on 30 April 2021, from: https://periodicos.ufam.edu.br/amazonica/article/view/5124 Sant’Ana, A. L., Tarsitano, M. A. A., Silva, F. C., & Modenese, V. S. (2009). O significado da terra: o caso dos assentados da região de Andradina-SP. Retratos de Assentamentos, 12, 275–290. https://doi.org/10.25059/2527-­2594/retratosdeassentamentos/2009.v12i1.58 Santos, J. C. B., & Hennington, E. A. (2013). Aqui ninguém domina ninguém: sentidos do trabalho e produção de saúde para trabalhadores de assentamento do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra. Cad. Saúde Pública, 29(8), 1595–1604. https://doi. org/10.1590/0102-311X00096612 Santos, M. G. S., & Merlo, A. R. C. (2019). Temporalidades rurais: trabalho feminino, sentidos e organização do tempo. Cadernos de Psicologia Social do Trabalho, 22(2), 199–216. https:// doi.org/. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1981-­0490.v22i2p199-­216 Santos, A. G., & Traesel, E. S. (2018). Clínica Psicodinâmica do Trabalho: sentidos do trabalho para agentes comunitários de saúde. Trabalho Em(Cena), 3(3), 18–33. https://doi.org/10.2087 3/2526-­1487V3N3 Sato, L. (2003). Psicologia, saúde e trabalho: distintas construções dos objetivos “trabalho” e “organizações”. In Z. A. Trindade, & A. N. Andrade (Eds.), Psicologia e saúde: um campo em construção (pp. 167–178). Casa do Psicólogo. Sato, L., Bernardo, M.  H., & Oliveira, F. (2008). Psicologia Social do Trabalho e cotidiano: a vivência de trabalhadores em diferentes contextos micropolíticos. Psicologia para a América Latina, 15 [on line] Retrieved on 30 April 2021, from: http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/scielo. php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1870-­350X2008000400010 Sato, L., Coutinho, M. C., & Bernardo, M. H. (2017). A perspectiva da Psicologia Social do Trabalho. In M. C. Coutinho, M. H. Bernardo, & L. Sato (Eds.), Psicologia Social do Trabalho (pp. 11–24). Vozes. Scopinho, R.  A. (2017). A Psicologia Social do Trabalho e os trabalhadores das ruralidades. In M.  C. Coutinho, M.  H. Bernardo, & L.  Sato (Eds.), Psicologia Social do Trabalho (pp. 127–150). Vozes. Seligman-Silva, E. (2011). Trabalho e desgaste mental – o direito de ser dono de si mesmo. Cortez. Silva, P. L., & Barone, L. A. (2006). Lazer, trabalho e sucessão - a juventude em assentamentos de Reforma Agraria no município de Presidente Venceslau/SP. Retratos de Assentamentos, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.25059/2527-­2594/retratosdeassentamentos/2006.v9i1.35 Sznelwar, L. I. (2004). Sobre estes textos da psicodinâmica do trabalho, algumas reflexões. In S. Lancman, & L. I. Sznelwar (Eds.), Christophe Dejours: da psicopatologia à psicodinâmica do trabalho. (pp. 35–43). Fiocruz. Tafuri, D. M., & Gonçalves Júnior, L. (2020). Terra, trabalho e dinheiro: dilemas e tensões da condição camponesa no Assentamento Santa Helena. Retratos de Assentamentos, 23(1), 10–38. https://doi.org/10.25059/2527-­2594/retratosdeassentamentos/2020.v23i1.411 Terra, A. (2019). A pertinência do conceito de território para análise de assentamentos rurais. Rev. NERA, 22(48), 190–205. https://doi.org/10.47946/rnera.v0i48.6372 Velôso, T. M. G. (2002). Frutos da terra: memórias da resistência e luta dos pequenos produtores rurais de Camucim (Pitimbu/Pb). [Tese de Doutorado, Universidade Estadual Paulista]. Woortmann, E.  F., & Woortmann, K. (1997). O trabalho da terra: a lógica e a simbólica da lavoura camponesa. Universidade de Brasília.

Part IV

Gender Relations and Subjectivation Processes

Chapter 14

Poverty and Social Support: An Analysis of Women Living in Rural Communities Bárbara Barbosa Nepomuceno, Verônica Morais Ximenes, Elívia Camurça Cidade, and James Ferreira Moura Jr

14.1  Introduction Poverty has been the subject of research and interventions in various areas of knowledge, both nationally and internationally. Data from IBGE (2020) show that the Northeast region, where 27.2% of the Brazilian population lives, comprise 56.8% of the individuals considered extremely poor (according to a criterion of US$ 1.90 per capita). Life in rural settings is characterized by the presence of poverty, low education, precarious work, and scarcity of services and resources, particularly in the Brazilian Northeast (Silva et al., 2014). According to Leite et al. (2013), rural areas are plagued by a series of problems, such as child mortality, illiteracy, child labor, malnutrition, poverty, precarious roads, insufficient public transportation, and unemployment. Poverty and its psychosocial implications (Cidade et  al., 2012; Accorssi & Scarparo, 2012) can only be understood through a multidimensional and complex analysis of its social and psychological impacts on the constitution of the ways of thinking, acting, and feeling of individuals. After all, as Gomes et al. (2016) emphasize, rural settings simultaneously produce ways of existence and are produced by them. Not only are those settings the stage or context in which interactions occur,

B. B. Nepomuceno (*) · E. C. Cidade Ari de Sá College – Psychology Course, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil V. M. Ximenes Federal University of Ceará, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil J. F. Moura Jr University for International Integration of the Afro-Brazilian Lusophony (UNILAB), Redenção, Ceará, Brazil Federal University of Ceará (UFC), Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_14

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but, fundamentally, they are “(…) agents of ways of life” (p. 116) (translated by the authors). Therefore, it is necessary to consider the perverse consequences that a history of precarization of public policies (health, education, transportation, leisure, employment, and income generation), unequal allocation of government investments between regions, invisibilization of ways of being and living in the countryside, and naturalization of poverty has for sociability in rural settings. Cidade et al. (2012) argued that life in poverty structures the psyche in unique ways. From the perspective of oppression, life in poverty may disempower individuals, that is, it may lead them to doubt their ability to overcome the difficulties that arise due to experiences of deprivation. The clearest aspect of this type of domination is rigidity or crystallization of adversities, which are maintained intergenerationally. An instance of this is when parents’ schooling deficits are passed on to their children, all of them exposed to seasonal and precarious farming work. According to the Gender Equality Observatory for Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC, 2016), the reduction in poverty and the increase in gross domestic product (GDP) observed in Latin America between 2005 and 2014 benefited men and women differently, as women were overrepresented among poor households. Moreover, a growth in the femininity index of poor/indigent households was observed during this period. Black/brown women, as well as those living in rural areas and/or in the Northeast of Brazil, historically have worse social indicators compared to white women and those living in urban areas or in the Southeast region (IBGE, 2014). Considering differences of gender, race, and family configuration in the distribution of poverty, 64.4% of single black/brown women with children up to 14 years of age live in poverty, thus being the most vulnerable group. They also have the lowest access to social protection (46.1%) and to adequate housing (28.5%; IBGE, 2018). Another characteristic of families living in poverty is single parenthood with female headship (Camarano & Fernandes, 2014). For Campos (2011), the cause of poverty in single-parent families headed by women is not only the presence of a single provider but mainly the vulnerability and precariousness of the female insertion in the labor context. In Brazil, women’s labor is characterized by “precarious occupations, low qualifications, informality” and occurs “predominantly in the service sector, for example, domestic work” (IBGE, 2014, s/p) (translated by the authors). The sexual division of labor, with women still being assigned responsibility for housework, limits their time, since they generally devote a large portion of their lives to caring for their home and for other persons (ECLAC, 2015). Comparisons by gender show that women are more vulnerable than men, having lower incomes, higher unemployment indicators, and greater exposure to precarious and informal work while also being victims of gender-based violence on a daily basis (Brasil, 2013). Additionally, domestic work, which even today is assigned mostly to women, is frequently invisibilized and unpaid. Nevertheless, traditional measures of poverty conceal gender issues, since they most often investigate living conditions of the family unit, without considering the asymmetrical relationships within it (ECLAC, 2016).

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The contributions of Carneiro (2003) offer important insights to the analysis of rural women’s specificities. The author, in line with other Brazilian social movements, denounces the feminist movement for being stuck on Eurocentric and universalizing standards for women. According to the author, this precluded the recognition of inequalities and differences among women, silencing “stigmatized bodies of women victims of other forms of oppression besides sexism, [which] remained silenced and invisible” (Carneiro, 2003, p. 118) (translated by the authors). The experiences of brown, black, poor, rural, Brazilian, Northeastern, and Northern women fit this description. Careful examination of poverty, attentive to gender inequalities, reveals that poor women need not only income “but means and services to increase their autonomy in the context of gender relations, and improve their positions in the labor market, overcoming inequalities of all kinds” (Lavinas & Nicoll, 2010, p. 41) (translated by the authors). Therefore, it is necessary to acknowledge that the fight against poverty among women implies reducing gender inequalities. Given this analysis, studies have explored the relevance of social relationships and of articulating social support networks, since this is a powerful way to minimize the consequences of daily stress generated by poverty and to obtain material, instrumental, and affective resources to cope with daily difficulties produced by deprivation (Palomar Lever & Cienfuegos Martínez, 2007). Research and action in contexts of poverty shows the feasibility of articulating and activating social support networks, developing community contexts of resilience, that is, a context that provides coping strategies. In this way, subjects are able to alleviate problems such as hunger, lack of financial resources, homelessness, and environmental hazards, such as drought, floods, and fires, while also being able to obtain emotional support in the context of suffering (Nepomuceno et al., 2016; Ximenes et al., 2015). Social support is a type of relationship in which subjects obtain help through exchanges between individuals, groups, and institutions (Canesqui & Barsaglini, 2012). According to Rodriguez and Cohen (1998), the term “social support” refers to the connection between characteristics and functions of social relationships and states of well-being and physical and mental health. Social support is an interactive process that enables access to emotional, instrumental, informational, and cognitive aid (Siqueira, 2008). This relational process may benefit all subjects involved (Valla, 2000). Three types of social support have been studied more extensively: emotional support, instrumental support, and informational support (Gonçalves et al., 2011; Siqueira, 2008). Ximenes et al. (2020) describe two types of support for poverty contexts: cognitive-instrumental support and emotional-cooperative support. Cognitive-instrumental support involves providing tools, financial and material resources, and information, in addition to active encouragement, which is useful for problem-solving. Emotional-cooperative support involves affective exchanges and the perception of being cared for, valued, loved, and respected, in addition to being actively involved in problem-solving or in performing a certain task. About the sources of social support, Silva et al. (2016) propose the four main sources of support most effective in the daily lives of people living in poverty in

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rural settings: family, community, religious groups, and institutions. Family support refers to aid and support obtained by subjects from relationships in their primary group (Martín-Baró, 2005). According to Dimenstein et al. (2005), relatives, friends, and neighbors are important sources of informal support. Informal support has been one of the most important sources of support in the context of weakening access with sources of institutional support and of the State’s progressive refusal of responsibility for social problems, typical of neoliberal capitalist societies. Through an analysis of the relationship between social support and quality of life in poverty, Ávila-Toscano (2009) showed that social support reduces feelings of exclusion and social isolation and increases well-being and health promotion. According to Ávila-Toscano, support and cooperation generate feelings of reciprocity and exchanges of affects that are relevant when facing daily struggles. For Ximenes and Moura Jr (2013), residents of rural communities harbor positive feelings for the community, which enhances the social support obtained from community relations. This is important given the low presence of public policies in these regions. In rural settings, stronger social networks, greater sense of belonging and community, and bonds of solidarity and mutual aid positively influence mental health (Loureiro et al., 2016). However, in such contexts, women are more vulnerable to gender violence due to the lack of social support networks and effective policies for protection and prevention (Leite et al., 2016). From a comprehensive perspective, the analysis of the psychosocial implications of poverty shows that being both poor and female in rural settings involves objective and subjective issues produced in a historically and culturally constructed reality. In this context, identifying expressions of multidimensional and gender poverty in rural areas contributes to recognize the ways in which deprivations are most present in the lived experiences of women, as well as to understand the meanings of those experiences in their daily lives. Therefore, the goal of this chapter is to analyze social support in women living in rural poverty.

14.2  Method A qualitative study was conducted with women living in Pentecoste, a city in the rural area of Ceará, a state in the Northeast region of Brazil. Pentecoste covers an area of 1378.257 km2 and is located 89 km away from Fortaleza, the state capital. The region has a semiarid climate, the main characteristics of which are high temperatures and evaporation rate, absence of or irregular rainfall, low cloudiness indices, and high insolation (Oliveira, 2009). The field study was carried out in the rural areas of the communities of Serrota and Providência in 2017. Serrota is located approximately 13  km from the main district of Pentecoste and has 207 families who benefit from the Bolsa Família Program. Providência is a locality in the Matias district, located approximately 31 km from the main district and accessible by a dirt road. These communities were chosen for being the main focus of activity by the Rural Assistance Reference

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Center (CRAS-Rural) of Pentecoste, which is an instrument of a social assistance policy that focuses on rural settings. The CRAS mediated our insertion in the field and helped mobilize the women to participate in the study.

14.2.1  Participants Twenty-five women who attended the activities of the CRAS-Rural, between 18 and 65 years of age, participated in the study. All had an income of up to ¼ of the per capita family minimum wage and were married, divorced, widowed, or single. Their jobs included farmer, housewife, nanny, student, and housekeeper. The number of children ranged from zero to seven, with only one childless participant.

14.2.2  Instruments, Procedures, and Analysis Qualitative methods are based on a view of research subjects as capable of developing specific ways of perceiving and interpreting the world (Bosi & Mercado, 2007). Thematic workshops and interviews were conducted with women who were part of the activities linked to CRAS-Rural of Pentecoste. The workshops were spaces of facilitation of dialogical exchange and co-­ construction of meaning between participants. They also allowed expression of arguments, positions, contrasting versions, and contradictions about the topic under study (Spink et al., 2014). The workshop topics dealt with the categories of poverty, female gender, social support, and mental health. Some of the results found in the first stage of the study were presented and problematized. Five workshops were conducted with the use of photolanguage and video presentations related to the topics. All workshops were facilitated by the researchers and recorded for later analysis. The workshops ranged from 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes. The activities were frequently interrupted by the arrival of children or siblings who would approach their mothers or sisters with some need. The first three workshops were held in the Serrota community and the last two in the Providência community. After the workshops, seven individual interviews were conducted, with an average duration of 1 hour and 10 minutes. The locations were chosen by the interviewees themselves. An interview is a conversation between the interviewer and the interviewee(s), lasting between 1 hour and 1 hour and 30 minutes, in which attention is focused on listening and understanding of what is said (Gaskell, 2015). The interviews dealt with the women’s life in poverty and their social support relations. Systematization and analysis of the material produced in the research was performed using thematic content analysis (Bardin, 2004), with the help of the ATLAS. ti 5.2 software. The analysis followed the steps proposed by Bardin (2004):

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pre-analysis, material exploration and treatment of results, inference, and interpretation.

14.2.3  Ethical Considerations The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Ceará, and all its steps were organized in accordance with Resolution 466 (December 12, 2012) of the National Health Council. Participants were first informed about the research process and then provided consent by signing a specific informed consent form for each stage of data collection. All participant names used here are fictitious. All names mentioned in the interviewees and workshops are fictitious. In the presentation of the data collected, we used the following coding: fictitious name, Individual Interview (e.g., Silvia, Individual Interview), and fictitious name, Workshop number – Community (e.g., Margarida, Workshop 4 – Providência).

14.3  Social Support and the Lives of Women The results showed that participants received social support from distinct sources, including both formal and informal support networks. The informal network comprised family members, friends, and neighbors who constitute the foundation of community resilience along with the formal network. This includes public health institutions and social assistance policies. Mapping social support by identifying the sources of support and the type of support they provide allowed us to discuss the resources that are available for the women in their daily lives, which directly interferes in the resilience of the community, its potential to act and transform themselves, and their surroundings. Several studies on social support (Valdez-Huirache & Álvarez-Bocanegra, 2018; Silva et  al., 2016) show that family is mentioned as the main source of support. Family, in this context, refers to the primary group (Martín-Baró, 2005) composed by relationships established with spouses, children, parents, siblings, uncles and aunts, and children-in-law. All were mentioned by the participants when asked who they could turn to in difficult situations. Thus, both the nuclear family and the extended family seem to constitute sources of support. Informal support has the family as the protagonist. It can be described as relationships characterized by affection and permanent care or help, which occur altruistically and without cost, by a small support network. And, regarding informal support, the results reveal a protagonism of women. Although men were mentioned in the participants’ statements, women generally reported seeking support from other women in times of need. Among female figures, mothers, sisters, and daughters were mentioned most frequently. Mothers were mentioned as a source of

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support that was always available. A statement by a participant demonstrates this: “My mother used to tell me the same: - Daughter, when you don’t have something at your place, come look for it some at mine” (Margarida, Workshop 05  – Providência) (translated by the authors). This, she explains, she now says to her own children. Poverty experienced jointly by all household members prevents families from exercising their protective potential. For the poorest persons, it is harder to receive financial support from members of their nuclear family, who often suffer from serious monetary deprivation as well (Palomar Lever & Cienfuegos Martínez, 2007). The perpetuation of poverty within families shows how poor persons have historically been kept in conditions of subjugation that limit their ability to overcome their own deprivation. Our data also shows that this transgenerationality of poverty is present in gender issues: Marta: I started begging, I think I was about 10 years old, I used to go with my grandmother to General Sampaio [Street]. That was because my father wasn’t working at the time and we paid rent, and then I saw my mother was in need, so I put my shame aside and started begging. Researcher: And who gave you the idea to start begging? Marta: My grandmother. Researcher: Your grandmother? Marta: My grandmother told me to beg. Researcher: And she already had begged before, your grandmother? Marta: My grandmother was born begging. (Marta, Individual Interview) (translated by the authors) In the participants’ lives, women occupy a central place in the care network. We can detect the traditional social position assigned to women as responsible for the house and for caring for the family and others in the context of this study, in the shape of a social support network and community resilience that comprise basically women. Hence, it is clear that women are an important source of support: Isabel: […] but like, to help me, if I need to go to Pentecoste one day to take care of things, I ask her [her mother] for help, to stay with my children. Researcher: Your mother? Isabel: My mother. There are other people who help, who I ask sometimes, my dear husband, my father, you know, sometimes… Researcher: Do they help? Isabel: Very little. (Workshop 02 – Serrota) (translated by the authors) This result is in line with studies that also identify women as occupying this central place as caregivers and supporters of family members (Saturnino et  al., 2019; Macedo et al., 2018). This is a result of the naturalization and subordination of women to domestic settings, which is still an issue in our current society (Saturnino et  al., 2019). If, on the one hand, the support offered by women

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contributes to improve subjects’ health, on the other hand, the feel overloaded, which may lead to suffering and illness (Zanello, 2016). Furthermore, concentrating the responsibility for family care on women reinforces female oppression, which restricts them to the context of private life. This reduces their options for professional development and their ability to generate income, besides leaving them little time for themselves (Krmpotic & De Ieso, 2010). Children are also mentioned as a source of support, particularly for domestic and agricultural work. Daughters were frequently mentioned as those who participate the most in domestic work, while sons are responsible for helping in agriculture, thus maintaining the traditional sexual division of labor in rural settings: Researcher: And did your children help you? Margarida: Thank God, my children have always helped me. Researcher: Yeah? Did they do things at home too? Margarida: They did, both the females and the males. If they studied in the morning, in the afternoon they were there with us, working. If they studied in the afternoon, in the morning they would work with us. But not the females. I always kept them at home. Today I say, thank God, my sons don’t know much, but thank God they know everything about agriculture, thank God. (Workshop 04 – Providência) (translated by the authors) This traditional sexual division of labor, perpetuated among children through child labor, reveals a perpetuation of the prevailing social order and of traditional gender roles, even among younger generations. According to Terrón and Palomo (2014), equal and full involvement of men in caregiving activities is still a utopia. These authors argue for a need to create conditions for change to overcome this reality. These conditions include questioning gender roles, creating jobs, public services, and a symbolic change in the social value of domestic work and caregiving, as well as a culture of new masculinities. The lack of male responsibility for childcare, which often leads to family abandonment, also contributes to reinforce the feminization of poverty (Oliveira, 2018; Aguilar, 2011). Friendships exclusively among women were mentioned as another source of support. According to the participants, friends are a source of material and emotional support, in the form of expressions of care and attentive listening and by providing friends with something they cannot afford. The following statements illustrate this: Margarida: We’re like that, we are friends with each other. If I’m sick… Julieta: She’s sad about something, like, she has depression. Then we do things, we take care of things, something she wants. We go and talk to her and it works out. Then the person feels better, then things work out ok. Right? (Workshop 04 – Providência) (translated by the authors) Friendships are important for the self-care of participants and are established in a symmetrical way among equals (Lopes, 2018). Friendships play an important role in improving health and quality of life, and friends can help in coping with stressful

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situations and by providing emotional and material support (DeSousa & Cerqueira-­ Santos, 2012). Neighbors are mentioned as those responsible for providing practical and emotional support. From a practical point of view, it is the neighbors who help participants with domestic activities and who supply food and help in situations of sickness, production losses, or need to travel to the urban area. Emotional support refers to being emotionally available and giving advice. The variety in the types of help obtained as a result of community life makes neighborhood relations the first to be accessed by individuals. However, mutual exchange between neighbors is not a reality for all women. Although some mention their neighbors as sources of support, others, when questioned if they went to their neighbors for help, replied they did not benefit from such support, stating: “It’s hard to ask for these things” (Ana, Workshop 03 – Serrota). When we asked about their feelings regarding the community, one participant said: “Here I feel … I live inside my house, taking care of my things, these neighbors here, I don’t go to their houses” (Carla, Individual Interview). It is important to problematize that neighborhood relations are not established in a single, invariable way in the territory; in this way, we deconstruct a romantic representation of the community as a homogeneous, harmonic place free of conflict. Several configurations coexist in the same territory. Just as in the urban context, in rural communities, we find signs of distancing between neighbors, valuing of individualism, and fragility of social bonds, phenomena typical of contemporary society (Silva et  al., 2016; Yunes & Juliano, 2015) that hinder the development of collective actions to fight for the transformation of reality (Vallejo-Martín et  al., 2017). At the same time, we still see neighborhood relationships characterized by proximity, intimacy, and the strengthening of close relationships. Although these women’s statements show a multiplicity of bonds with the fabric of the community, we see that there is a greater tendency to not recognize the community as source of social support. However, since in rural settings family and friends often live in the same community, we may wonder if what participants understand by “neighbors” or “community residents” are only those persons with whom they are not close. A precarious and insufficient presence of the State as a source of support also appears in the statements. This type of support is classified as formal support, which is provided by institutional means, and therefore more impersonal, rational, or contractual (Costa-Fernandez & Munoz, 2019). Despite such a scarcity of State actions, the statements also show the importance of support provided by government policies. They indicate that social policies lead to substantial changes in the participants’ living conditions. The Social Assistance Policy CRAS was seldom mentioned as a source of support by participants. When asked if they sought help at the service, many replied they did not or explained they had been there occasionally to request food, such as a basic needs grocery package or milk. The statements show how distant assistance policies are from the reality of women’s lives. This shows that, although they assert not going to the CRAS for aid, they make frequent use of the support offered by the

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institution. One hypothesis for this apparent contradiction is that the women view the CRAS, as an institution, as limited to its physical headquarters, located far from their community and their daily lives. Nevertheless, they do display a connection with the personnel working at the CRAS and acknowledge them as a source of support. Regarding the perception of the support provided by social assistance policies, the Bolsa Família Program (BFP) and the Cisterns Program (Programa de Cisternas) are mentioned as important sources of support that contribute to deal with the hardships of life in the contexts of poverty in Sertão (a dry subregion of Brazil that encompasses a large fraction of the land in the Northeast region). A female farmer, after being asked if there were differences between the poverty she experiences today and the poverty she experienced during her childhood, raised important issues in a statement: It is different, yes, it is different, dear. Because in those days we were very poor. Now I have a cistern in my house, which makes it easier. In the winter it fills up and we have water to drink all summer. Until the next winter, we still have water. Today I have my pension. I am retired. And I receive these 118 real [sic] of the Bolsa Família, which is enough for me to buy something for my grandchildren. Right? […] Nowadays, these young women here [points to young women that were at the workshop] don’t go through anything like what we went through. It got better in our time, so, after the Bolsa Família program started, we were able to improve our lives. (Margarida, Workshop 04 – Providência) (translated by the authors)

Despite being a small amount of money, for many, the BFP is a significant fixed income that provides for the family’s basic needs. Another resource mentioned is the rural worker’s pension. It is very sad, my dear, because if we feel sick, we have nowhere to run, our conditions don’t allow us […] Ah, my husband fell twice in Canafistula, dealing with cattle, right. He broke both feet, here and here [points to her foot] and his hand. The son of God, he was four months from his 60th birthday, the son of God went and retired him, right? I say, thank God it will get better because I have my husband’s income, and I have my daughter’s income [referring to Bolsa Família], I will improve my life, right? Thank God, we will improve our lives. (Margarida, Workshop 04 – Providência) (translated by the authors)

The above statement reveals the importance of the financial support from the BFP and from the rural worker’s pension and how they provide for all family members. Rural workers’ retirement is available for those who can prove they work as small farmers, a right consolidated in the 1988 Constitution and regulated by Law No. 8.213/91 (BRASIL, 1991), which is currently being threatened with cuts by the current Brazilian federal administration of President Jair Bolsonaro (2018/2021). Regarding the financial support provided by the BFP, all participants said that the program is essential to manage their lives. Many emphasized that this resource was the highest personal income they ever received in their lives, the achievement of greater autonomy and control to manage their homes, and that it constitutes the majority of their family income. Such benefits of the BFP were also observed in other studies (Costa-Fernandez & Munoz, 2019; Campello, 2013; Carloto &

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Mariano, 2010, 2012). Despite acknowledging its importance, participants also inform that the income from the BFP is small and insufficient to support their families. This compels them to routinely pursue different strategies to ensure enough food, electricity, and water for their homes. For women who raise their children without a biological father, the BFP is a fundamental assistance, given the feminization of poverty (Oliveira, 2018; Costa & Ludermir, 2005). The account of one of the participants demonstrates this: […] I get by practically because of this Bolsa Família, with the 260 [Brazilian reais]. […] If I starved after I divorced him [the children’s biological father], if I starved, all of them would have died. Until this day, he never paid child support to any of them, I always raised them with the Bolsa Família, and today I still support some of them with Bolsa Família. (Silvia, Workshop 04 – Providência) (translated by the authors)

Despite an expansion of public policies in recent decades, we currently still have widespread unemployment, job insecurity  – with many people having informal jobs – and lack of effective social protection policies (Sposati, 2018). This shows that public policies and state action are needed to ensure the social rights of the population. In contrast, Brazil currently sees a retraction of public investment in social policies, allegedly because the economic crisis imposes cuts in social spending to restore economic growth. This clearly shows that the poor and disadvantaged are the ones who will bear the burden of those measures. With regard to the performance of public health policies, participants mentioned lack of medication; difficulty in access to medical care; lack of cars to go to consultations, exams, and access to specialized care; long waiting lists for exams; and high turnover of health professionals. A problem in rural settings reported by many participants is the difficulty to access health care due to a lack of a public transportation system that allows rural citizens to travel between their homes and the capital and/or the main district of the municipality, where most services are located. The absence of affordable public transportation options and of means of transportation provided by the city government forces women and their families to go to neighboring municipalities or simply to forgo specialized health care. During one of the workshops, the issue of lack of transportation came up. According to the participants, one of the strategies to deal with the transportation issue is to ask an acquaintance who works at the Basic Health Unit or a councilman to provide them with a car. Participant Silvia (Workshop 04 – Providência) reports: Our life, our health here is not good. Her mother [points to one of the workshop participants who works as an attendant in the basic health unit] works at the clinic, a very kind person, I even made a vow for her mother to never have to leave the clinic. […] She is so nice, when you arrive, she is so helpful. But how is she going to help? Because she is not a nurse, you know? She is not a nurse. She can’t do anything if a sick person arrives there, a medicine that she knows is good for a person who is sick, the poor thing, if she is going to give them the medicine, it’s in secret, so that nobody knows that she can’t give it. (translated by the authors)

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Such a reality of precarious access to health policies has been described in other publications, which show that poor access to proper health services is one of the main vulnerabilities experienced by women in rural settings (Gaudin, 2019). Considering sources of social support broadly, beyond institutions or people, a source frequently mentioned by the women was God. Although the Church does not emerge as a source of support, God does. In the women’s statements, God was mentioned frequently as “someone” or as an entity capable of helping in several ways: providing money, enabling someone to improve their quality of life, improving their health, providing strength and courage to overcome challenges and ability to face difficult times, and protecting family members. In the interviews and workshops, God was mentioned as being able to control daily events, and, in a context of complete helplessness and lack of assistance, belief in this entity appears as a source of will to endure. Some statements illustrate this: Researcher: When you are in need, you have a problem, right, you’re going through a time of need, where do you ask for help? To whom? Margarida: To God. Maria: To God. God gives us many things in our lives. Margarida: That’s it. That is what I say: It’s no use screaming, crying, cursing. Why? It’s no use. Because there is only God to help us. Only God! Only God! (Workshop 05 – Providência) (translated by the authors) One of the participants, Silvia, after describing a series of problems she experienced as a result of poverty and the murder of one of her children, says she finds support and strength in God: “I get a lot of strength…it comes from God, it is a strength that I know I never thought I would have in my life. And I have so much faith in God because I know that the strength I have comes from God” (Silvia, Individual Interview). Studies show that spirituality is a protective factor for individuals, promoting human development and resilience (Matos et al., 2018; Carvalho et al., 2006), as well as empowerment (Carvalho, 2010). Belief and faith in God, or in a higher entity, can improve health (Pinheiro et al., 2009; Valla, 2000) and aid in coping with daily suffering (Lima et al., 2008).

14.4  Final Considerations Experiences of deprivation and limited access to public policies reveal challenges faced by rural residents in obtaining financial resources. Family, neighbors, and God are mentioned as important sources of practical and emotional social support, permeated by feelings of reciprocal trust and based on implicitly established moral codes with an emphasis on fighting for survival. The Bolsa Família Program is also a source of support. The presence of a female figure in the family and in the neighborhood is also relevant, because these are women helping other women. These are

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forms of interaction characterized by affective and ethical content that mobilize individuals to be attentive and sensitive to each other’s needs. By investigating the overload experienced by these women, which impacts their health indicators and quality of life, we propose to discuss the lack of social support that affects them. These women attribute to themselves the responsibility for domestic work while also being assigned this responsibility by their cultural environment, which leads to a limited understanding of which social actors should compose the social network responsible for life in private/domestic contexts, as seen by the unaccountability of men and of the public power for this activity that is paramount for survival. Thus, we observe that social support networks, in which social exchanges of material, informational, and affective resources occur, are limited, with this support weighing heavily on the collective of women who perform most of its functions. By problematizing rural poverty, this issue becomes more complex, since it occurs in the contexts of several types of deprivation that increase fragility and limit human potential. The creation of a more egalitarian society requires a more effective presence of the State and of men in the composition of social support networks.

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Chapter 15

Women in Movement and the Reinvention of Existence: Political Action, Agency, and Subjectivation Processes Rita de Cássia Maciazeki-Gomes, Maria da Conceição de Oliveira Carvalho Nogueira, Maria Juracy Filgueiras Toneli, Giovana Ilka Jacinto Salvaro, Judit Herrera Ortuño, and Flávia Charão-Marques

15.1  W  omen’s Practices in Rural Contexts: Agency and Subjectivation Processes Anchored in gender studies, in the subjectivation processes, and the notion of social agency, this chapter discusses knowledge and the production of power regarding women’s practices in rural contexts in southern Brazil. The writing stemmed from the encounter and shared enthusiasm of researchers with academic trajectories built on studies of rural women. Based on the dialogues and joint activities produced in recent years, we here propose articulations and reflections about situated experiences in rural working women’s groups. To do so, we revisit studies produced in different academic phases within the purpose of rendering visible the practices and knowledge of these women, linked to domestic spaces, to the backyard, to the field, and to social movements. R. de Cássia Maciazeki-Gomes (*) Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] M. d. C. de Oliveira Carvalho Nogueira Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] M. J. F. Toneli Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil G. I. J. Salvaro Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense, Criciúma, Santa Catarina, Brazil J. H. Ortuño · F. Charão-Marques Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

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Among these studies, we highlight the doctoral thesis (Maciazeki-Gomes, 2017), carried out at the University of Porto (Portugal) in co-supervision with the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil), which articulated discussions around political actions intersected with gender and rurality issues, striving to analyse the effects of political actions on the production of rural working women subjectivity in relation to participation in the rural social movement in the Rio Grande do Sul state’s northwest region (Brazil). The postdoctoral internship (Salvaro, 2020), carried out at the University of Porto (Portugal), enabled, among other objectives, to expand her studies on the rural women’s movements in Brazil founded in the 1980s in order to analyse the identity of rural working women as a discursive production necessary for the purposes of political representation in struggles for professional recognition and other forms of subjectivation. Furthermore, the Master’s Degree dissertation (Herrera-Ortuño, 2016), completed for the Postgraduate Program in Rural Development at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), aimed to analyse the social practices of women’s groups organized around the collective preparation of homemade remedies based on medicinal plants and local community healthcare in the Rio Grande do Sul’s northwest region (Brazil), within the scope of elucidating on how these rural women construct autonomy processes through their agencies and collective action. In addition to the academic relevance, we would argue there is political importance to research on women’s practices in rural and family farming contexts to the extent that the analyses and reflections contribute to breaking with the invisibility and non-recognition of activities related to subsistence and family reproduction processes. More specifically, in the context of family farming, Maria de N. B. Wanderley (2003, 2009) highlighted the important contribution made to the economy and society, focusing on the production unit and its potential for the reproduction of the family itself as family production units share work and consumption. Certainly, plural determinants are articulated in family farming rates of reproduction in each territory and are linked to territorial differences. On the one hand, there is a need to think about how production forms, access to markets, and income generation are fundamental to meeting family reproduction needs and the continuity of activities developed in their agricultural production units. On the other hand, it is important to reflect on the family labour force deployed in the processes and undertaking the activities as one of the defining characteristics of family farming, in its gender and generational dimensions, for example, presupposed in the tangle between family, work, and production. With this, we seek to resume the dimension of family work as central to the production/reproduction of the collective and forms of existence. However, although fundamental, whenever performed by women, these are considered unproductive and undervalued work/tasks within the overall dimension of productive activities. In rural and family farming contexts, with regard to the binomial productive and reproductive work, it is important to understand the working ways that intersect activities related to the production and reproduction of life. According to Maria Ignez Paulilo (2004, p. 244), separately analysing the productive and reproductive spheres represents a complex task as there may not occur a “separation between family and

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production units, as is the case of the peasantry” (translated by the authors). The production of food, for example, carried out by a woman may still be destined for sale on behalf of the family’s own consumption. We can say, therefore, this division of labour presents itself as one of the gender effects producing the differentiated attribution of value to the activities of women and men in agriculture, sustaining a universal binary discourse on the differentiated valuation of such activities according to sex, asymmetries, and inequalities. As analysed by Joan Scott (1995, p.86), gender is not a property of bodies but relational in the construction of the universal binary opposition of male and female. Based on the notion of power presented by Michel Foucault, Scott (1979/1995) argues that the feasible scope of human agency stems from unequal processes and structures. Recourse to the use of gender studies is consistent with the purpose of problematizing forms of agency and subjectivation processes. Michel Foucault’s studies (2011, 2013) enable the inquiry into the normative discourses that produce femininities and masculinities. This leads to the questioning of attributing work activities according to gender or tied to spheres deemed productive and reproductive. In this sense, the author suggests that such designations refer both to the field of language and to how such practices are historical constructions. Moreover, his studies contribute to exposing power relations and forms of resistance, which operate in the bodies constituted as labour force, through the articulation of knowledge and power relations, which standardize and normalize the labour activities they perform. Regarding the subjectivation processes, it should be noted that this is not a movement of internalization, because “Foucault does not use the word subject as a person or identity form, but the terms ‘subjectivation’, in the sense of process, and ‘itself’, in the sense of relationship (relationship to itself)”, of existing modes that do not cease to recreate themselves (Deleuze, 2007, p.116, author’s highlights). Hence, considering that existences are created and recreated incessantly, it is unlikely that the bodies of men and women in rural contexts, as well as their daily practices, reproduce homogeneously. Thus, for a conceptual and empirical approach that would allow us to recognize rural women’s knowledge and power capacities in the construction of their own existence modes, we ended up recognizing in the agency of these social actresses (Long, 2001, 2007) an opportunity to study their ability to exercise some kind of action power, including when encountering themselves in subaltern conditions. Agency is not understood here merely as an individual attribute but rather as the ability to act through social relations and promote change (Long, 2001). The abilities related to agency emerge from the entanglement of social relations (Long, 2007) and are consolidated in the ability to construct knowledge from interactions and act on that knowledge to intervene in the multiple everyday realities that constitute their livelihoods and their life worlds. As examples of resistance, agency forms, and subjectivation processes led by women in rural contexts, we may reference the Farm Women’s Movement from Santa Catarina (Movimento de Mulheres Agricultoras de Santa Catarina, MMA/ SC) and the Rural Working Women’s Movement from Rio Grande do Sul (Movimento de Mulheres Trabalhadoras Rurais do Rio Grande do Sul, MMTR/RS), launched and active in the 1980s and 1990s, and the Peasant Women’s Movement (Movimento

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de Mulheres Camponesas, MMC) from Brazil a national movement set up in 2004 emerging out of a unification process among women’s autonomous rural movements with trajectories tracing back to the 1980s in different regions of the country. From a historical perspective, we may observe how the creation of women’s social rural movements in Brazil was marked by struggles around class and gender issues before campaigning towards the recognition of the rural working’s profession and labour and social security benefits, such as retirement at 55 years old, benefits for work accidents, and maternity pay, eventually ensured by the Federal Constitution of 1988 (Salvaro, 2010). In addition to direct political action, marked by mobilization around demands for rights, other expressions of rural women’s agency may also be registered. Here, we highlight the collective action of organized women’s groups associated with the Small Farmers’ Movement (Movimento dos Pequenos Agricultores, MPA) and the MMC in the southern region of the country. Such actions result in practices for what they identify as “integral health”, materialized in their community pharmacy constructions. In these collective spaces, and through a know-how of becoming, women elaborate and distribute tinctures, elixirs, syrups, and ointments based on medicinal plants to their communities. In addition to care practices, preparing remedies with medicinal herbs has become a “gateway” to women’s self-organization and political action (Charão-Marques et  al., 2015). This process has been configured as the entanglement of daily practices that relate women’s emancipation and visibility to territorialized development processes. This is thereby demonstrated by Herrera-­ Ortuño et al. (2017) when they render women’s participation explicitly organized into a “community pharmacy” in order to campaign for programmes in support of ecologically based production systems and healthy food in Rio Grande do Sul’s northwest region. It is precisely from this self-organization around medicinal plants and the relationships established with other social actors that women daily weave their autonomy, understood within a multidimensional perspective. It is important to note how the autonomy claimed and built through practices triggers processes subject to recognition as collective actions, which are ultimately configured as political acts, as the molecular micro-agency of rural women’s groups in their particular contexts, demonstrating the ongoing resistance persisting among local forms (Herrera-­Ortuño, 2016). For this context of rural working women’s organizations, we perceive the production of analyses that allow for the questioning of the political, socioeconomic, cultural, and subjective issues involved in the constitution of subjects and collectives, as well as resignifying the territories according to the trajectories producing resistance under unequal gender conditions.

15.2  About the Narratives of Self and Experience-Affections The study carried out by Rita de Cássia Maciazeki-Gomes (2017) analysed the effects of political actions on women’s production of subjectivity among participants in the social movements of rural working women in Rio Grande do Sul’s

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northwest region, intersecting the discussions between gender and political action. The analysis undertaken understands gender as the effect of producing a network of knowledge and practices, permeated by social, institutional, economic, historical, and political relations; political action is here understood as an ethical practice expressed in the relationship with oneself and with others. From this perspective, political action emerges as a constitutive part of an éthos (Foucault, 2012b) and of livelihoods associated with multiplicity, difference, and singularity (Maciazeki-­ Gomes et al., 2019). The articulation between gender and political action interlinks a field of problems related to the subjectivation processes associated with political action as well as the effects of collective experiences on the ways of producing rural working women participation in rural social movements. According to Ana Maria Fernandez (2007), a problematic field is produced in the midst of complex knowledge networks in keeping with how its questions remain inscribed with a given historicity and its critique. In its composition, a problematic field contemplates the study of discursive and extra-discursive strategies, in which it is no longer possible to take the object as the focus as the field rather emerges out of a multiplicity of looks, knowledges, and practices. The delineation of any field of subjectivity problems tells of affective movements (Lazzarotto & Carvalho, 2012) and narrative experiences (Benjamin, 1994a, 1994b): experience as something that happens to us and from which we emerge and transform (Foucault, 2012c) and experience + affection = experience-affection, as inspiration and poetic-political lightness that guides a possible way of operating and renounces prescriptive manuals. It engenders thinking about the articulation of multiple, desirable, historical, institutional, political, and economic inscriptions (Fernandez, 2007). The research emerges from fragments and discontinuous clippings expressed in a narrativity translated amid experience-affections in their ethical, aesthetic, and political dimensions (Foucault, 2012d). This approaches the production of subjectivities as political processes within the scope of creating collective intelligences and affectivities (Fernandez, 2008). The notion of experience (Scott, 1998) no longer accounts for factual evidence, irrefutable proof of that experienced. As a collective production, this requires the localization of difference in a historically and socially situated discursive construction (Haraway, 1995). This refers to analysis of constituting social practices, inquiring into how they were produced and their modes of operationalization in order to “historicize it, as well as historicize the identities it produces” (Scott, 1998, p. 304) (translated by the authors). The chain of elaboration Scott (1998) presents on experience brings us closer to the notion of Foucault and his genealogical perspective. According to Foucault, “experience is something we realize alone, but it is only full to the extent that it escapes pure subjectivity; in other words, others can cross or traverse it again” (Revel, 2011, p.65) (translated by the authors). This experience crossed by other places immerses it in a political field, in a collective practice, and may potentially be associated with transformation, with “resistance to the power devices (...) with regard to the subjectivation processes” (p.65) (translated by the authors). The

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concept of experience can also be thought of as an activity of de-subjectivation related to self-government through the constitution of a subject and a collective practice (Ortega, 1999). Inspired by the genealogical approach of Michel Foucault (1979/1995), the methodological route of Maciazeki-Gomes’s (2017) study was focused on monitoring, listening, recording, and analysing the experience narratives related to family farming and political actions to compose the historicization of the discursive practices present in family and working relationships and the spaces of action and political participation in social movements, produced in relationships with oneself and with others. This route was taken in order to compose a mapping of the rationalities immersed in the practices associated with the specificities of family farming in the Rio Grande do Sul’s northwest region, as well as their insertion into rural working women’s movements and political actions. The analyses took into account these effects of experiences interwoven into networks of knowledge and power that trigger and produce subjectivities (Foucault, 2012c). The research composition spans the agro-industrial production of cookies, property surveillance activities, alternative healthcare facilities, the meetings held by the Rural Working Men and Women’s Union (Sindicato de Trabalhadores e Trabalhadoras Rurais), and the women’s movement activities and participation in community radio programmes (Maciazeki-Gomes, 2017). The narratives reconstructed recollections, memories, and stories related to family, childhood, courtship, marriage, and caring for the house and children. These elicited the defining characteristics of family and labour relations linked to family farming and interconnected to social participation in the MMTR/RS. As described above, the women’s social movements launched and active in the 1980s and 1990s produced agency forms and subjectivation processes. As pointed out by Maria Ignez Paulilo (2004), in Rio Grande do Sul, the most prominent entity was the Rural Working Women’s Movement (Movimento de Mulheres Trabalhadoras Rurais, MMTR) and, in Santa Catarina and Paraná, the Rural Women’s Movement (Movimento de Mulheres Rurais, MMA) and the Rural Women’s Organization (Organização de Mulheres Rurais, OMTR), respectively. About the founding of the MMTR/RS, the study carried out by Losandro Antonio Tedeschi (2007) analysed issues involving the social and economic conditions of peasantry, and the small nuclei created, which subsequently expanded to become an organized social movement. The construction of the aforementioned social movements demonstrates how the production of women experiences in/by political actions around individual and collective demands interrelates with struggles for better living and working conditions. From the collective relations and experiences, forms of regionalized organization boosted meetings and enabled the opportunity to unify the struggles in a national social movement, founded as the MMC Brazil in 2005 (Salvaro, 2010). In Santa Catarina state, for example, the Farming Women’s Movement (Movimento de Mulheres Agricultoras, MMA/SC) launched in the 1980s was one of the autonomous movements that united its struggles with those of other movements in becoming MMC Brazil in 2004. As recorded in the Peasant Magazine (MMC/SC,

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2005, p.9), “from the 9th state assembly, the MMA/SC assumes the character of the Peasant Women’s Movement of Brazil (Movimento de Mulheres Camponesas do Brasil), becoming officially recognized as the Peasant Women’s Movement in Santa Catarina (Movimento de Mulheres Camponesas em Santa Catarina) - MMC/SC”. The unification and emergence of the national movement refers to an important political phase in women’s struggle and resistance organized according to local experiences but potent at bringing out the common demands of working women and their forms of existence whether related to land, work, or family. The state movement creation processes of the 1980s, and later for the national movement in the first half of the 2000s, in addition to structural changes, the organization and forwarding of claims, also informs us about the subjects and the constitution of subjectivation processes in the struggles for rights. In Brazil, the analysis of the bibliographic sources (available in the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, institutional archives, and journal collections) and documentary sources (sites with the collections of rural women’s social movements), from 1980 to 2019, has conveyed the centrality of the farming women’s struggle in constructing the identity and professional recognition of rural working women (Salvaro, 2020). In the case of the MMC, one observes a constant struggle to ensure the social status won in the 1990s, as well as articulating a defence of life and broader guarantees for social rights. In this domain, about identity and recognition, we may state that this process, above all, requires academic and political investment in linguistic and representational terms as a means of guaranteeing forms of existence and work experiences (Salvaro, 2020).

15.3  F  rom the Narratives of Self that Keep Moving: Links Between Land, Work, and Political Action The narratives of monitoring and recording experiences took into account the relations of proximity and affectation produced by experience-affections, as observed by Maciazeki-Gomes (2017), in order to share life stories engendered to inheriting land, work, family, and women’s political participation amidst the framework of family farming. The emergence of political actions and the force of the resulting agency on issues such as the inheritance of land and family and labour relations in agriculture acted as producing devices for a mode of subjectivation characterized by a farming woman éthos. The composition of this farming woman éthos is immersed in knowledge and networks of power expressed in the union, religious, feminist, ascetic, and peasant practices that make up women’s daily lives. This éthos also refers to a way of relating to oneself and to others, to appropriating the family farming territory in southern Brazil that enunciates the effects of the morals, customs, and values marked by German and Italian colonizations. We highlight three analytical axes: land inheritance, labour relations, and political participation.

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In this cultural configuration, inheritance is linked to the culture and tradition of valuing family, work, and economy (oikonomos), that is, family life management through the incorporation of a particular morality. Fundamental to understanding this farming woman éthos was the appropriate taking into account of the cultural specificities of the Rio Grande do Sul’s northwest region, a territory interwoven with family, work, and community relations and political action. The connecting link between all these dimensions involved reflecting on the trajectory of the land’s inheritance, work, and family as narrated by women. The body is imprinted with the conditions of a “strong spirit” that “doesn’t get down”, moves forward, and overcomes difficulties. Memory-narratives (Rodrigues, 2014) evoke a past-present marked by financial difficulties in providing support for family members. The ascetic moral brought by German colonization denotes the means to undertake, build, modify, and transform one’s own condition through work. It is in this sense that working the land and producing as a family unit enhance the honour, honesty, and reputation of the family. Concomitant to the function that Protestant asceticism had in the conformation of the Weberian “capitalist spirit”, we may see here how this ascetic morality gains its own contours to the extent that it is linked both to peasant culture, with its production for subsistence, and to community relations stimulated by Catholic Christianity. In this community context, the bonds of reciprocity are nurtured in social self-organization, in the associative enterprises and cooperatives, and, later, in the women’s unions and movement; hence, the cultural legacy of German ethnicity intersected with other cultures to further contribute to the practices of political action and community autonomy. The precepts of community autonomy are passed down from generation to generation and boost the self-organization systems. One of the characteristics of the Rio Grande do Sul’s northwest region arises from the founding of a cooperative economic network composed of production structures, product commercialization (supermarket), credit cooperative (community bank), and electricity supply. In the narratives integrated into the Maciazeki-Gomes study (2017), there appears the story behind the setting up of the electricity cooperative (COOPERLUZ), which was a demand shared by the whole community. Faced with increases in the costs charged for electricity, the community decided to organize its own cooperative to provide this service. This initiative led to conflict with the state, which maintained its supply and the concomitant billing to the cooperative. The community then boycotted the state service by not paying, and, after a legal dispute which it won, the cooperative took over all the energy supply. Other powerful instruments of community self-organization are the community radio, the alternative health space, and non-governmental structures such as advisory entities for drafting projects, qualification, rural extension, and fund raising. For the MMC in Santa Catarina, as in Rio Grande do Sul, popular demands included issues such as integrated health agendas, training, and organized campaigns and actions. “We learned from the struggles of the social movements, and especially in the MMC, that health is also a result of what we eat, drink and breathe, so as a principle we have to produce and consume healthy food without pesticides (...)” (MMC/SC, 2006, p.48, emphasis in original) (translated by the

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authors). Here, we can consider these as political actions (individual and collective), which imply caring for one’s own life, as well as for family, neighbours, and friends, people who consume the food, the land, plants, animals, and water produced and sold. Actions governed by gender norms challenge women in terms of “caring for” in a moral dimension. “What makes ‘caring for’ be typically perceived as moral is not the activity itself, but how that activity reflects on the social obligations assigned to those who care and on those who make that assignment” (Tronto, 1997, p.189) (translated by the authors). Permeated by a patriarchal rationality, women are attributed to responsibilities interrelated with caring for the family, husband, children, sick people, elderly, household chores, animal, and food production in the vegetable garden. Thus, a certain naturalization of care as a specifically “feminine” dimension still clearly remains. Together with their children, women are also responsible for “helping” their husbands in the work on the farm estate and/or in dairy cattle production. The woman is expected to play the role of a “good mother” and “good wife”, who supports and “follows” her husband, with the objective of keeping the family united and jointly producing, fed by a religious morality of resignation, acceptance, and duty (that which should be done), in which each “gives of herself” for the family’s benefit. According to the received pattern of inheritance, the man owns the land, via rural succession, and manages the productive and family unit. This family way of organizing life, permeated by patriarchal and religious rationalities and the affective and financial alliance deposited in the marriage contract, seeks to maintain the land-­ work-­family tripod. Issues related to land ownership, through inheritance, in family farming still encapsulate historical gender inequalities, strongly marked by women’s exclusion and the prevailing preference for men (Paulilo, 2004). In this sense, family preservation is a precondition to the maintenance of life. From the narratives, as well as the family, work is presented as a necessary activity for the maintenance of life. There is a commitment of forces to the undertaking of intensive and extensive workloads of daily activities. Women are overloaded with work “inside and outside” the home in a distribution that is still unequal, denoting the low level of involvement of men in work “inside” the home. While work produces exhaustion and suffering, on the other hand, it also triggers shifts from maintenance to the production of life. Work, as production, undertakes efforts to transform the condition of what one is, enabling the scope for “determining oneself in life” and thus self-government through the practices carried out. Self-government produces greater autonomy in relation both to the husband and to the family. Work, as an action of self on self and nature transformation, occupies a central place in women’s lives and their families. The women’s narratives convey the valuation of work and the strong relationship with a past that is then actualized and made present in the maintenance of life and, also, of a present that ceases to be in the production of becoming another. Work gives meaning to life as a positioned action, a production that establishes self-recognition. On issues related to gender and work, the struggle to guarantee more egalitarian conditions is still ongoing. Even with advances and achievements, there has been no reduction in the workload

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of women, and, in some cases, their working day has even increased, often associated with attempts to justify how they can “handle it” and are indeed also capable of performing activities “outside the home”. In turn, it still remains necessary to consider how the exercising of political actions in movements, as well as in trade unions and cooperatives, and holding coordination and representation positions in different spaces is perceived as work by many women. The engagement in diverse activities in some cases configures the existence of a triple workday, hence working in the public sphere; on domestic, household chores; and on the property. Another factor contributing to this working overload for those staying in the countryside stems from the associated effects of the decrease in the birth rate and the migration of young people to the city, which results in cuts to the labour force available. Thus, the family needs to work still more to cope with the needs of the daily activities. Furthermore, the increase in technology produced changes in the ways of working, contributing to less physical exhaustion. However, the usage of technology in working processes, such as the acquisition of machinery, resulted in its own problems: the indebtedness of families, who now need to work more intensively to pay for the costs and credits incurred. The concerns over debts that may not get paid and “dirtying” and dishonouring the family name often appear as causes for mental suffering. Despite changes in working processes, the composition of more egalitarian and non-patriarchal relationships continues to present a challenge in the process of work organization and management. In this aspect, some advances pointed out by women included affirming “not having bosses” and establishing less hierarchical relations in the organization of work processes. Action and political participation in the women’s social movement were fundamental to problematizing women’s positions in relation to work and family relationships (Maciazeki-Gomes et al., 2016). The women’s movement brought visibility and appreciation to the work done by women, alongside access to welfare, pension, and land benefits that led to advances in the scope for their autonomy. The greatest difficulties, however, seem to derive from the positioning and administration of resources by women. Despite the social gains, the subjective issues that involve their repositioning towards a condition of non-submission and active voice amplification and the management of family resources are among the outstanding daily challenges faced by women. The historical advances made by these movements have been producing effects on the subjectivation process of rural working women in the sense of making them think about the boundaries for exercising their working duties in conjunction with the heritage received. Inclusion and participation in the women’s movement was thus significant for constructing the identity of “working women” in the midst of the struggles and clashes occurring. The heterogeneous conformation of the movement’s discursive practices also allows for different perspectives on the problems faced. Political action, as a subjectivation device, has produced problematizations about work as maintenance, production, and life movement (Maciazeki-Gomes et  al., 2021). When rescuing these memory-narrative lines, we find the scenario of the

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countryside and the livelihoods immersed in family farming currently populated with uncertainties. There is a weakening of the family cultural legacy that produces feelings of devaluation in relation to itself and to the agricultural labour society. Families experience deadlocks over family succession, with the movements of “going or staying” triggered by the still young daughters/sons. There is simultaneously the desire for the family legacy’s transmission and continuity; the parents question themselves over the conditions for remaining in the countryside in the face of the devaluation of family farming and threats over cutting acquired benefits, among them the historical conquest of social security rights by the rural working women’s movement. The consolidation of a capitalist model in the countryside met with resistance from the working women and men of family farms who resist compulsory departure from their lands and fight for their rights. In the face of this entirely reactive socioeconomic conjuncture, women expand their struggles and mobilizations. The difficulties give impetus to the struggle of rural working women and demarcate positions of resistance to the devaluation of the livelihoods associated with family agriculture. Thus, they reinvent the heritage of the land, work, and family for the needs of a new context. The heritage contains remnants of memory-narrative that are placed in the service of a becoming, through cross-referencing with women’s political actions. The activation of memories from the last two decades of the previous century tells of a period marked by tensions, struggles, and conquests.

15.4  Women in Movement and the Reinvention of Existence The struggles and campaigns that resulted in the approval of a Federal Constitution containing the recognition of pension and social security rights for working woman in the late 1980s before the enactment of public policies for family farming opened a new scenario for the countryside in the mid-1990s. It is undeniable that access to these benefits positively contributed to the quality of family life. At the same time, these policies consolidated the establishment of new legal-bureaucratic rationalities (Weber, 2003) for livelihoods in the countryside with normative compliance requirements for accessing public policies. In this way, the “farming woman” identity and the “family” conditionality come to express a deepening of the bureaucratization of life and relationships, which demarcates the “subject-object” of policies. In effect, we encounter the standardization and universalization of the “rural working woman” and “family farming” production as a result of a (bio)politics conformation (Foucault, 2012b) associated with the “citizen of rights”. This process of elaborating and implementing public policies thus seems to consolidate a tendency for the homogeneous representation of women’s “new” social role in rural contexts in the sense of tracing unilineal trajectories of productive inclusion and economic autonomy for their emancipation (Herrera-Ortuño, 2021). This rationality argues that “rural working women” play key roles in the labour forces of small farms and according to the design and development of projects and

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programmes that promote food production, processing, and trading by women themselves. Women “empowerment” through entrepreneurship in small-scale production and trading initiatives for healthy food is seen as a key trajectory for household food and nutritional security, economic autonomy, and women’s emancipation as well as for ensuring sufficient food production for a growing world population. Through these subjectification devices, a new “rural working women” approach seems to emerge, now configured as potential subjects for sustainable development in family farming. Thus, just as these public policies provide rights, they also produce the “subject of rights”, an abstraction materialized in the conditionalities to be framed for nomination. Paradoxically, this strategy of productive inclusion and economic emancipation ends up generating a working overload for women (Samper-­ Erice & Charão-Marques, 2017), who continue to be responsible for “care” tasks, thus configuring a triple workday. Public policies from this perspective have determined a knowledge-power network linked to life government and the subjectivity production. Certainly, public policies have proven significant to rural populations. However, applying a perspective related to the distribution of wealth carried out by the state verifies the highly unequal dynamics of the investments made in family farming versus those put into non-family farming. The vast bulk of the resources are directed towards non-family farming (in particular agribusiness) at the expense of family farming and smallholders. The justification for this economic policy arises out of the state’s strategy to relegate family farming to a social issue, interrelated with “social policies”, and non-family farming to an “economic policies” issue. In this configuration of forces and knowledge-power, the policies “magnify” the peasant subjectivation mode, that of the “humble family,” thereby ensuring the right to access to a few resources and the duty of hard labour. However, “the government is here to help!”. On the other hand, this cherishes and values the figure of the entrepreneur and wealth generator for the nation. While, on the one hand, the trinomial of land-work-family valorization comes to justify governmentality (Foucault, 2012a), on the other hand, this also composes the terms and conditions for eventual resistance and the reinvention of life. In a Foucauldian inspiration, power games always carry resistance and align hope through movement. In this sense, women trigger their agencies according to needs, possibilities, and contingencies, activating a mix of strategies in the face of public policy devices; adhering to, readapting, resignifying, and recreating practices; and thus reconfiguring their own modes of existence (Herrera-Ortuño, 2021). The political action entrenched in the everyday life gaps and fissures of land-­ work-­family reinforces the struggle and clash of power. Autonomous work on the land that is theirs opposes wage-earning (modern slavery); the family opposes individualism, that is, a counter-power-knowledge in the resistance movement. And when this does not make itself heard, it sets out to produce visibility as farming and rural working women. This political force is expressed through participation in social movements that constitute not only material, objective gains but also subjective gains, spaces for dealing with issues such as women’s health, sexuality, violence, and autonomy,

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among others. The reception of personal narratives produces identification with the group that listens and gives feedback to shared yearnings. Political action as a subjectivation device comes to establish movements (actions) in life. The legacy of previous mobilizations is amplified in the actuality of the women’s movement, which has been powerfully expressed in the different Marcha das Margaridas protests (Maciazeki-Gomes & Herrera-Ortuño, 2020), recognized today as one of the major political and campaign strategies for rural working women in Brazil. Identity and belonging express the strength of the collective struggle for rights and resistance to the knowledge and power games imprinted in the norms of patriarchal domination. The inheritance received is no longer the same. It is not a matter here of pointing out transformations but rather making visible these changes in positioning. Thus, the positions are adopted by women who refuse to belong to the heritage of passivity, invisibility, and religiosity as their only options in life. Women want more. There are many challenges yet to be faced, including the conditions to remain in the countryside through recognition by public policies that provide a dignified life for rural populations, in which the decision “to stay” or “not to stay” associates to the expansion of the existence in life. In conclusion, based on the reflections produced here, we can argue that the strength of the rural working women’s struggle comes from this complex network of knowledge, power, and subjectivation set up by land heritage, work, family, and political action.

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Foucault, M. (2013). O sujeito e o poder. In H. Dreyfus & P. Rabinow (Eds.), Michel Foucault: uma trajetória filosófica. Para além do estruturalismo e da hermenêutica (pp.  273–295). Forense Universitária. Haraway, D. (1995). Saberes localizados: a questão da ciência para o feminismo e o privilégio da perspectiva parcial. Cadernos Pagu, (5), 07–41. Herrera Ortuño, J. (2016). Mulheres rurais e a construção da autonomia: as práticas e a ação coletiva das Bruxinhas de Deus em Cristal do Sul, RS. Dissertação de Mestrado, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Desenvolvimento Rural, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS. https://lume.ufrgs.br/handle/10183/182249 Herrera Ortuño, J., Charão-Marques, F., & Silva, A. L. O. (2017). Mulheres, ervas medicinais e alimentação saudável: uma experiência no Território do Médio Alto Uruguai/RS. Grifos, 43, 10–33. https://doi.org/10.22295/grifos.v26i43.4034 Herrera Ortuño, J. (2021). Práticas, materialidade e feminismos em devir: reterritorialização no caso da Rede Xique Xique de Comercialização Solidária. Tese de Doutorado, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Desenvolvimento Rural, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS. https://lume.ufrgs.br/handle/10183/221458 Lazzarotto, G., & Carvalho, J. (2012). Afetar. In T.  M. G.  Fonseca, M.  L. Nascimento, & C. Maraschin (Eds.), Pesquisar na diferença: um abecedário (pp. 25–27). Sulina. Long, N. (2001). Development sociology: actor perspectives. Routledge. Long, N. (2007). Sociología del desarrollo: una perspectiva centrada en el actor. CIESAS. Maciazeki-Gomes, R. C., Nogueira, C., Vázquez, C. L., & Toneli, M. J. (2016). Participação política e subjetividade – Narrativas de vida de trabalhadoras rurais do sul do Brasil. Psico, 47(2), 148–158. https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-8623.2016.2.21993 Maciazeki-Gomes, R. C. (2017). Narrativas de si em movimento: uma genealogia da ação política de mulheres trabalhadoras rurais do sul do Brasil . (Tese de Doutorado, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal). Retrieved from https://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/180436 Maciazeki-Gomes, R. C., Toneli, M. J. F., Nogueira, C., & Grave, R. (2019). Ação política e produção de subjetividade: a herança de terra, trabalho e participação política na produção de um éthos agricultora. Estudos de Psicologia (Natal), 24(3), 305–316. https://doi. org/10.22491/1678-4669.20190031 Maciazeki-Gomes, R. C., & Herrera-Ortuño, J. (2020). Devir Margarida: narrativas de si em experienciafetos. Interface - Comunicação, Saúde, Educação , 24, e190180. https://doi.org/10.1590/ interface.190180 Maciazeki-Gomes, R. C., Toneli, M. J. F., Nogueira, C., & Salvaro, G. I. J. (2021). Modos de trabalhar e modos de subjetivar na agricultura familiar no sul do Brasil. Revista Estudos Feministas. Florianópolis, 29(1), e65762. MMC/SC. (2005). Revista Camponesa. Ano I, Revista 1, dez. MMC/SC. (2006). Conhecer, prevenir, lutar e cuidar - a saúde da mulher. MMC/SC. Ortega, F. (1999). A amizade e estética da existência em Foucault. Ed. Graal Ltda. Paulilo, M. I. S. (2004). Trabalho familiar: uma categoria esquecida de análise. Revista Estudos Feministas, 12(1), 229–252. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-­026X2004000100012 Revel, J. (2011). Dicionário Foucault. Translation by Anderson Alexandre da Silva. Forense Universitária. Rodrigues, H. B. C. (2014). Para desencaminhar o presente psi:biografia, temporalidade e experiência e Michel Foucault. In N. Guareschi & S. Hünning (Eds.), Foucault e a psicologia (pp. 7–30). EDIPUCRS. http://www.pucrs.br/edipucrs Salvaro, G. I. J. (2010). Entre a igualdade e a diferença: mulheres camponesas em lutas de gênero. Doctoral Degree Thesis, Programa de Pós-Graduação Interdisciplinar em Ciências Humanas, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC. Salvaro, G. I. J. (2020). A produção da identidade trabalhadora rural em contextos de luta por reconhecimento profissional no Brasil e em Portugal (1980-2019). Relatório final de estágio pós-doutoral, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Universidade do Porto, Portugal.

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Samper-Erice, A., & Charão-Marques, F. (2017). Mulheres camponesas, discursos e práticas para outro desenvolvimento. Revista Estudos Feministas. Florianópolis, 25(2), 683–705. Scott, J. (1995). Gênero: uma categoria útil de análise histórica. Educação e realidade. Porto Alegre, 20(2), 71–99. Scott, J. (1998). A invisibilidade da experiência. Translation by Lúcia Haddad. Proj. História. São Paulo. 16, 297–325. Tedeschi, L. A. (2007). Mulheres camponesas da Região Noroeste do Rio Grande do Sul: identidades e representações sociais (1970-1990). Tese de Doutorado, Programa de Pós-Graduação em História, Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos – UNISINOS). http://www.repositorio. jesuita.org.br/handle/UNISINOS/2171. Tronto, J. C. (1997). Mulheres e Cuidados: o que as feministas podem aprender sobre a moralidade a partir disso? In A.  M. Jaggar & S.  R. Bordo (Eds.), Gênero, corpo e conhecimento (pp. 186–203). Record/Rosa dos Tempos. Wanderley, M. N. B. (2003). Agricultura familiar e campesinato: rupturas e continuidade. Estudos Sociedade e Agricultura, 11(2), 42–61. https://revistaesa.com/ojs/index.php/esa/article/ view/238/234 Wanderley, M. N. B. (2009). Raízes históricas do campesinato brasileiro. In M. N. B. de Wanderley (Ed.), Mundo rural como um espaço de vida (pp. 155–183). Editora UFRGS. Weber, M. (2003). Os três tipos de dominação. In G. Conh (Ed.), Weber. Ática.

Chapter 16

Indigenous Women as Political Subjects in Brazil Juliana Cabral de Oliveira Dutra and Claudia Mayorga

16.1  Introduction The dominant ideological views of indigenous peoples in Brazil represent them as being frozen in time, essentialized in their patterns of behavior and logic, inexorably destined for acculturation. Such a view insists on denying the diversity of realities and possibilities of these peoples and prefers to understand them as an egalitarian, immutable culture in essence, remnants of the pre-Cabralian societies, placing them in opposition to modern Western society, characterized by dynamism and continuous evolution (Arruda, 2001). However, indigenous societies also encompass inequalities, hierarchies, and tensions, whether in relations between the sexes or in terms of age classes and hierarchy of kinship groups, among other categories (Arruda, 2001). In addition to sharing the condition of being racialized with indigenous men, stigmatized, invisible, and exposed to vulnerabilities and territorial dispossession with their male counterparts, indigenous women seem to share specific conditions marked by intra- and interethnic gender domination relationships. The effects of colonization, racism, and the imposition of the modern colonial gender system (Lugones, 2007) on the bodies of indigenous women are evident in the denial of the right to differentiated health care, educational violence, territorial violence, stereotyping, hypersexualization, and rape as an instrument of colonial/racial domination used by nonindigenous people (Aleixo, 2019). The participation and visibility that Brazilian indigenous women are having for political discussion with nonindigenous institutions has greatly increased in recent J. C. de Oliveira Dutra (*) Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI), Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil C. Mayorga Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_16

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decades (especially after the adoption of the 1988 Constitution). The institutionalization of indigenous women’s political organizations and the debate on the rights of these women have also grown (Matos, 2012; Sacchi, 2003). At the same time that they are protagonists in the more general discussions and claims of indigenous peoples – such as the struggle for land demarcation – they also include such issues as family and interethnic violence, access to technical and financial means in the debate on decisions and public policies, income generation, reproductive health, combating of racism, food sovereignty, and women’s participation in governmental policy decisions (Voz das Mulheres Indígenas, 2018; Verdum, 2008). Little by little, they are creating more political visibility for themselves, even in academic settings. Based on previous research (Dutra, 2020; Dutra & Mayorga, 2019), we set out to analyze the emergence of indigenous women as a political subject in Brazil’s macropolitical context. This article, comprising a dialogue with feminist, social psychological, and anthropological perspectives, highlights the political strategies, knowledge, and viewpoints of indigenous women leaders who address issues related to gender, considering their most recent strategies and priority guidelines, as well as the “body/territory” concept. Finally, we call attention to the proximity and distance between the knowledge and positions of women indigenous leaders who make up the indigenous movement in Brazil and Latin American decolonial feminist thinking.

16.2  Between Feminism, Psychology, and Anthropology Feminism incorporates the concept of gender, linking it to the dimension of power relationships, making it crucial to understanding the subordination and oppression that marks the situation of women in our societies (Santos et al., 2016). The effects of disparagement that explain the experience of women based on nature, as conceived by modernity, have already been widely discussed (Santos et al., 2016). In its various theoretical and methodological approaches, feminism proposes a radical analytical turn that removes women from this natural essentialism and highlights the fundamentally constructed character of gender, repositioning it in the field of culture (Santos et al., 2016). As a theory and social movement, feminism has problematized gender relations, mainly by questioning the rigid, naturalized boundaries between public and private in modern societies (Mayorga et al., 2013). Feminism resurfaced in Brazil in the 1970s in a context of authoritarianism and repression of the military regime, and, in addition to the underlying theme of women’s equality, feminist agendas included amnesty and democratic openness (Mayorga et  al., 2013). It was also at this time that Brazilian social psychology began its tradition in feminist studies (Beiras et al., 2012). Within the framework of Brazilian psychology, it was social psychology that best embraced gender and feminist perspectives, which has historical explanations related to the movement of the so-called social psychology crisis that marked the 1970s and 1980s, as well as its critique of current social psychology (Santos et  al., 2016). This moment

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problematized the reproduction of colonial thought in Brazilian science. In other non-Brazilian contexts, perspectives had already leveled criticism against psychology, exposing the unjust and inappropriate exclusionary character of many of its productions on women, criticized for their significant contribution to the creation of stereotypes that devalue women (Santos et al., 2016). It was also in the 1970s that feminism began to use the concept of gender as a political category for analyzing the subordination of women. According to Beiras et al. (2012), this represented the third generation of gender studies in social psychology, which began in the 1990s and was largely influenced by queer theory, which indicated the deconstruction of the biological sex of men and women, based on the desires and transformations of transsexuals and transgenders. In this same critical sense, although they have not always been well-recognized in the hegemonic spaces of academic feminism, black feminism, Third World feminism, and Chicana feminism, often referred to as postcolonial or decolonial feminism, have also put together a scathing criticism, starting from the intersection between sexism, classism, and racism, with a focus on capitalism as a system of domination and modern-day coloniality (Curiel, 2007). These perspectives that question gender as the only analytical category for understanding the situation of women in society have constructed their analysis from the pluralization of feminism and identified elements that question the homogeneity of feminist political action, the subject of feminism, and the societal design that guides this action (Mayorga et al., 2013). Epistemological breaks and criticisms of the limits of the notion of gender and different readings of oppression, as well as of the different axes that cross the social construction of gender, such as class, race, coloniality, and heterosexual politics, were identified. It was evident that one of the outcomes of feminism was the universalization of readings of the experience of oppression and the emancipation by women who disregarded and disqualified their plurality and diversity (Mayorga et  al., 2013). Other forms of feminism continued to emerge, indicating the limits, normative effects, and reductionism of the gender category in understanding the oppression of women and perspectives on emancipation. The very notion of women became problematized (González, 1988; Hudson-Weems, 2020). In the context of Latin America, the “decolonial turn” (Maldonado-Torres, 2005) was marked by the movement shifting from theoretical and practical resistance, both political and epistemological, to modern and colonial logic (Ballestrin, 2013). From the 1970s onward, branches of feminism are also evident that, having been conceived by racialized women, leave the social movements to later become theoretical (Curiel, 2007). Even though black men and women and indigenous men and women now have greater access to academic participation − which was encouraged by affirmative action policies in Brazilian universities − and with all the transformation they have been evoking in the university environment, their intellectual productions, both academic and those pertaining to activism, “are often rendered invisible and/or not used by academics in the country” (Santos et al., 2016). What place have indigenous women historically occupied in academic literature? What kind of knowledge are

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Brazilian indigenous women producing about what it means to be an indigenous woman in Brazil? The first ethnographic productions to treat indigenous women in the South American lowlands were conducted in the 1950s. These studies were undertaken at a time marked by two main lines of approach: Freudian psychoanalytic and the structuralist bias, which brought to the stage the exchange and symbolic thought as the foundations of the social reality (Seraguza, 2017). The topic has only become a concern in the field of Amerindian ethnology in recent decades, suggesting that new approaches need to be considered. A large part of these Brazilian ethnographic productions were influenced by the works of Marilyn Strathern, a British anthropologist, and Annette Weiner, a North American anthropologist, who questioned the category of gender and its universalization and advocated the need to update it in these societies, based on the assumption that gender is a Western category (Seraguza, 2017). Lauriene Seraguza (2017), reflecting on new theoretical and methodological pathways for treating gender and sexuality among indigenous peoples and based on her studies with the Kaiowa and Guarani peoples, defends “cosmopolitics” (Latour, 2004, 2018; Stengers, 2018) as an important conceptual key for the analysis of these contexts. Such a theoretical and political proposition, which began to be formulated by Isabelle Stengers in 1996, considers that “cosmos,” in its formulation, “has little to do with the world in which the citizen of old, everywhere, affirmed himself in his territory, nor with an ultimately unified land, where each one would be a citizen.” According to the author, it is exactly the opposite. Rather, it is about questioning the construction of this “common world” and the idea of “good,” considering that the knowledge and technical equipment that judge what are “planetary issues” and define what would be a “good common world” remain “ours,” the Westerners. Therefore, even with “goodwill” and “respect for others,” the difference is not erased. Stengers (2018) questions the possibility of constructing a neutral universal theory and states that the cosmos designates the unknown that constitutes these multiple and divergent worlds and their articulations. As such, the concept of cosmopolitics aims to explore symmetrically comparable relations between collectives that are very different from one another but only apparently irreconcilable in terms of analysis. Bruno Latour (2004), in a dialogue with Stengers, proposes that exploring the comparisons between the cosmos and disparate collectives requires breaking with the modernist distinction between nature and culture, which establishes the abyss between scientific and nonscientific knowledge − as indigenous knowledge has been designated. Modernity is constituted through separations, such as those between nature and culture, human and nonhuman, science and politics, and presuppositions, such as the transcendence of nature and the immanence of society. However, the anthropologist’s thesis is that the modern does not, in fact, operate through these separations and presuppositions, and the modern constitution is precisely the one to account for those that disrupt the assurances of modernity, the “hybrids” (Dutra & Santos, 2014). Based on this same foundation, Viveiros de Castro (2015) reinforces the idea of a crisis of modern ontology and of the

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environmental catastrophe associated with it, which highlights the idea that ancient cosmologies and their concerns are not so unfounded. According to the author, “the presence of the cosmos in cosmopolitics resists the tendency of politics to conceive exchanges in an exclusively human circle” (Latour, 2018, p.432) (translated by the authors). In other words, the author argues that, in the cosmos, nonhuman beings also have agency in the cosmos. He further states that “the presence of the politician in cosmopolitics resists the tendency of the cosmos to conceive a finite list of entities that must be taken into account.” The Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa explains this understanding: In the forest, ecology is us, humans. But so are the xapiri [spirits], the animals, the trees, the rivers, the fish, the sky, the rain, the wind, and the sun! It is everything that came into existence in the forest, far from the white men; everything that doesn’t have a fence around it yet. The words of ecology are our old words, the words that Omama [the Yanomami demiurge] gave to our ancestors. (Kopenawa Yanomami & Albert, 2015) (translated by the authors)

Thus, clues are given about the fragility of the binary and reductionist idea of nature and society and the misunderstanding of the idea of “mononaturalism.” There is an evident need to overcome naturalistic thinking, marked by the belief in a unique natural world, a thought arising from Western science that denies the idea of the pluriverse. In the words of Seraguza (2017, p.8): It is possible to think of the agency of gender relations and sexuality as specific ways of doing Amerindian female politics, or cosmopolitics, as specific ways of making bodies, building people, creating social life. (translated by the authors)

The author uses the example of the Kaiowa and Guarani for whom the duality between public and private life does not make sense and where the social life of women comprises that of men and vice versa; therefore, there is no complementarity between them, it being a practice, something to be achieved (Dainese & Seraguza, 2016). In this context, leadership has to be made, and this achievement spans the fabrication of the body and the construction of the person and his/her relations with otherness. Women participate in this fabrication, “in the production of political relations with otherness, and in the production of people, knowledge and villages, generated/manufactured/constituted from the relationship between politics, cosmology, and kinship” (Seraguza, 2017, p.3) (translated by the authors). Thus, the concept of cosmopolitics is anchored in a non-separation between politics and nature and in the need to pay attention to practices, in concrete situations, making cosmopolitics a place of resistance and not solely for building a common world. For indigenous people, being female is something to be constructed. It is more of a link to a female practice than to a predetermined corporeal substance (Seraguza, 2017). Therefore, one must pay attention to the use of the concept of gender when it comes to indigenous peoples, since being an indigenous woman is something multiple, not something fixed. Addressing this concern, anthropologist Cecília McCallum calls into question the discipline’s concern with the possible epistemological violence triggered by the use of universalizing categories (such as gender) to talk about indigenous practices

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and ways of thinking. According to the ethnologist, one needs to be aware of the risk of framing the theme of gender and indigenous sexuality in a dichotomy that opposes modernity to tradition, which “represents an epistemological violence greater than that which may result from the use of an analytical category such as gender” (Mccallum, 1999, p.55) (translated by the authors). The expression “traditional people” refers to a hegemonic, stereotyped view that “freezes” the ways of being indigenous in an identity linked to the past. In this context, many thinkers and indigenous leaders take ownership and redefine the concepts, discussions, and ideas of the colonizers, and, in the course of confrontations and dialogues with nonindigenous people, they are adapted and transformed, and new concepts, cosmologies, and movements emerge.

16.3  Indigenous Women in Movements The creation of institutionalized indigenous organizations with a national reach began to form in the late 1970s, “when these peoples started to meet and see that they had common problems and could come up with some solutions together” (Krenak, 1984, p.90) (translated by the authors). According to Gersem Luciano Baniwa (2006), indigenous movements began to strengthen during this period due to the rise of leaders with regional, national, and international recognition, such as Mário Juruna (Xavante), Kretan and Xangrí (Kaingang), and Raoni (Txukarramãe). Institutionalized women’s organizations emerged years later, in the 1980s, when women leaders who worked in indigenous regional organizations also became more visible. Unlike the extended indigenous movement, the indigenous women’s movement became institutionalized without initially having an effective national liaison (such as the Union of Indigenous Nations, UNI), due to the dynamics of the movement’s political relations and lack of support from partner entities. The association of indigenous women is marked by ethnic experiences of political dialogue that define specific identity strategies (Matos, 2012). Starting in the 2000s, indigenous women, through their associations, began to create indigenous women departments in the largest regional indigenous organizations operating in the Brazilian Amazon, aimed at having the movement acknowledge the specificities of women’s claims (Matos, 2012). The Department of Indigenous Women of the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of Rio Negro (FOIRN) was created in 2002 during the First Meeting of Indigenous Women in the Upper Rio Negro. In the same year, a Department of Indigenous Women was established within the Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) during the first meeting of indigenous Amazon women. The Union of Indigenous Women of the Brazilian Amazon (UMIAB) emerged out of the latter in 2009 (Matos, 2012). The goal was to obtain greater political clout to address their concerns, such as the education of their children, the problems arising from the indigenous experience in the city, the lack of family health care, poor nutrition, and the lack of economic

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perspectives within the community (Matos, 2012). They were also intent on introducing policies for women in those organizations that would prioritize issues specific to them, such as indigenous women’s health, violence against women, the transmission of sexual diseases by men to their indigenous partners, the need to make the market viable for their products, and unequal opportunities between men and women in terms of training and project management (Rossi, 2019). Women leaders have been asserting themselves in Brazilian society as agents of dialogues in the public sphere by working in the women’s departments of indigenous organizations. During this period, the movement was buttressed by achieving a seat on the National Council for the Rights of Women (CNDM); the Training and Discussion Workshop on Human Rights, Gender, and Public Policies (2002) in Brasília; the creation, within the National Indian Foundation (Funai), of the Gender and Generational Affairs Coordination (COGER), currently the Gender Coordination of Generational Issues and Social Mobilization (COGEM); the Policy Conference for Women (2004); the National Meeting of Indigenous Women in Brasília and the Participatory Regional Seminars held between 2006 and 2010 to debate the Maria da Penha Act and violence against indigenous women; the National Indigenous Women’s Health Conferences, which started in 2017; and the Voice of Indigenous Women Project and its robust participation in the Terra Livre Camp since 2016. This increased visibility culminated in 2018–30 years after the promulgation of the Federal Constitution − with the election of the first indigenous person to represent the state of Roraima in the National Congress, Congresswoman Joênia Wapichana, and with indigenous leader, Sonia Guajajara, as vice-presidential running mate during the presidential campaign of Guilherme Boulos of the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL). Then, in 2019, for the first time, indigenous women from different organizations gathered in Brasília to hold the First Forum and First March of Indigenous Women, which assembled approximately 2500 women at the Esplanada dos Ministérios. Using the theme “Territory: our body, our spirit” (translated by the authors), the march consisted of indigenous women from approximately 113 different tribes from all parts of the country who discussed topics ranging from the right to land, government policies, gender violence, machismo, and homophobia to issues of reproductive health, education, safety, and sustainability (APIB, 2019a, ago 13). The indigenous women who took part in the march also participated in the Solemn Session in honor of the March of the Daisies and Indigenous People in the Brazilian House of Representatives and were in attendance during a Congressional hearing on “Indigenous women and social rights” (APIB, 2019b, ago 15a) (translated by the authors). On that occasion, the March of Indigenous Women joined the March of Daisies, which, in its sixth edition, presented the motto “Daisies in the Fight for a Brazil with Sovereignty, Democracy, Justice, Equality; and Free from Violence” and brought together peasants, rural workers, quilombola residents, riverside villagers, and landless peasants (CIMI, 2019, ago 13). In the end, the demonstration resulted in a document that showed how this national movement had matured, how its agendas had grown, and how organized its discourse had become. The document emphasized that, for indigenous people, land

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does not represent a good, a commodity, or a resource to be exploited, as it does in the capitalist system, but rather represents life, their bodies, and their spirits. Furthermore, the document, along with the interviews given by indigenous women during the march, is characterized by this notion of land/female subject/mother which, when violated, causes pain and death, an argument and an appeal to stop the invasions and exploitation of indigenous lands and respect the rights of indigenous peoples to continue to exist: We want our way of seeing, feeling, being, and living on the land to be respected. For us, the loss of land is the loss of affection, bringing a deep sadness that reaches our spirit. The feeling of the land being violated is like that of a mother who loses her child. (Final Document of the March of the Indigenous Women, 2019, paragraph 7) (translated by the authors)

During a hearing in the Brazilian House of Representatives, they pointed out the affective and spiritual dimension linked to the land and the cosmological entity translated into Portuguese as mãe-terra (mother-earth, in English), which is part of the cosmogony of some indigenous peoples in the Americas. Cristiane Julião, of the Pankararu people, says: “The land is feminine and is the one that bears all the fruits: water, ore, food, trees, animals. This germinating land, which generates all of this, we are this land” (APIB, 2019c, abo 15b) (translated by the authors). Shirley Krenak calls for an understanding of the importance of land and indigenous women for everyone’s life: We are the land 24 hours a day. My body is the earth and what runs through my veins is water. We are worried because the essence of the land is being lost, and my people are at great risk of disappearing. The earth is mother, the earth is woman. And one woman understands the other. So, this is the moment for this: calling people to understand that we have the essence of life, because we work for you to breathe, for you to drink water, for you to eat well. People need to understand how important we are here, especially us, the indigenous women. (APIB, 2019c, Aug 15b, paragraph 3) (translated by the authors)

Therefore, mother-earth is also a physical, social, political, and historical territoriality, characterized by the dynamics of appropriation and reinterpretation. When indigenous women say that the land is feminine and that they are that land, or when they compare the feeling of violation of the land with the feeling of a mother who loses her child, this makes us reflect on how the sanctioning of both colonial violence and genocide are imposed essentially upon the woman’s body and upon territoriality (hence the meaning of mother-earth), all priority target spaces of the coloniality of power (Quijano, 2000; Segato, 2014). Unlike Western patriarchy, which prescribes the woman’s place in nature as a destination, indigenous women emphasize that the exploitation of women and mother-earth is marked by relationships of power, exploitation, and violence. In mother-earth territoriality, indigenous people develop practices and experiences that relate to corporeality, experiences, spiritual entities, and the connection between the living and the dead (Romero, 2010). In the Final Document of the March, criticisms and demonstrations against the anti-indigenous positions and measures adopted by the then-Brazilian government were also based on an understanding of mother-earth: “This form of government is

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like pulling a tree out of the earth and leaving its roots exposed until it dries out” (translated by the authors). The document identified 14 priority issues, including land demarcation, full possession of territories, access to quality education and health that value traditional knowledge, the repudiation of setbacks in indigenous legislation, the guarantee of self-determination, and access to justice. Agendas related to the fight against racism, machismo, and violence against indigenous women were also presented, as well as for the empowerment of indigenous women (Final Document of the 1st March of Indigenous Women, 2019, items 7, 11, 12, 13, and 14).

16.4  Indigenous Women and Feminism In addition to these collective organizations, indigenous women are now finding placement in and interaction with universities yet another tool of struggle, transmission of knowledge, and dialogue with nonindigenous society. Such productions present their unique perspectives on the history and cosmology of their peoples, on the resistance movements, against the historical and violent process of colonization and the violation of rights that they suffer, and on some of their recurring agendas. In this context of plural voices, some women indigenous leaders and academic authors have chosen to appropriate concepts from feminism, such as gender and machismo, to describe their own experiences of oppression: When I tracked the daily lives of most indigenous women, their way of life was so lopsided, I was deeply troubled by the way the macho way of thinking led and defined the lives of these women. I witnessed injustices that were regarded as normal attitudes and accepted with ease, both at the personal level and in public spaces. (Ramos Pankararu, 2015, p. 12) (translated by the authors)

Brazilian indigenous women, such as Lindomar Terena, have reflected on the introduction of Western machismo in indigenous societies since the colonization process: There is [machismo] and it’s very strong among indigenous men, but the degree varies from people to people. Intense machismo was something introduced through contact with the colonizer. Therefore, it’s one of the epidemics brought over in European baggage and that contaminated us. Before this invasive and violent contact, there was more parity in the gender relationship between our ancestors. I’ve been talking to some anthropologist and indigenist friends, such as Professor Dr. Jorge Eremites de Oliveira, and one of his statements caught my attention: machismo didn’t come from the slave quarters, but from the big house. It’s a fact. (Lindomar Terena, 2017, paragraph 11) (translated by the authors)

For some indigenous authors, such as Valéria Paye Kaxuyana (2008), Potiguara (2018), Elisa Ramos Pankararu (2015), and Cristiane Julião Pankararu (APIB, 2019c, ago 15b), gender inequality among indigenous peoples and the oppression suffered by indigenous women within their communities are related to the degree of contact that people have with nonindigenous society. Paye Kaxuyana (2008, p. 41)

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states: “What can be perceived is that indigenous men, interacting to a greater degree with the so-called ‘dominant’ society, have been strongly affected by machismo, which is a backdrop of gender relationships in Western societies” (translated by the authors). This statement is made in the final document of the First March of Indigenous Women (2019, paragraph 2): “machismo is yet another epidemic brought over by Europeans” (translated by the authors). Similarly, Elisa Pankararu writes about the relationship of gender inequality that she currently perceives in indigenous contexts and which she attributes to the “malaise of colonization” (Ramos Pankararu, 2015, p.20) (translated by the authors). The discussions presented by Brazilian indigenous people are similar to the productions of decolonial feminist authors, such as Segato (2014) and Lugones (2007), and of indigenous people from other Latin American countries, such as Paredes (2008) and Cabnal (2010), who write on the concept of community feminism. Conversely, in the Brazilian context, given such ethnic, territorial, linguistic, and sociocultural diversity, not to mention political agendas, movements, and strategies, the positions of women who make up indigenous movements are multiple, including whether or not they identify with feminism. According to Ro’otsinana Juruna, “each person has a different time to debate gender or, sometimes, has never discussed it.” Although some indigenous leaders, such as Valéria Paye Kaxuyana and Rosemere Teles Arapasso, refer to the indigenous women’s movement as feminist, other leaders, such as Lindomar Terena (2017) and Potyra Tê Tupinambá, criticize the use of this category when applied to indigenous women. For Valéria Teles, Kaxuyana, and Gavião (2018, abr, paragraph 5), “There is a feminist feeling among indigenous women” (translated by the authors). As they see it, women indigenous leaders are detaching themselves from being complementary to the indigenous movement and organizing their own agendas based on reflections on gender and the struggle for equal rights. They understand that many women are “talking” and learning with feminism “from outside” to have support in their struggles for their rights. In contrast, Lindomar Terena (2017), paragraph 14) claims not to recognize indigenous feminism. She understands that feminism is a concept of European origin and that “Bringing this model into the indigenous interior does not make as much sense as it does for women in the Western world” (translated by the authors). Similarly, Potyra Tê Tupinambá (Aleixo, 2019) does not identify herself as a feminist and presents differences between feminism and indigenous movements related to the individuality of Western thought, which also permeates feminism and is opposed to the sense of collectivity and the feeling of belonging to a people, which characterizes Indianness. Pankararu leaders, Joênia Wapichana and Maria Bárbara Silva, refer to a meaning of feminism with which they identify, despite this being a Caucasian concept. Today, I know that the feminist woman is one who empowers herself, who is not afraid to pursue her goals. Men have no claim on women. Here in my village, many women are still submissive to men, afraid to express themselves and to fight for their rights. It is still very difficult to show them that feminism is to fight for equal rights to men and that the two must

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always be walking together, that neither is better than the other. Today, I feel like a feminist woman, because I fight for my rights. (Aleixo, 2019, Maria Bárbara de Oliveira Silva, Paragraphs 1 and 2) (translated by the authors)

Sônia Guajajara believes there is an opposition between feminist movements, in which they would need to put themselves in conflict with men and the indigenous women’s movements, whose struggles are added to those of indigenous men (Aleixo, 2019). The term “feminism” is not mentioned in the final document produced during the First March of Indigenous Women (2019). Instead, the text highlights the differences between the objectives perceived between the indigenous women’s movements and nonindigenous women’s movements with regard to gender relations and conceptions on violence: The March of Indigenous Women was conceived as a process that began in 2015 for the purpose of training and empowering indigenous women. Over time, we talked with women from different movements and realized that our movement has a specificity that we would like to have understood. The movement produced by our fight dance considers the need for a return to complementarity between the feminine and the masculine, without, however, conferring an essence for the man and for the woman. Machismo is yet another epidemic brought over by the Europeans. Thus, what is considered violence by non-indigenous women may not be considered violence by us. This doesn’t mean we'll close our eyes to the violence that we recognize as happening in our villages, but that what we need to take into consideration and focus on is exactly the opposite. We need to treat it as a problem and critically reflect on the daily practices and forms of contemporary political organization among us. (Final Document of the 1st March of Indigenous Women, 2019, paragraph 2) (translated by the authors)

Potyra Tê stresses that there can be no single answer to the question about the indigenous women’s movements being feminist or not and presents their perception of the place Tupinambá de Olivença women occupy in their community: I don’t think there is just one single form of feminism. The woman who lives in a city is in a different context than ours, because we live in a village. Just as our context is different from that of the indigenous people who live in the urban context. So, I think we have to talk about different forms of feminism. Each population is different. We can’t say that indigenous people are all the same. (Aleixo, 2019, Potyra Tê Tupinambá, paragraphs 6 and 7) (translated by the authors)

16.5  Final Considerations The complaints and criticisms leveled by Brazilian indigenous women who lead political movements teach us about new ways of redefining and using the concepts of gender, machismo, and feminism in a way that expresses their own realities and needs in a historically unequal intercultural dialogue. They indicate an intersectional relationship between gender, colonialism, ethnicity, and territory and pervade discussions on racism, mental anguish, and sexuality. Cries of resistance from indigenous women show the clarity of their objectives as they fight against the

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pernicious effects of colonization. “It will be us, the indigenous women, with our bodies, who will decolonialize the Brazilian society that has killed our history and our memory,” says Célia Xacriabá (APIB, 2019a, ago 13) (translated by the authors). Indigenous women have had and still have to face the imposition of a moral and political system that has seeped into their customs and traditions, radically changing their gender and ethnic experiences. One of the imposed models was the public/ private dichotomy, as two excluding spheres, which constitutes one of the cornerstones of modern capitalist society. In addition to enduring the effects of machismo and racism, indigenous women also suffer from being placed in a general condition of poverty, often without being able to speak out and fight for their rights. It is within the institutionalized political movement that indigenous women have found visibility and a voice for their agendas and knowledge (Pinto, 2010). These women have guided and developed strategies to face oppression, such as the protagonism and visibility of indigenous people in macropolitical spaces, the relationship between organizations and leaders, and the inclusion in party politics and academia so that their voices may be heard. In addition to the struggle for the agendas common to all indigenous people, such as the demarcation and protection of land, they highlight the inequality related to the lower prestige of women in indigenous societies, conjugal violence, their restriction to the domestic sphere where they are emptied of their political power, the violence they suffer in the face of nonindigenous society, the invisibility of their specific agendas and resistance movements, and the proximity and distances of their struggles with feminism. In this construction, the tenuous bond with feminism, its denial, and redefinition are elements of this context and reveal different political ways of understanding and facing the inequalities or invisibility they experience, thereby designing a political field of divergences, alliances, common strategies, and disputes. It should be noted that such terms as “indigenous women’s movements” and “indigenous women’s organizations” may hide multiple and varied voices and knowledge, strategies for struggles, and realities. There seems to be several possibilities of feminism or non-feminism with their own concepts and epistemologies that are shaped by the reality and cosmology experienced by each people. Yet, an increasingly articulated and growing Brazilian movement has been characterized by bringing together women indigenous leaders from different contexts and ethnic groups to dialogue, reflect, and exchange opinions on gender-­related themes from their epistemic place. Criticism of hegemonic Western feminism is recurrent in these dialogues, as is the construction of knowledge related to confrontations with machismo and the various forms of oppression they suffer from the place they occupy as Brazilian indigenous women. Despite their uniqueness, these characteristics bring them closer to the different forms of decolonial dissident feminism, as they share the development of struggles and theoretical constructions that explain their own subordination. Paying attention to this multiple knowledge constructed by indigenous women becomes important because they aggravate many tensions involving not only the theoretical fields of feminism and anthropology but also the political debate fields

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for rights and visibility. Moreover, listening attentively to these voices and valuing the knowledge of historically invisible indigenous women are essential for those who propose to act against the genocide of indigenous peoples and in support of a more democratic society.

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Hudson-Weems, C. (2020). Mulherismo Africana. Editora Ananse. Teles, R., Kaxuyana, V.  P. P,. & Gavião, M. (2018, abr). Feminismo para as mulheres indígenas. SOS Corpo – Instituto Feminista para a Democracia. Retrieved from http://soscorpo.org/ feminismo-­para-­as-­mulheres-­indigenas/ Krenak, A. (1984). Os Índios não estão preparados para votar, para trabalhar, para existir. Lua Nova: Revista de Cultura e Política, 1(1), 86–91. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-­64451984000100019 Kopenawa Yanomami, D., & Albert, B. (2015). A queda do céu: Palavras de um xamã yanomami. Companhia das Letras. Latour, B. (2004). Políticas da natureza: como fazer ciência na democracia. EDUSc. Latour, B. (2018). Qual cosmos, quais cosmopolíticas? Comentário sobre as propostas de paz de Ulrich Beck. Revista do Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros, 69, 427–441. Luciano Baniwa, G. S. (2006). O Índio Brasileiro: o que você precisa saber sobre os povos indígenas no Brasil de hoje. Brasília: Ministério da Educação, Secretaria de Educação Continuada, Alfabetização e Diversidade; LACED/Museu Nacional. Lugones, M. (2007). Heterosexualism and the colonial/modern gender system. Hypatia, 22(1), 186–219. Maldonado-Torres, N. (2005). Decolonization and the New Identitarian Logics after September 11: Eurocentrism and Americanism against the Barbarian Threats. Radical Philosophy Review, 8(1), 35–67. https://doi.org/10.5840/radphilrev2005812 Matos, M.  H. (2012). O.  Mulheres no movimento indígena: do espaço de complementariedade ao lugar da especificidade. In A. Sacchi & M. M. Gramkow (Eds.), Gênero e povos indígenas (pp. 140–171). Museu do Índio/ GIZ / Funai. Mayorga, C., Coura, A., Miralles, N., & Cunha, V. M. (2013). As críticas ao gênero e a pluralização do feminismo: Colonialismo, racismo e política heterossexual. Revista Estudos Feministas, 21(2), 463–484. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-­026X2013000200003 Mccallum, C. (1999). Aquisição de gênero e habilidades produtivas: o caso Kaxinawá. Revista de Estudos Feministas, 7, 157–175. Pinto, A. A. (2010). Reinventando o feminismo: as mulheres indígenas e suas demandas de gênero. Fazendo Gênero 9. Diásporas, Diversidades, Deslocamentos. UFSC. Santa Catarina. Paredes, J. (2008). Hilando fino desde el feminismo comunitario. CEDEC y Mujeres Creando Comunidad. Paye Kaxuyana, V. (2008). A Lei Maria da Penha e as mulheres indígenas. In: R. Verdum (org), Mulheres Indígenas, Direitos e Políticas Públicas. Brasília: INESC. Potiguara, E. (2018). Metade cara, metade máscara. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 3ª edição, Grumin. Quijano, A. (2000). Colonialidad del poder y clasificación social. Journal of World-Systems Research, VI(2), 342–386. Ramos Pankararu, E. U. (2015). Movimento de mulheres indígenas em Pernambuco. Trabalho de conclusão de curso apresentado ao Curso de Especialização em Gênero, Desenvolvimento e Políticas Públicas. UFPE: Caruaru. Romero, F. L. (2010). Corpo, sangue e território em Wounmaikat (nossa mãe terra): etnografia sobre violência, mediações de alteridades e sonhos entre os wayuu na Colômbia e na Venezuela. Tese (Doutorado em Antropologia), UFRS. Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Antropologia Social. Porto Alegre, RS. Rossi, M. (abr, 2019). “Dizer que nós mulheres indígenas não enfrentamos violência de gênero é mentira”: Porta-voz do movimento das mulheres indígenas, Ro’Otsitsina Xavante conta como elas estão se organizando para combater o machismo nas aldeias. El País. Brasília. Retrieved from: https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2019/04/26/politica/1556294406_680039.html Sacchi, A. (2003). Mulheres indígenas e participação política: a discussão de gênero nas organizações de mulheres indígenas. Revista Anthropológicas, 7(14), 95–110. Santos, L., Carvalho, A., Amaral, J., Borges, L., & Mayorga, C. (2016). Gênero, feminismo e psicologia social no Brasil: análise da revista Psicologia & Sociedade (1996-2010). Psicologia & Sociedade, 28(3), 589–603.

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Sebastião Terena, L. (2017). Feminismo indígena existe? Conheça as lutas da mulher indígena. Entrevistada por Site Lado M. Retrieved from https://cebi.org.br/noticias/feminismo-­indigena/ Segato, R.  L. (2014). Las nuevas formas de la guerra y el cuerpo de las mujeres. Sociedade e Estado, 29(2), 341–371. Seraguza, L. (2017). De fúrias, jaguares e brancos: notas sobre gênero, sexualidade e política entre os kaiowa e guarani em mato grosso do sul. Seminário Internacional Fazendo Gênero 11 & 13th Women’s Worlds Congress (Anais Eletrônicos), Florianópolis. Stengers, I. (2018). A proposição cosmopolítica. Revista do Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros, 69, 442–464. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-901X.v0i69p442-464 Teles, R.; Kaxuyana, V. P. P.; Gavião, M.. (2018, abr). Feminismo para as mulheres indígenas. SOS Corpo – Instituto Feminista para a Democracia. Recuperado de http://soscorpo.org/ feminismo-para-as-mulheres-indigenas/ Verdum, R. (2008). Mulheres Indígenas, Direitos e Políticas Públicas. In R.  Verdum (Ed.), Mulheres Indígenas, Direitos e Políticas Públicas (pp. 7–20). INESC. Viveiros de Castro, E. (2015). O recado da mata. In D. K. Yanomami & B. Albert (Eds.), A queda do céu: Palavras de um xamã yanomami. Companhia das Letras. Voz Das Mulheres Indígenas. (2018). Pauta Nacional das Mulheres Indígenas (Cartilha). Retrieved from: http://www.onumulheres.org.br/wp-­content/uploads/2018/06/PAUTA-­ Mulheres-­indigenas-­1.pdf.

Chapter 17

Decolonial Understandings of Young Homosexual Rural Men’s Ways of Life: Insurgencies and Disobediences Antonio César de Holanda Santos and Jaileila de Araújo Menezes

17.1  Introduction By acting as a psychologist and teacher in Psychology in the Agreste of Alagoas, we work with young people in urban contexts, but mainly in rural areas, in non-governmental organizations, associations, movements and diverse educational contexts. During training and listening activities, we get to know the experiences of several LGBTQI + young people. And we observed that, in the face of oppression, many of them migrated to urban centers, and/or escaped from schools and activities aimed at youth. We saw ourselves directly and indirectly involved with this situation, which questioned our blackness, homosexuality, and praxis in a public university, with its manuals, relationships, and oppressive structures and which had little dialogue with our poor, rural, northeastern, Alagoas, and harsh context. We also found out that this situation did not occur only in our context, as we understand that such oppression and the lifestyles of young homosexuals are also linked to rural locations in the northeast and Brazil. We accessed a few studies in psychology on the issues of gender, sexuality, and/or homosexuality of Brazilian, Northeastern, and rural young people (Arcoverde, 2013; Diniz, 2010; Gouveia, 2010; Leite et al., 2013; Ribeiro, 2010; da Silva, 2014). We also found research in other areas that specifically focused on youth homosexuality in rural areas, identifying gender asymmetry, whether questioning roles (Vieira, 2006) or corroborating them (da Silva, 2006). And we identified studies involving rural youth and adults from the Northeast in their homosexual A. C. de Holanda Santos (*) Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Palmeira dos Índios, Alagoas, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] J. de Araújo Menezes Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_17

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relationships under different configurations (Ferreira, 2006a, b). However, even though they are very important, these studies did not directly address the forms of subjectification of homosexuality in the public that we are dealing with. In this sense, we undertook a survey on the experience of homosexuality among young rural men. But, in addition to identifying them as oppressions and resistances, we aim to make visible ways of being and living their homosexualities. For this narrative, we will discuss about the processes of sexual subjectification of these young rural homosexual men, considering a heteronormativity and a Eurocentric logic of colonialities in Latin American territories. Specifically, we aim to highlight the ways of life of young men rural homosexuals and to know the regimes of power that affected the processes of subjectivation of these young people. Hereinafter, we will bring the decolonial assumptions of our study, focusing on the dynamics of coloniality and decoloniality, and procedures of the decolonizing research process. And we will make the information constructed with the young participants visible, highlighting the affirmations of homosexuality that express their lifestyles in community.

17.2  T  he Colonialities of Power, Knowledge, Being, and Gender To subsidize an analysis of the ways of being and living of young rural homosexual men, we will approach some fundamental concepts about decolonial studies, which are propositions and analyses of power relations guided by the maintenance of the logic of oppression between the colonizer and colonized in contexts of submission, even after colonization, especially today. We believe that this logic permeates youths, the rural context, and the way in which homosexual men are ways of being and resisting in the face of historical, situated, and subjectified oppression. The decolonial perspective was coined by the modernity/coloniality group, which structured an epistemological movement in Latin America proposing the radicalization of the postcolonial argument, based on what they named as “decolonial gyrus” (Ballestrin, 2013), which we will detail later. The decolonial option is considered not as a new one but as another epistemic, theoretical, and political way of acting in the world. According to Bernardino-Costa and Grosfoguel (2016), the idea of ​​postcoloniality alone does not mean the end of colonial effects, as there would be a risk of only accommodating historical experiences without, however, allowing other categories of interpretation of reality. That said, the aim is to transcend epistemologically and also to decolonize Western epistemology and canons that legitimize different oppressions in the former colonized countries. We emphasize, however, that several decolonial scholars accept the importance of postcolonial precepts, especially to understand oppressions and colonialities. It is important to highlight the differentiation between the concepts of coloniality, colonialism, descoloniality, and decoloniality. Because they are similar in

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nomenclature, they commonly generate mistakes in interpretation and translation. The concept of colonialism, more widespread, means “the historical formation of colonial territories” (Maldonado-Torres, 2019, p. 35), a sine qua non condition for the formation of modernity (Bernardino-Costa & Grosfoguel, 2016). Descoloniality refers to historical moments of insurgency against colonialism, seeking to break with it (Maldonado-Torres, 2019). Thus, descolonization does not mean “simply the affirmation of indigenous ways of conceiving and gender and sex, or the rejection of patriarchy as if it had not been modified by the coloniality of gender and sex in the colonized world” (Maldonado-Torres, 2019, p. 41) (translated by the authors). Coloniality corresponds to the maintenance of the global logic of dehumanization, with colonies or not (Maldonado-Torres, 2019). On this concept, Lugones (2014a, p. 936) tells us that it is composed of “a dichotomous hierarchy between human and non-human” (translated by the authors), central to colonial modernity. By hierarchizing, coloniality makes the active reduction of people based on dehumanization and subjectification, making them subject to ranking. Part of this logic is the ideas of modern, which refers to normative coloniality; non-modern, which corresponds to decolonial or non-colonial, systematically denied; and the pre-­ modern, which classifies the decolonial others as below the modern, as Lugones (2014a) presents from Aparício and Blaser. There are mechanisms that support coloniality, and it is in this sense that decolonization means the struggle against the logic of coloniality and its material, epistemic, and symbolic effects, pointing out paths other than modernity (Maldonado-Torres, 2019). According to the Colonialidade/Modernidade group, it is necessary to create or legitimize an epistemology from our locus. Colonization in Brazil and in Latin America took place differently from other countries, and each context in Brazil had specificities in terms of colonial imposition, especially in Alagoas. Therefore, we will approach the concepts and dynamics of the colonialities of power, knowledge, being, and gender, which are the fundamental categories. Ballestrin (2013) defines the coloniality of power as the continuity of colonial forms of domination. This is because modernity is articulated with the colonial matrix of power, knowledge, and being, and, finally, it updates and contemporizes oppressive processes that supposedly would have been overcome with modernity (Ballestrin, 2013). According to Mignolo (2014, p.  9), control of power occurs through “control of the economy, control of authority, control of gender and sexuality and control of knowledge and subjectivity.” According to Maldonado-Torres (2019, p. 42), “structure, culture and embodied subject” (translated by the authors) are essential elements of the dynamics of the coloniality of power, which occurred by classifying populations based on racialization, whose process was an organizing principle of capital and labor (Bernardino-Costa & Grosfoguel, 2016). The coloniality of power acts in material and subjective dimensions, using knowledge and strategies to impose oppressive logics. With this process, the coloniality of knowledge is configured, whose basic components would be the subject, the object, and the method (Maldonado-Torres, 2019). Eurocentrism and colonialism grounded the construction of the thought that subjugated human beings and that remains in various current relations, supporting a Euro-American, modern,

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Christian, capitalist, colonial, and patriarchal world-system. To this end, the myth of modernity has spread, with knowledge that classifies, conceals, erases, and/or silences other forms of knowledge of other peoples and societies, said to be backward (Bernardino-Costa & Grosfoguel, 2016). This world-system elaborated specific geopolitics of knowledge and colonial difference, which means the material and imaginary space where the coloniality of power takes place, both through cooptation and oppression and through the resistance and maintenance of previous ways of life (Mignolo, 2003). After all, the colonial imposition did not come across “blank sheets” when occupying territories with other historical, social, political, economic, and cultural constructs already constituted. According to Ballestrin (2013, p. 104), this “epistemic colonial difference is an accomplice to universalism, sexism and racism.” This happened through the logic of the “zero point” (translated by the authors), which constituted an “epistemic subject [who] has no sexuality, gender, ethnicity, race, class, spirituality, language, or epistemic location in any power relationship, and produces the truth from an inner monologue to oneself, with no relation to anyone outside of oneself” (Grosfoguel, 2007, pp.  64–65, quoted by Ballestrin, 2013, p.  104) (translated by the authors). This understanding allows us to recognize the public and historical silencing imposed on rural homosexuals. The coloniality of being means the construction of “ideas about the meaning of concepts and the quality of the experience to be lived” (Maldonado-Torres, 2019, p. 42) (translated by the authors). In other words, a lens is created for subjects to conceive of being and living according to the colonial imposition. The notions of time, space, and subjectivity are the pillars of the coloniality of being, which is made from “seeing, feeling and experiencing” (Maldonado-Torres, 2019, p.  44) (translated by the authors). The colonialities of power, knowledge, and being are composed of subjectivations and are considered as basic dimensions of the modern/colonial worldview (Maldonado-Torres, 2019). But Lugones (2014a, b) also defends gender coloniality as a basic dimension of the modern/colonial world, whose colonial imposition accredits it as oppressive, articulating itself with the colonialities of power, knowledge, and being. Lugones (2014b) says that Eurocentered capitalism introduced gender differences in the colonies, where previously there were not differences. Consequently, beings that meet the world-system that forges a neutral epistemic subject were and have been built, under the logic of the “zero point,” as we have seen. One of these differences is the understanding, according to Lugones (2014a), that women are not actually colonized, because colonized women are categorized, dehumanized, and reduced to females. Maldonado-Torres (2019) conceived that gender does not happen only from the direct imposition of gender and sexuality roles. There is also degeneration and regeneration combined with Manichaeism, which also destroys the colonized in pieces. This happens, according to Lugones (2014a, p. 938), because the “normativity that connected gender and civilization concentrated on the erasure of ecological

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community practices, knowledge of cultivation, weaving, the cosmos, and not only on change and control reproductive and sexual practices” (translated by the authors). This erasure consolidated the gender differences to keep the colonial imposition. Heteronormativity is seen as one of the constructions of a modern colonial gender matrix. Although not in this perspective, Butler (2008) highlights and questions the prevalence of a heteronormative, masculine, and patriarchal epistemology. In this sense, we understand heteronormativity as an offshoot of gender binarism resulting from colonial imposition in many Western contexts, restricting subjects and the other possible experiences and identities. We have had, historically, decolonization initiatives and processes when we access ancestral knowledge and practices that remained socialized, as not all of them succumbed to colonial oppression. Many colonized people understood, defended, and defend the logic of “‘learning’ about peoples” (Lugones, 2014a, p. 940) to affirm other possibilities of being. According to this author, “decolonizing gender is necessarily a praxis. It is to enact a critique of racialized, colonial and heterosexualized gender oppression aiming at a lived transformation of the social” (Lugones, 2014a, p. 940) (translated by the authors). We understand, therefore, that the processes of social transformation need to be made visible. Some women and men theorists of decoloniality, as opposed to the colonial logic of building power, knowledge, and being, constituted the decolonial gyrus, which is a movement of theoretical, practical, political, and epistemological resistance (Ballestrin, 2013). The decolonial gyrus is considered to be an unfinished project that “requires a genealogy that shows its several moments throughout history with a phenomenology (Maldonado-Torres, 2019, p.  46) (translated by the authors). This implies acting beyond the logic of recognition, as it may be guided by colonialities, meaning “renouncing the institutions and practices that keep modernity / coloniality” (Maldonado-Torres, 2019, p. 49) (translated by the authors). In other words, to build a praxis beyond the academy means making visible and affirming stories and folds of sociability that preserve practices and knowledge in spite of the colonial imposition. Decoloniality has different time, space, knowledge, and subjectivities and promotes a break with European modernity. It is a project guided by the decolonial attitude, in which the subject elaborates a reorientation in relation to knowledge, power, and being (Maldonado-Torres, 2019), and here again we include gender coloniality as the target of this list of reorientations.

17.3  D  ecoloniality and the Affirmation of Ways of Life: Insurgencies and Disobediences Considering the possibilities of reorienting our subjectivities and valued affirmations of our identity, we will approach some conceptions of resistance linked to the strategy of valuing, affirming, and creating ways of life, including facing and

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maintaining our humanity and dignity. This will allow for a decolonial analysis of the ways of being and living collectively of young rural homosexual men. Resistance takes place in the dynamics of struggles to affirm our humanities. Lugones (2014a, p. 939) tells us: “no (…) I think of resistance as the end or the goal of the political struggle, but as its beginning, its possibility” (translated by the authors). For her, resistance is the tension between the subjectification of the colonized subject and the active subjectivity inherent in the agency of that same subject, as it would be “that minimal notion of agency necessary for the oppressive relationship ← → resistance to be an active relationship, without sense of maximum agency of the modern subject” (Lugones, 2003, cited by Lugones, 2014a, p. 940) (translated by the authors). There is some scope for action in the face of colonial imposition. Here, we have the notion of infrapolitics, where, according to Lugones (2014a, p.  940) “in our colonized, racially divided and oppressed existences, we are also different from what the hegemonic makes us” (translated by the authors). Here, we understand that the infrapolitic subjectivations build meanings that do not correspond to the colonial hegemonic, constituting us as subjects beyond colonialities. In this process, the colonized one needs to recognize its subordination and consider it in the confrontations as a way to build the conscience and the affirmation of itself authentic. Thus, the borderline thinking is configured, which, according to Lugones (2014a), is the enunciation of the subject by the subject, considering his subordination and overcoming, reformulating, and transcending the colonial difference, resulting in the return of knowledge. In other words, “borderline thinking is the epistemic response of subordinates to the Eurocentric project of modernity” (Grosfoguel, 2009, cited by Bernardino-Costa & Grosfoguel, 2016) (translated by the authors). The building of borderline thinking means, in this sense, the establishment of an epistemological privilege for subordinate subjects and their trajectories. With the borderline thinking, which highlights our subordination and our enunciation of ourselves, the fractured locus is structured, which is the place where what has been denied and destroyed is present (Lugones, 2014a). In other words, in the fracture of the “locus,” we have the notion of our subordination but also of our potential. This fracture occurs in the tension between the coloniality of being and our subject-being creatively. We inhabit our fractured locus doubly, because we deal both with “the hierarchical dichotomy that subordinates us and with our active subjectivity in the face of colonial imposition (Lugones, 2014a, p. 943) (translated by the authors). Still on the ways of life, the philosopher defends the ethics of subject-being, subject-being-in-relationship, and coalition-in-process. Lugones (2014a) says that in strengthening our affirmations and relationships, we act from the fractured locus under the logic of the coalition, whose perspective is essentially challenging, especially in view of the colonial bias of dichotomies. The logic of the coalition is opposed to the logic of power and is articulated with the decolonial gyrus. The perspectives of subject-being and subject-being-in-relationship enable our self-­ knowledge, where we evaluate whether or not we are reproducing colonialities. For this, it is fundamental to restore the speech, theoretical production, and politics of historically destitute subjects.

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Finally, we highlight Analetic, which is an analytical instrument that makes it possible to understand how the colonized subjects act to deny the colonialities that deny them and act beyond the totality imposed by them. According to Orellano and Gonzáles (2015), Analetic is based on the negation of negation, when colonized subordinate subjects understand that the several colonialities are composed of factors and processes that deny them as subjects, including their identities and subjectivities. Therefore, in view of the citizen ethics made by and in coloniality, the subjects then start to deny the processes that cancel them and reproduce the colonialities in their life. Analetic is made when subjects and collectivities act beyond the Eurocentric, colonial, and limiting possibilities (Orellano & Gonzáles, 2015; de Aranguren, 2018). The colonial subject descolonizes and decolonizes when he understands that the totality has been presented to them as the end point of their possibilities of affirming life, cosmology, sociability, feelings, and relationships, and they start to act against this limitation. This happens in collectivity, where there is real belonging and other ways of participating and being. Analetic makes issues visible beyond the dialectic because it “remains within the terms of reference of the existing founding concepts. New formulations are indeed possible through dialectics, but they will only be achieved by the conflicting process of contradictions” (Alcoff, 2016, p. 130) (translated by the authors). In other words, to act beyond the totality means considering the contradictions and their conflicts, recognizing and overcoming the relations of oppression, and assuming and legitimizing coalitions and other wisdoms, hitherto violently denied by the colonialities.

17.4  The Decolonizing Process of Research in Psychology In our decolonizing research process, we focus on decolonial-making and Analetic as a comprehensive lens of the material produced from dialogues in different dimensions with young people and their existential circuits, such as family, community, and school. Conceiving the decolonizing process requires reflecting on the assumptions that went through us and influenced the moments and understandings of the research. We seek to act with reflexivity and flexibility, from the perspective of careful research understood as “that which does not neglect what weighs on the decisions that, as social scientists, we make before, during and after going to the research field” (Marques & Genro, 2016, p. 327) (translated by the authors). Even seeking to act decolonially, we admit that the modern/colonial theoretical and methodological assumptions influenced some procedures and understandings of our research. We had experiences and directions that took place under the bias of methodological investigative procedures, and this perspective contradicts the assumptions of a decolonial research, because the idea of ​​methodology, according to Ocaña and López (2019), is born and is based on Eurocentric assumptions.

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The method itself cannot be decolonial because it presupposes an essentially colonizing investigation (Ocaña & López, 2019). In this perspective, the subjects would not have decisions in the research process and would be susceptible to the determinations of those who investigate. Researchers in this case can be understood as a colonizer, insofar as they reproduce the idea of a supposed knowledge, where they analyze the data collected under the logic of extracting knowledge from those who participate, in a unilateral way (Marques & Genro, 2016), to even interpret subalternized subjectivities, now colonized. The researcher may not even consider himself/herself a reproducer of coloniality, but when proceeding from the perspective of the methodology, he/she may make the decolonizing process of research unfeasible. Maldonado-Torres (2019) understands that decolonization in itself does not guarantee that the colonial matrix does not occupy the supposedly descolonized place in academia. Therefore, we have to highlight the researchers’ decolonial attitudes, guiding them by decolonial-making. The decolonial attitude is conceived as the potential to identify and avoid the colonial dictates of power, being, and knowledge that are imposed on the colonized subject and that keep them separate from him/her (Maldonado-Torres, 2019). Although this author does not deal directly with gender coloniality, we again consider it in this matter. Decolonial-making, on the other hand, consists in the affirmation and consolidation of decolonialities. Decolonial-making is another way of knowing, thinking, being, doing, and living (Ocaña & López, 2019). It is proposed as a decolonizing process and cannot be considered as a new methodology because, as we have said, this presupposes succumbing to the dynamics of coloniality. In this sense, the subject of decolonial-making would not be an investigator but a decolonial mediator, enabler of liberating processes that reconfigure and decolonize concepts and relationships. This process advocates mutual contemplation between those who research and those who participate; a conversation in the alterative perspective, which presupposes the exchange and affirmation of subjects and knowledge; and a configurative reflection of the possibilities of the research, its unfolding, making visible who participates and their knowledge. In this research, even with the risks of being agents of coloniality (Maldonado-­ Torres, 2019), we seek to build the role of decolonial mediators. This was and is possible because we live in a coexistence of colonial and also decolonial matrices, although we are very marked by colonialities. We understand, according to Ocaña and López (2019), that we propose decolonizing actions through articulated actions with the young participants. At different times, we all act to reaffirm identities that are also decolonized, in contrast to the colonial matrix. We seek to elaborate the analysis based on decolonial analytics, enunciating the subjectivities of the young participants, so that it does not fall into the interpretation and/or description of these people as investigated. We seek to display information and statements produced by us mediators and mainly by young people, taking care not to incur judgments inherent to the colonial interpretive perspective. In addition to the perspective of Analetic, discussed here previously, we operate under the

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analytical strategy of identifying decolonial attitudes toward young people in their experiences and discourses. We started the decolonizing process of research with dissemination through social networks and in schools in the harsh Alagoas. We created printed and digital invitation posters about the research and its objectives, which circulated on the networks and were posted in schools. Participants linked from what they accessed on the Internet and through classmates and teachers from the community and school. We sought to raise information during 2018, through initial conversations in the first contacts, interviews, and a round of conversation. The interviews were carried out in squares, schools, and the residence of some of them, places previously agreed with the youth. In most interviews, we used images that trigger conversation from what we called the Interview Box. The round of conversation took place with some of the subscribers right after the 2018 general elections. On that occasion, we set up research stations with a focus on school, resistance, the rural context, and research itself. We presented several elements dealt with in some interviews, in addition to elements related to the moment and context such as elections, conservatism, and social mobilizations in evidence at that historic moment. A total of 11 young men declared to be homosexual (9 declared to be effeminate and 1 declared to be masculine) participated in the study in the harsh Alagoas, rural or urban contexts, and high school students in public schools or former students and from cities called Azul, Green, Yellow, and Red, as a way of not identifying possible itineraries that compromise their safety. For this reason, the names of the participants mentioned are unreal, with the majority choosing them. We submitted the research to the Ethics and Research Council (CEP) of the Federal University of Pernambuco (CAAE: 85235718.6.0000.5208), which is permeated by methodological coloniality. The work in the research field took place with permission granted by the participants and, when necessary, by their guardians, through the term of free and informed consent.

17.5  I nsurgent and Disobedient Ways of Being a Young Rural Homosexual Man By mapping the resistance potential of insurgent, disobedient, and altering circuits (in refusal of the term “deviants”) of these young people, we mutually constructed information about the homosexual experience in the rural community and school context, dealing with both the statements and the forms of resistance and discrimination oppression in the face of homosexuality. They produced narratives about conceptions, experiences, and affirmations of homosexuality in the constitution of identities and relationships, considering their colonial and decolonial subjectivations. We will focus on the statements about the way of life of these young people in urban and rural communities where they transit,

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including friends, relationships, family context, and school context. We will highlight the instances of support and engagement that took place in a different way, when operating with another logic, not as a diversion but as a reiteration of themselves in the community. In their reports, we realized that the process of “coming out,” understanding, or constituting themselves as homosexual was strongly marked by experiences that took place more in contexts outside of school, for most of them. There are several positions regarding this, informed by Cléber (20  years old, high school alumni, white, understood by the researcher as masculinized, from Cidade Verde), Gabriel (17  years old, white, effeminate, high school alumni, Cidade Verde), and Loran (15 years old, black, effeminate, first grade high school student, Cidade Vermelha): Cléber: I made this situation of wanting to kiss girls, (...) a situation that I was straight for others, it was [in this situation] that I realized that I felt nothing, no attraction to girls. And ... then I woke up and said “no ... it’s not because I want to, there is no option, if it were that I would have already ... I would have already managed to change”. And then I opened my mind and ... That was it, there is no way, there is no way, that is it, I am that, and that was how I had it ... it came true that I was gay, that I was not bisexual, that I was not straight, that I was no other orientation, that I was gay and done. (translated by the authors) Gabriel: I had a first relationship with a man cousin of mine, I was very young, I was 12 years old, and it is kind of that, of discovering yourself. It is not about discovering, right? because I always knew what I was, I always knew that I was gay. (translated by the authors) Loran: The beginning is when I was, let’s say, discovering myself as a homosexual. I saw that I had no attraction for women. In the beginning, even I didn’t accept myself. (translated by the authors)

These excerpts showed that the affirmation of their homosexuality and that of other participants was based on the desire understood and experienced by them and among themselves. We saw that heterosexuality was presented as a parameter of the perception of homosexuality itself, acting as a guide for them to understand that they did not fulfill the criteria of the colonial gender matrix. However, as an element that makes up the colonial difference, heteronormativity was also a factor that hindered authentic understandings of themselves, as we have seen in some speeches. Both Parker (2002) and Rios et al. (2016) assess that homosexuality was guided by science and in other contexts in order to classify and control bodies and sexual practices that are beyond heteronormativity. This perspective underlies the colonial imposition of gender, opening the door to the prevalence of the idea of “deviation” from sexuality, an interpretation that has historically been rejected by some scientists and LGBTQI + activists. The young people presented speeches where the “discovery” of homosexuality predominates, with terms and derivatives such as “becomes” and “to turn,” which are more linked to the procedurality of homosexuality. We understand that these appointments can lead to the idea of both ​​ essentialism and a so-called learning of homosexuality. However, we noticed that speeches related to the construction and pluralities of ways of being and conceiving homosexual prevailed. In this perspective of the construction of homosexuality, there is a strong connotation of agency in the decolonial difference. They asserted themselves from the fractured locus, beyond the heteronormativity that constitutes gender coloniality.

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These young people resist colonial imposition, even when it says that they should not have a type of masculinity that is not legitimized by gender coloniality. In this logic, the homosexual can only be conceived as male or female within an animalizing perspective, that is, hierarchically subordinate, dehumanizing, objectified, and reductionist. We oppose this perspective and ratify the understanding of gender decoloniality in Lugones (2014a) in the appropriation of a homosexual condition in process, subject-­being, and subject-being-in-relationship, in the affirmation and/or in conflict with several (im)possibilities. From Alcoff (2016), we understand that these young people are beyond the dialectic because, when dealing with the conflictive process of contradiction, they act beyond the totality when enunciating themselves as homosexuals. Resuming the narratives of the young people, some of them have homosexual family members who are a reference both in terms of experience and for inspirations and perspectives. About this, Gabriel and Felipe (17 years old, white, effeminate, third grade student at Cidade Vermelha) tell us: Gabriel: I have an uncle who is gay and he is a good reference for me, because he grew up working in the fields and today he no longer works, right? But he had a very tough childhood, he had to study and work. Today he is a graduate, he is a geography teacher and he is a good reference for me because I see him as … like … it is not because we are gay that we cannot have a good life, you know? So, I see it as a good reference. Not famous people, not so much, but … because I don’t follow much. But I see it as a good reference. (translated by the authors) Felipe: As for support, I have my cousin. I feel he is a great reference because he is the first graduated in the family and is a homosexual. He has already achieved many things that no one else in the family has achieved. Like, leaving the country … traveling … (translated by the authors)

The homosexuality of Gabriel’s uncle, who is 50 years old and is married to another man, is not treated among family members. Gabriel does not feel comfortable discussing sexual orientation with his uncle. These questions call our attention to the silences about homosexuality in the rural context. But we realize that, even so, these family members are important in affirming the homosexuality of these young people. This situation makes it possible to consider two elements: there is the exercise of infrapolitic subjectivity, as he experiences a relationship beyond heteronormativity in the rural context, a context that is markedly patriarchal, without objectively using the public to be and live what he is; in this sense, he also calls into question the coloniality of knowledge, since information about his experience is public, although silenced. There are statements by him at the fractured locus, which allows indirect coalitions that refer to other homosexual people, in this case his nephew. According to this logic, we saw that some family members, when they know about their son’s homosexuality, have endeavored to support and affirm them, even if this happens with difficulties. Carlos (20 years old, white, effeminate, high school alumni) and Daniel (17 years old, white, effeminate, second grade high school student) both from the Red City, report:

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Carlos: There was a meeting between parents and teachers at the school…, and my father went…. And when he got there, they talked about these issues of paying more attention to his children, of observing their behavior, seeing what this sexuality issue is like and everything. And my father (laughs) raised his hand and asked to speak and talked about me, (laughs). (…) He said that he had a gay son and that he was not ashamed to say that, because I was a wonderful person, that I was a person who fought for my goals and that whenever I needed his help, or that I needed him to be by my side he would be, and that I would not accept that anyone would offend me or say anything to me. That above all I was his son and that he would always be there by my side. And when I heard about it, I was overthrilled, right? Because, although I never had direct contact with him to talk about it, you know that it is, I know that he supports me in such a generous way, you know, so great it’s very invigorating, it’s very… give that strength, it gives you that vigor to really face and know that you have more people that you didn’t imagine having on your side. (translated by the authors) Daniel: I don’t know if you knew, but a student at school last year killed herself. (…) And she was a lesbian. I don’t know if that was the reason, but I imagine that too. But she [Daniel’s mother] was scared. I don’t hang out too much and she thinks this is bad. And is. But, anyway, after this happened she talked to me and said she was afraid and kept asking me the reason why I didn’t hang out and that I was not like other people and she went … I understood that she, where she was wanting to arrive. And I told her and she said she already knew, and that she expected me to open up more and prepare myself for the world, like this. But was… Antonio: Cool, right? Glad she wanted to talk like that. Daniel: Thank goodness. (translated by the authors)

We observed that some of these young people have, fortunately, the family as a point of support and acceptance. Be they grandparents, mothers, fathers, and siblings, there are mediators (s) aiming at acceptance in their own family, at school, and/or in the community, contributing to strengthen them for the confrontations and in their ways of being. In the information constructed with the young people, we had reports of suffering in the process of self-acceptance, due to difficulties with family, religion, and school. But they also narrated that after suffering, came the sensation and experience of freedom, from the strength of affective bonds with lesbians and homosexuals, both at school and elsewhere. Cléber brought us a portrait of the importance of mutual support with the participant and boyfriend Simon (20 years old, white, seocond period in high school at EJA, resident of Cidade Verde) for the affirmation of his homosexuality: Cléber: (…) it gave me confidence in everything, in all senses. In terms of … of music, of feeling what I am, of … of acceptance, you know? I think that was what changed the most for me, that was the question. (translated by the authors)

Through the round of conversation, we saw another form of mutual support. Carlos and Pablo (also from Cidade Vermelha, graduated from high school, white, 18 years old, and effeminate) affirm themselves as the whores that are references for their friends, as they (she ones) treat themselves in the feminine: Carlos: I was your tutor, lol Antônio: What what? Carlos: I was your tutor (laughs) [addressing Pablo]. Pablo: Ah, there you go. Carlos, who was my mother at that time, wasn’t he, Carlos? [Carlos laughs]. (translated by the authors)

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The construction of this mutual support between girlfriends Carlos and Pablo also took place outside of school, after completing high school, working together in other activities in the city. Michel (17 years old, black, effeminate, second grade of high school, from the Red City) also participated in this process, as this moment of the round of conversation points out: Michel: I came out thanks to Pablo. Pablo: It was. He used to come to my house and say “O friend, I’m not… it’s that, I don’t know what …”, I said “look fagot, you are, woman. You know that you are a fag” [some laugh]. Richard (researcher): You ended up creating a support network, you know. Pablo: Then, there was a day when he arrived at my house and [said] “O friend, I came out” I said, “hey !!!” [some laugh]. Carlos: [staging Pablo] “Already?? Like this?” (translated by the authors)

We observed reports of reiteration of homosexuality provided to families and mutual support between them, based on bonds of friendship and affective relationships. Even when not all family members and friends publicly know about the homosexuality of these young people, we saw that they had, within the scope of commonality, conditions to experience conflicting processes of contradictions (Alcoff, 2016), acting in some way from the perspective of borderline thinking (Bernardino-Costa & Grosfoguel, 2016). We affirm this because we saw that they are aware of their subalternities, but, at the same time, they seek self-affirmation with the utterance of themselves. With that, they recognized themselves as young rural homosexual men who, in some moments and contexts, configured epistemological privileges, when establishing the role of reference between them, to strengthen their relationships and themselves.

17.6  Final Considerations (and Decolonizations) When we bring the narratives of these young rural men about the ways of being and living their homosexualities, we deal with the singularities of their sexual subjectivation processes, showing their contrasts with the heteronormativity and the Eurocentric logic of colonialities in their rural, agrestine, Alagoas, northeastern territories, Brazilian, and Latin American. We narrated how they rebelled against and disobeyed the regimes of power that affected their subjectivation processes, by acting in commonality in the colonial difference, affirming their homosexualities in the rural context. With regard to studies on subjectivation, we believe it is important to consider psychology from a decolonial perspective, aiming to strengthen different political subjects. Therefore, it is necessary to elaborate studies beyond the totalities, seeking to overcome the conflicting process of contradiction, both on our theoretical matrices and the practices in our area. Regarding the psi performance at school, it is necessary to focus on the understanding of the power regimes in this locus, as well as on the construction and

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disclosure of coalitions that promote subjects with the school. It is urgent to build and strengthen knowledge and practices in psychology that are affirmative, descolonizing, and decolonizing, which pay attention to the location of the subjects, their contexts, their ways of dealing with time and with space, and their plural and singular ways of being and living. Our study dealt with the different ways of conceiving homosexuality, considering the different dialogues between urban and rural. The several markers that were part of the subjectivities of these young people allow us to understand homosexualities from a plural, dynamic perspective and with powerful and necessary insurgencies and disobediences.

References Alcoff, L. M. (2016). Uma epistemologia para a próxima revolução. Sociedade e Estado, 31(1), 129–143. Arcoverde, L.  R. (2013). Gravidez e juventude no meio urbano e rural: significados e aproximações (Dissertação Mestrado em Psicologia). Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife. Ballestrin, L. (2013). América Latina e o giro decolonial. Revista Brasileira de Ciência Política, 11, 89–117. Bernardino-Costa, J., & Grosfoguel, R. (2016). Decolonialidade e perspectiva negra. Sociedade e Estado, 31(1), 15–24. Butler, J. (2008). Problemas de gênero: feminismo e subversão da identidade. Civilização Brasileira. da Silva, V. A. (2006). De corpos, desejos, feitiços e amores: a sexualidade entre jovens de origem rural. In E. Woortmann, R. Menache, & B. Heredia (Orgs.), Margarida Alves: coletânea sobre estudos rurais e gênero (pp. 309–338). MDA: IICA. da Silva, R.  A. (2014). Os significados do uso de álcool entre os/as jovens quilombolas de Garanhuns/PE: uma perspectiva interseccional (Dissertação de Mestrado em Psicologia). Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife-PE. de Aranguren, D.  M. R. (2018). Metódica Analéctica para Latinoamérica. Analéctica. Buenos Aires, año 4, No. 28. Diniz, L.  R. (2010). Um espelho para se contemplar: a adolescência em discursos de adolescentes da zona rural (Dissertação Mestrado em Psicologia). Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife. Ferreira, P. R. D. S. (2006a). Entre elas: afetividade versus complementaridade. In E. Woortmann, R. Menache, & B. Heredia (Eds.), Margarida Alves: coletânea sobre estudos rurais e gênero (pp. 99–122). MDA: IICA. Ferreira, P.  R. D.  S. (2006b). Os afectos mal-ditos: o indizível das sexualidades camponesas (Dissertação Mestrado em Antropologia Social). Universidade de Brasília. Brasília. Gouveia, C.  N. N.  A. (2010). Avaliação do Impacto do Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar (PRONAF) na Qualidade de Vida de Jovens Agricultores Familiares Paraibanos (Dissertação Mestrado em Psicologia). Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa. Leite, J. F., Macedo, J. P. S., Dimenstein, M., & Dantas, C. (2013). A formação em Psicologia para a atuação em contextos rurais. In J. F. Leite & M. Dimenstein (Eds.), Psicologia e contextos rurais (pp. 27–55). EDUFRN. Lugones, M. (2014a). Rumo a um feminismo descolonial. Estudos Feministas, 22(3), 935–952. Lugones, M. (2014b). Colonialidad y Género: hacia um feminismo descolonial. In W. Mignolo (Ed.), Género y decolonialidad (pp. 13–42). Del Signo.

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Maldonado-Torres, N. (2019). Analítica da colonialidade e decolonialidade: algumas dimensões básicas. In J. Bernardino-Costa, N. Maldonado-Torres, & R. Grosfoguel (Eds.), Decolonialidade e pensamento afrodiaspórico (pp. 27–53). Autêntica. Marques, P.  M., & Genro, M.  E. H. (2016). Por uma ética do cuidado: em busca de caminhos descoloniais para a pesquisa social com grupos subalternizados. Estudos de Sociologia (Araraquara), 21(41), 323–339. Mignolo, W.  D. (2003). Histórias locais/projetos globais: colonialidade, saberes subalternos e pensamento liminar. Editora UFMG. Mignolo, W. D. (2014). ¿Cuales son los temas de género y (des)colonialidad? In W. Mignolo (Ed.), Género y decolonialidad (pp. 9–12). Del Signo. Ocaña, A. O., & López, M. I. A. (2019). Hacer decolonial: desobedecer a la metodología de investigación. Hallazgos, 16(31), 147–166. Orellano, C. M., & Gonzáles, S. G. (2015). Acerca de la opción decolonial em el ámbito de la psicologia. Perspectivas en Psicología, 12(2), 1–8. Parker, R.  G. (2002). Abaixo do equador: culturas do desejo, homossexualidade masculina e comunidade gay no Brasil. Record. Ribeiro, K.  C. S. (2010). Adolescência e sexualidade: vulnerabilidade às DSTs, HIV/AIDS e a gravidez em adolescentes paraibanos (Dissertação Mestrado em Psicologia Social). Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa. Rios, L. F., Albuquerque, A. P., Pereira, A. F., de Oliveira Jr, C. J., de Santana, W. J., & de Lira Filho, C. C. (2016). Pintosas, boys e cafuçus: estilos corporais, erotismo e estigmatização entre homens que participam da comunidade entendida do Recife. In L. L. F. Vieira, L. F. Rios, & T.  N. de Queiroz (Eds.), Gays, lésbicas e travesti em foco: diálogos sobre sociabilidade e acesso à educação e saúde (pp. 17–47). EdUFPE. Vieira, R. S. (2006). Tem jovem no campo! Tem jovem homem tem jovem mulher. In E. Woortmann, R. Menache, & B. Heredia (Eds.), Margarida Alves: coletânea sobre estudos rurais e gênero (pp. 195–215). MDA: IICA.

Part V

Environment and Sustainability

Chapter 18

Rural Territories and Life Production: Approaches from Environmental Psychology Ana Paula Soares da Silva, Juliana Bezzon da Silva, and Fernanda Fernandes Gurgel

18.1  E  nvironmental Psychology and the Rural: Some Approaches In his book The Devil to Pay in the Backlands (in the original Grande Sertão: Veredas), João Guimarães Rosa wrote: “Backlands: it is within us” (in the original: “Sertão: é dentro da gente”) (Rosa, 1956/2001, p. 325). Such backlands do not refer only to a specific geographic space. Much more than that, in stating that it is – and continues to be – within us, the author gives clues about the existing relationship between people and the spaces where they are born, live, work, and remain. The environments are constituted in us as we get to know them, becoming places of our memory and experiences, intertwining spatial, physical, and psychosocial aspects. Places are identity marks present in the constitution of the subjects. Furthermore, this is how Environmental Psychology, which recognizes and studies person-­ environment relations, presents itself as the motto of this chapter, which intends to discuss its contributions to the study of socio-environmental issues related to rural territories and to point out debates in other areas that can contribute and expand the ways of approaching ruralities. In Psychology in general, there is a recent movement that seeks to theorize the subjective production of residents in rural areas, based on an argument that supposes that the construction of psychological knowledge has a predominantly urban matrix (Silva & Macedo, 2017; Federal Council of Psychology [CFP], 2019). A critical perspective has pointed out that the people of the countryside, the issues of

A. P. S. da Silva (*) · J. B. da Silva Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] F. F. Gurgel Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Santa Cruz, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_18

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the land, and the problems related to Brazilian territoriality were invisible in the historical process of the constitution of Psychology as science and profession, characterized, among other aspects, by the colonizing perspective (CFP, 2019). In part, this condition of Psychology could be justified by cultural mediations that mobilize material and symbolic elements that carry meanings anchored in an ideology of progress. These meanings associate the city to a dynamic production of life and the countryside to a historical process that destines it to a residual condition of survival. This argument, although correct from the point of view of identifying absences in Psychology, needs to pay attention to the fact that, beyond a mostly urban approach, it is the predominance of a view of an abstract subject that blocks knowledge produced in Psychology about subjects rooted in their territories, whether rural or urban (Silva, 2017). This absence may be indicative of a Psychology that, in the search for universals, hardly questions the character and the founding movement of the relationship between global and localized dynamics in the constitution of subjects and psychological processes. Since its origins, Environmental Psychology has invited us to go against an essentialist and abstract conception of subject and environment, insofar as it instigates the production of knowledge from concrete realities; its object is precisely the relationship of subjects with the socio-physical space (Moser, 2009; Tassara & Rabinovich, 2003; Wiesenfeld & Zara, 2012). The relational nature of the object and the requirement to understand contextualized phenomena and processes express the value that the situation, in its entirety, acquires in Environmental Psychology. Kurt Lewin (1943), considered one of its founders, is a pioneer in defending the structuring role of the context and the consequent conception that the research needs to contemplate, at the same time, “the broad study of society and the analysis of the specific situation” (Melo et al., 2016) (translated by the authors). Following Lewin, his disciple Roger Barker (1903–1990) radicalizes the proposition that we can only understand how people act if we study them in their everyday environments, the place where the events of daily life occur. The studies by Roger Barker and his team, developed between the 1940s and the 1960s, at the Midwest Psychological Field Station (Oskaloosa, Kansas), will be considered, by Childs and Melton (1983), in the book Rural Psychology, fundamental for the construction of a theoretical and methodological body of what we could call Rural Psychology.1 These studies made detailed descriptions of the subjects’ lives and behaviors in various settings in the locality. For Melton (1983, p. 8), Roger Barker’s research contributed to explaining the meanings of participation and involvement in rural communities, for example, concerning urban centers. This recognition given to the work of Roger Barker by Childs and Melton (1983) positions it as a historical source for current researchers who base the rural context as an object for Psychology. 1  Landini (2015) rescues, as one of the initial milestones in Rural Psychology, a 1925 publication by James Mickel Williams, called “Our rural heritage. The social psychology of rural development.” The publication investigates the attitudes and beliefs of rural American society, and, while recognizing the profound changes in this society in the five decades before publication, it seeks to argue in favor of its rural heritage.

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In that same book, a chapter deserves to be highlighted on the rural territories in Environmental Psychology perspective. From the use of classic concepts in Environmental Psychology and a conception that claims to Rural Psychology to understand the behavior in this specific environmental context, Feimer (1983) investigated the way people respond to these environments, from the point of view of perception and cognition environmental impacts, particularly spatial cognition and perception of natural danger. Based on studies carried out in the 1970s, the author discussed the inconsistencies in the research findings of the differences between rural and urban populations to spatial cognition. Regarding the perception of natural danger, the rural population figured as more susceptible due to the centrality of agriculture and the economic impacts on the farmer’s life. The rescue of these texts allows us to affirm that, although little present in Psychology (and in Environmental Psychology), the contemporary concern with the rural environment is not something original. In fact, it is the efforts to make ruralities more visible that currently resize the importance of Psychology in the set of disciplines that propose to understand the environmental, economic, social, political, and cultural dynamics that occur in rural spaces. From the perspective of the visibility of ruralities, produced by the approximation between Environmental Psychology and rural space, as is the case with the area in general, it is not uncommon for an approach that favors comparison with the urban environment. The dictionary of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2020) also informs, in the entry “rural environment,” that “in environmental psychology, the rural environment is often used as a basis for comparison with the urban (city) environment to air pollution levels, crowding, crime, and other physical and social stressors” (APA, 2020). In addition to being an element of comparison and opposition to the urban, as only sociodemographic data (Gifford, 2014), the rural also appears diluted among the different types of natural/nature environments, rural landscape, or even reduced to a synonym of agrarian, as it appears in several studies presented in the handbook organized by Fleury-Bahi et al. (2017). In this line of thought, a particular feature of Environmental Psychology would be to understand how the processes of the person-environment relationship are expressed and the specificities of each of these two contexts, with the challenge not to take them as opposites. However, sometimes, it is precisely the effect produced. From the investigated themes, in our understanding, the potentialities of the conceptual and methodological lenses of Environmental Psychology are verified, not only in the investigation but also in the practical implications reflected in public and environmental policies for rural territories. We brought three studies here in order to exemplify these potentialities. Moser (2009), in his book Psychologie Environnementale: les relations homme-­ environnement , addressed the theme of rural space in an integrated way with the concept of nature and landscape. The author argues that this relationship is of particular interest in the context of discussions on sustainable development, given the role of agricultural activity and farmers in constructing the rural environment and the impacts on the destruction or preservation of nature. Moser (2009) identifies an ambivalent relationship between farmers and nature since the resources and

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instruments to satisfy their needs can also engender environmental degradation. In part, this process would be linked to environmental and social uncertainties to generate different profiles of the relationship between farmers and the natural environment. In this process, the appreciation of agricultural activity and immediate and concrete responses can play a more significant role than social responsibility and engagement in pro-environmental practices. This engagement would still be dependent on ideological conceptions about nature, and it can be conceived as fragile and ephemeral, or as robust in natural resources, or even it can mean monotony and lack of stimulation. The study by Arias-Arévalo et al. (2017), in turn, addressed the rural as an ecosystem and discussed the intrinsic relationships between the provision of ecosystem services and human decisions. The study was carried out in the Otún River watershed, composed of medium to small municipalities in Colombia. The authors investigated the values attributed to the ecosystem and environmental motivations. In that context, rural populations played a crucial role in water supply, provision of food, leisure, and tourism for the city. The results showed that both rural and urban populations attributed multiple values to the ecosystem (instrumental, intrinsic, and relational), questioning the logic put in conservation policies, which dichotomize values intrinsic to the ecosystem (e.g., conditions for the preservation of life and nature) and instrumental values (payment for ecosystem services). The study questioned the statement, common in several researches of this knowledge area, that rural populations would attribute instrumental values to their environments, due to the territories’ economic dependence. The analyses contributed to the understanding that the tensions between rural actors and the management agencies of the territory do not result from non-environmental motivations on the part of the rural population but by excluding them in elaborating water resources policies. The participation of the rural population and the dialogue with their environmental values appeared to reduce conflicts. In an investigation carried out in Uturu, Nigeria, Chigbu (2013) problematized the relationship of communities with rural spaces and the development prospects of these areas, pointing to the central role of the sense of belonging (sense of place) in this process. For the analysis by this focus, the researcher proposed a structure composed of three interconnected elements: rural mentality, rural life, and rural character. The loss of feeling of place and migration to the urban is associated, according to the author, with the limitations of public policies for the development of rural communities in the investigated location. He concluded there was a need to involve people in the community in projects for the site’s development, considering their capabilities and knowledge of the region’s resources, valuing traditional uses and cultural and environmental heritage. This strategy proposed by the author was based on the need to adopt a sense of place in the rural situation as a fundamental element for the construction of support programs and actions that promote attachment to the community and rural territorial development. These three studies demonstrate how the approach to the rural, understood since Environmental Psychology and the person-environment relations, brings to the debate problems produced in the tensions between global movements and localities,

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revealing the impacts on the forms of production of life, spaces, and the subjects. These movements even connect with the powers over rural territorial development projects, with the possibilities of community participation in the management of their territories. In this complexity, the subjects also act, building and mediating their perceptions, cognitions, affections, feelings of belonging, and meanings about themselves and their territories.

18.2  R  uralities in Environmental Psychology: Brazilian Experiences Also, in Brazil, some research groups have been promoting approaches from Psychology to the rural, contributing to the knowledge of the multiple ruralities and the construction of an agenda aligned with important themes to Environmental Psychology. In a research designed in the context of the comparison between rural and urban contexts, carried out in the municipalities of Cruz (CE) and Fortaleza (CE), Furlani and Bomfim (2010) analyzed life projects and affectivity with the environment in young people. There was no differentiation between the life projects of the participants in each context, but some singularities have emerged: in that rural area, early initiation to work occurs, accompanied by slight possibility of employment, causing the movement to leave the rural area, even with the desire to stay there; in the urban environment, young people project themselves as students of higher education, and expectations are more circumscribed to the present. The study exposed the challenges that young people in rural areas face when territorial policies do not meet the demands of this generational group, turning life in the country into something unattractive. In this sense, it also contributes to the broader discussion on the complex dynamics between rural space and generational aspects. Farias et al. (2019) presented a critical perspective of the readings on the Brazilian Northeast, which contributes to the deconstruction of stereotypes created about the region and the subjects of this space. In this process, it is argued that the semiarid Northeast is conceived in its multiplicity in geographic, environmental, economic, and cultural terms, without underestimating the dynamics of capitalism that affect and modulate its socio-spatialities, conflicts, and contradictions. That is how drought is understood in political and environmental dimensions and how appropriation of water emerges as central to the territorial dynamics and appropriation of the semiarid space. For the authors, this dynamic incorporates the specific ways of life (crossed by changes in the forms of production, particularities of gender, generational succession, religiosity, kinship ties) and the meanings that the subjects themselves attribute to the semiarid and the drought phenomenon. The study is in line with those who advocate multiple ruralities, expressed by specific experiences, for example, of rural, traditional, forest, and wetland peoples.

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The investigation by Silva and Tassara (2014) was interested in the experiences of rural settlers in agrarian reform during the initial process of implementing an agroforestry system, focusing on the new ways of using natural goods and how these experiences cause resignifications in the subjects themselves and their relationship with the city. The study was based on Socio-Environmental Psychology and proposed that the concepts of projective hope and peri-urban conditions would be constituents of the mobilization of meanings about the relationship between human beings and the natural environment and of personal transformations. It was concluded that the experience of the implantation of the agroforestry system by the settlers caused resignifications about the possibilities of economic, temporal, and environmental relationship with the place they occupy. It also enabled the construction of a differentiated and positively valued repertoire of presentation of themselves, in a history of discrimination suffered for belonging to social movements fighting for agrarian reform. The research produced visibility to the psychosocial processes of groups that struggle for ways against hegemonic relations with land ownership and with nature. In the articulation between Environmental Psychology and Developmental Psychology, Kobarg et al. (2008) focused on the importance of analyzing development spaces from a perspective that considers the notion of context in a broader way, considering its ecological aspects. The authors had noted that the environment is understood in its multidimensional characteristics, and it is considered in the interaction with the individual and group experiences, through which meanings and values constitute the appropriation and expression processes of subjectivity. The differences between rural and urban contexts were presented in the text according to specific characteristics of one and the other, problematizing the difficulties in conceptualizing what is rural and urban and arguing that the specifics of these spaces are directly related to the development processes. The authors argue that rural spaces are characterized neither as a homogeneous and underdeveloped whole nor just as agrarian, focused on their economic aspect from an urban-centric perspective. Tiago and Higuchi (2016) studied the expression of place identity in residents of floating houses in the Amazon context, presenting the specificities of inhabiting the region. They approached housing as a physical construction that is part of a geopolitical and geo-ecological location, which is relevant for the construction of subjectivity and for the establishment of social relations and which satisfies the needs of “shelter, protection and intimacy” (Tiago & Higuchi, 2016, p. 63). The residents of the floating houses live in residences that are part of the Amazonian identity but which also make up a scenario of vulnerabilities and invisibilities, of environmental degradation, and of the scarcity of potable water (although it exists abundantly in the surroundings), without the right to housing and its property. Emphasis is placed on the contact that the inhabitants have with nature and how the type of housing puts them in a social position vis-à-vis other groups in the locality, like homeless people, without an address. Interestingly, despite living in an environment with rural and collective characteristics, and constituting the group known as the water population, they do not call themselves caboclos or riverside dwellers (in Portuguese, they are

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called “ribeirinhos”), showing the complexity existing in the relationship between environments, identities, and recognition (of themselves and from the other). The quick mention of these studies shows that, in the Brazilian context, there are also several potentialities for bringing Environmental Psychology to rural spaces. Without disregarding the association of the rural with nature, present in the older researches, other issues and interests are also highlighted and become urgent in the current scenario: the rural as an ecosystem, as discussed by agroecology; conflicts in the territory, following the example of social movements fighting for land, such as the agrarian reform advocated since the Peasant Leagues (Castro, 1965); the conflicts over access to water, which have been worsening in recent years and constituting the debate on hydro-territories; the impacts of dams on the economic, social, and cultural life of families and communities affected by them; the (non) participation of subjects in the management of their spaces and the empowerment of communities; the construction of alternatives for the production of life; territorial development; the hegemonic and counter-hegemonic forms of space production (such as family agriculture, which, in addition to the production mode, includes families and communities in its constitution and raises debates on food production, food security and sovereignty, hunger, open markets, creole seeds); the identity processes and place attachment and its complexities when considering global dynamics acting on rural locations; generational relations and rural space; life and future projects in the countryside; and other territorial specificities. In adopting themes of this nature, Environmental Psychology is provoked to move toward and away from Psychology itself. It needs to move away from traditional ways of producing knowledge that emphasize individual processes isolated from their contexts and people as passive in the face of events and which, while claiming to be neutral, is used to maintain exploitation and social inequalities (Wiesenfeld & Zara, 2012), assuming an “a-historical position on problems and subjects, resulting in defense of technocratic solutions and the commercialization of socio-environmental problems” (Farias et  al., 2019, p.  46) (translated by the authors). On the other hand, it is moved to approach a Latin American Social Psychology, concerned with the specificities of the psychosocial processes proper of our continent and which acts from a critical perspective, stating its commitment from the ethical-political dimensions in its praxis. For Wiesenfeld and Sánchez (2012), this synthesis is called Community Environmental Psychology. Other authors (Massola & Silva, 2019; Tassara et al., 2013) propose that this necessary movement of understanding the subjects in their spatialities constitutes a Socio-­ Environmental Psychology, which must understand the articulation between the consequences from environmental crisis phenomena and social criticism to capitalist modes of production and focus on human emancipation and a popular societal project (Farias et al., 2019). By opening itself to the potentialities of the area in the study of ruralities, from themes that problematize the person-environment relations, the interdisciplinary character of this object summons Environmental Psychology to dialogue with other fields of knowledge that have a tradition in rural studies, such as Sociology, Geography, Economy, and Agronomy. The complexity implied in the constitution

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of ruralities, linked to the processes of the historical production of the total space, demands interdisciplinary approaches to guide the theoretical-methodological and ethical-political positions of Psychology, collaborating to a critical and non-­ alienated insertion in rural territories.

18.3  C  ontributions from Other Areas of Knowledge About the Rural The dialogue with other areas expands the possibilities of understanding the person-­ environment unit in rural territories and the apprehension of some accumulations in the debates that delimit this field of studies. Four of these understandings constructed in these debates are raised below. The first refers to the historical dimension of the hegemony of ways of life. For Moreira (2012), it is possible to identify historical changes in the countryside-city relationship by observing a movement in which the forms of the social organization went from predominantly rural to urban. This domain is being exercised not only by the development of production and technique but also in its social manifestation, organizing life and, consequently, in the subjects’ ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. With the intensification and development of the industrialization and urbanization process, the technological innovations produced in the city and the urban ways of life progressively increased the city’s power concerning the rural space. This construction served the discourse and the project of urban-industrial modernity, identifying the city with progress and the rural with tradition. In Brazil, the condition of suppliers of raw materials and agricultural producers to serve an external market, according to Prado Junior (1970), defines us since our origin, leaving us a colonial heritage. The transformation process that the country culture goes through, which characterizes one of the Brazilian rural types, described by Antônio Cândido in “Os parceiros do Rio Bonito” (2001) in the late 1940s, as well as creole, caboclo, country (sertanejo), bumpkin (caipira), and hick-azorean (matuta-açoreana) cultures, studied by Ribeiro (2015), are representative examples of how the pressures of modernization would allow few possibilities of resistance. The economic-productive reorganization of the countryside would lead to a departure from the typical characteristics of the rural: the collective forms and greater control of work, dynamic and community sociability, the rustic way of life, religious and playful culture, and maintaining traditional values. Subordination to the market would affect the culture of subsistence, the diet, and the times of dedication to the work and leisure of the hick. The second field of debate is on the delimitation of the urban and the rural, their correlated field and city. The terminological weaknesses are evident in the discussion made by Endlich (2006), for whom, in addition to the existence of several possible criteria to be adopted, depending on each one, the very boundaries between countryside and city change. The criteria raised and the resulting problems are (1)

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official limits or administrative delimitation (rural and urban as territorial adjectives), (2) demographic level (the rural as dispersion and the urban as agglomeration), (3) demographic density (urban and rural expressed in the number of inhabitants per square kilometer), and (4) economic occupation of the population (nature of the economic activities carried out in each environment). In this problematization, the rural and the urban gain different interpretations, in a polysemy that distinguishes or approaches them. If we add the character of territorial identities, the rural becomes multiple. In an attempt to overcome the confusions of meaning resulting from the indiscriminate use of these terminologies, Biazzo (2008), based on the contributions of Henri Lefebvre, proposes rural and urban as forms of social relationship and countryside and city as forms in space. This dissociation, for the author, would help to understand the various ruralities and urbanities that are expressed and combined both in rural spaces and in the city, generating overlapping territorialities. “Countryside and city are, therefore, materialities. They become concrete as contrasting landscapes. Ruralities and urbanities are rational or logical. They manifest themselves through our actions, through social practices” (Biazzo, 2008, p. 143) (translated by the authors). Despite the debates regarding the definition of these concepts, it is possible to defend that the rural has its characteristics, whose permanence and distinction deserve to be recognized. Abramovay (2000), for example, points out that rural characteristics have a more significant relationship with the natural environment and relative territorial dispersion. Veiga (2002), in turn, analyzes the existence of a more rural than urban Brazil and even proposes a review of the administrative criteria applied in the country to draw attention to its importance in the definition of rural development policies. Such reformulation has been proposed by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) when recognizing the complexity and heterogeneity of rural-urban socio-­ spatial manifestations in Brazil (IBGE, 2017). For Rua (2001, p. 27), the domain and extension of the urban are verified on a broad scale, but the unequal performance of the “movement of the development of capitalism, which acts unevenly over the geographical space” generates specific local combinations; in this process, the rural is constantly recreated by capitalism (Rua, 2001, 2006) (translated by the authors). Coping with the definition of these terms is not merely rhetorical-­discursive since it has practical implications for planning and territorial management at different scales, that is, for public policies. In this process of defining the rural and the terminological use, the few consensuses are that countryside and city, urban and rural, are not thought of in opposition or antagonisms since they have been conceived in their relation to (inter) dependence. Wanderley (2000) calls this dynamic a rural-urban continuum. This thesis appears in overcoming a dualistic vision present in the first studies on the rural and the urban that approached them as spaces with isolated and specific characteristics. Rua (2001), recognizing the importance of what represented the idea of a continuum, described its limitations for failing to apprehend contemporary capitalist expansion, in which:

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The way of thinking, acting, and producing typical of cities expands, with different intensities, to the most remote rural areas (…) unifying the territory (but without destroying the specificities) (…) without any commitment to the contiguity, since economic development takes place unevenly in space. (Rua, 2001, p. 37) (translated by the authors)

A third interdisciplinary contribution to rural research in Environmental Psychology refers to the fact that studies recognize the need for a non-circumscribed look at economic determinants, dependent on the development of technical-scientific means (Santos, 1996), on the transportation, and on the media. Biazzo (2008) states that this condition resulted from a critique of the reductionism that the association rural  =  agriculture would have suffered in Sociology, particularly in the 1960s, when studies on social inequality were highlighted. Rua (2001) assumes that Geography itself, when it ceases to see the field through an agrarian bias and turns into Rural Geography, incorporates the complex dynamics in that space. Also, in Psychology, considering social transformations and cultural and economic experiences in the country in the last decades, Albuquerque (2002) argued for the expansion of the definition of rural and criticized the reduction that it suffers when seen only by the agrarian bias. Wanderley (2001) sought to show it from the subjects’ ways of life, as social forms culturally organized, that is, the rural as a concrete sociohistorical formation. The psychologist Cruz-Souza (2011) criticized studies on rural development centered only on productive processes, without considering “social relations and especially human subjectivity” (Cruz-Souza, 2011, p.  17) (translated by the authors). In this perspective, the author aligned Psychology with the rural in a current context of the fragility of ecosystems. Cruz-Souza (2011) introduced, in addition to population, social and cultural aspects, elements from a broader perspective of the socio-environmental order. The rural world is seen through new functions, less linked to agricultural activity and more oriented by a conception that encompasses the agrarian-food economy and the environment. This stance reinforces the idea that a more complex conception of the “phenomenon invites collaboration through different disciplines” (Melton, 1983, p. 430). Finally, and no less important, it is necessary to refer to the discussions about the resilience and renewal capacity of the rural, given the strength with which the urban also penetrates it. In contrast to a complete submission of the rural, the changes undergone in rural-urban relations reveal their capacity to reorganize and change in the face of the new determinants of the countryside-city relationship, without completely merging and confusing with the urban, which would represent an unhistorical and unreactive conception. For Rua (2001), rurality must be understood as a dynamic process that hybridizes the local culture in the urbanization movements. Thus, submitted to the “general process of transformations that space goes through,” there is a “diffusion of ‘urbanities’ in the countryside, integrating with ‘new ruralities’” (Rua, 2001, p. 39) (translated by the authors). In this context, Carneiro (2011) defends the existence of “new ruralities” and the restructuring of the rural, verified through processes of transformation in the activities carried out by the subjects who live there (characterized by pluriactivity) and the intensification of cultural exchanges with the urban. One of the effects would be the transformation of the rural into a leisure and tourism space due to the hypertrophy of the city and the

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distancing of those who live there with nature. Nowadays, as part of this movement, another rural is taking shape, marked by new possibilities in the relations of production and nature. Brandemburg (2010), interested in the agroecological transition and the revaluation of nature in some regions of the countryside, argues that a “rural socio-environmental” is emerging, coexistent, and in dispute with the traditional and the modern. The agroecology aspect would bring the reconfigured subject-­ nature relationship and even the opposite with the conventional modes of production maintained by farmers to understand the diverse rural areas. Its modification would be based on the transformation of the relationship with the natural resources it carries. These conceptions produced in other areas, which highlight the production of social and collective life from sustainability-oriented matrixes, invoke the need for the presence of Environmental Psychology in these spaces. With these understandings, Environmental Psychology not only is legitimated to enter the debate but also becomes an essential source for the construction of knowledge and practices in this context, since it invites us to understand how global processes take place in the relations of continuity and rupture in rural fragments and how these debates and the processes of subjectification produce socio-environmental impacts.

18.4  Final Notes Environmental Psychology has included the rural space in the debates since its origins, although timidly and not necessarily oriented toward its complexification. The studies from this area have demonstrated that they have critical potential since they bring to light processes engendered in the global and local dynamics of the production of the total space and territories today. Future investments, however, will be necessary for the area’s contribution to be substantive and for it to consolidate itself as a disciplinary reference for studies on ruralities, particularly from a perspective aware of the required ethical-political positioning. To this end, it is argued that the dialogue with the productions of other areas of knowledge may contribute to the non-alienation of research concerning this space and may deepen theoretically and methodologically the ways of insertion of Environmental Psychology in these territories. The rural, understood as dynamic and as historical production (constantly changing, not reduced to economic activity, and composing an interpenetration relationship with the urban), instigates research processes guided by a complex, nonlinear conception, whose existence is defined more by contradiction and by movement than by homogenization and permanence. In the Latin American context, it must be considered that there are field and rurality projects that are not only multiple but fundamentally in dispute, antagonized by family agriculture and the model of agriculture, livestock, and energy production that is a land concentrator and barely permeable to the demands of the subjects in the field. This configuration generates and maintains a series of violence and socio-environmental conflicts that historically

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have set social relations and land ownership in the country. Thus, investigating the rural that people inhabit means, in some way, placing the psychosocial phenomena of the subject-space relationship in consideration of the economic, political, and cultural matrix of the countryside in our Latin American continent. The understandings of processes so central to Environmental Psychology (such as environmental attitudes, risk perception, environmental awareness, cognition and perception, pro-environmental behavior, and attachment and belonging to place) need to be materialized in the concreteness of rural fragments that, as part of the total space, mobilize their own modes of production and reproduction of life in relation to identity and otherness to urban spaces and, as territories, are constituted by power relations that generate encounters and mismatches, sharing and boundaries, wealth and poverty, and processes of life and death. The agendas for Environmental Psychology, especially in the Latin American and also in the Brazilian context, will be enriched by incorporating these contradictory aspects of the countryside and ruralities. In the 1980s, Melton (1983) already defended the need for a sophisticated and complex understanding of these environments and stated that the attention given by Psychology “to the specific environmental demands in rural communities could help advance the field beyond studies of the evaluation of rural-urban differences (usually focused on rural deficits)” (Melton, 1983, p. 12). Taking on this provocation means accepting that, depending on our specific objects and questions, a greater or lesser investment is made in the dialogue with studies about ruralities in other areas of knowledge, and consequently, the status given to the rural space differs from research to research. In the construction of knowledge about ruralities by Psychology, and in the interdisciplinary dialogue, the critical approaches are preferentially interesting, because, before restricting the rural to an anachronistic or residual situation, they see in this category a potential for understanding the production of subjectivities in spacetime (Harvey, 2005). In addition, we learned from other areas that the process of industrialization, urbanization and growth of cities, the transactions of subjects in space, the migrations experienced in the country, and the modernization processes, reproducing class and regional inequalities, generated an urban population but is also permeated by ruralities rooted in their subjects. These subjects always pronounce themselves as subjects of space, belonging to it, and who carry, wherever they go, the spaces where they lived and the meanings around them. Thus, we return to the Guimarães Rosa’s narrative about the backlands, in his book “Grande Sertão: Veredas”  as a provocation so that, in the debates of rural person-environment relations, from Environmental Psychology, the subject is understood as a person incarnated in space, whether in rural or urban space. The rural, in the subjects who were (are) part of it, in some way, always remains alive. Acknowledgments  We are grateful to the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and to the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for the support received for the research carried out by the members of the Socio-Environmental Psychology and Educational Practices Laboratory (LAPSAPE/FFCLRP-USP).

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Chapter 19

Assembly of the Knowledge Landscape: A Social Technology for Health Care and the Enhancement of the Way of Life in Amazonian Riverine Communities Paulo Ricardo de Oliveira Ramos and Marcelo Calegare

19.1  Introduction That technology came to help humanity is certainly a dominant perception, especially in Western culture. In the humanist perspective, technology is considered the fruit of human thought and, in a comprehensive way, can be represented in the most varied forms of human creation with the aim of improving living conditions and well-being: the invention of tools, artifacts, or specific modes of transformation and the use of natural resources. On the other hand, for some years, there has been talk of social technologies (STs), about which studies and debates in Brazil have contributed in a decisive way to establishing a theoretical and conceptual basis that defines it as “a set of transformative techniques and methodologies, developed and/ or applied in the interaction with the population and appropriated by it, which represent solutions for social inclusion and improvement of living conditions”(Instituto de Tecnologia Social [ITS], 2004, p. 26) (translated by the authors). Despite the consistent conceptual basis, ST’s interdisciplinary character enhances the subjective nature of its definition, making it difficult to define with strict objectivity those practices that could be considered a ST. Thus, in order to face the complexity of this issue, Garcia (2007) developed the diagnostic methodology for assessing ST which, through pre-established parameters, facilitates analysis and enables the identification of a ST. Figure 19.1 shows the organizational structure of the methodology, arranged in 4 dimensions and 12 characteristics, understood as fundamental to the ST. From the point of view of traditional North American Social Psychology, Rodrigues et al. (2000) argued that this is a science whose knowledge can be applied to solve some concrete psychosocial problems. They argued that social P. R. de Oliveira Ramos · M. Calegare (*) Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_19

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Knowledge, Science, Technology & Innovation

Participation, Cititzenship & Democracy

•Objective of requesting social demand •Organization and systematization •Degree of innovation

•Democracy and Citizenship •Participative Methodology •Diffusion

Education

Social Relevance

•Pedagogical process •Dialogue between knowledges •Appropriation/empowerment

•Efficacy •Sustainability •Social transformation

Made by the authors. Adapted from Garcia (2007) Fig. 19.1  Dimensions and characteristics of ST. (Made by the authors. Adapted from Garcia (2007))

psychologists focus their research on advancing this science (theoretical, methodological replication of previous research) or its simple application for solving specific problems (eliminating a group’s frustration and decreasing its aggressiveness, using a certain type of social power to change behavior, etc.). When the application is complex, requiring a combination of existing findings to solve social problems, this would be called ST. From the point of view of these authors, there would be a distinction between the scientist, who creates theories and knowledge, and the technologist, who only applies them to solve social problems. However, based on the interdisciplinary definition of ST, we understand that it is a knowledge produced interactively by a certain social group to solve their problems; therefore, there is no such distinction between knowledge/science and an instrument/technique. This is in line with the Latin American perspective of Community Social Psychology (CSP) that we have adopted, whereby knowledge is built from the relationship between the social psychologist and the members of a community in search of awareness, emancipation, strengthening of community networks, and solving community problems (Calegare et al., 2013; Guareschi, 2010; Montero, 2004). Having made this preamble, in this chapter, we present the process of recognizing a ST appropriate for the Amazonian riverine communities called Assembly of the Knowledge Landscape (AKL). This was conceived and developed by Moacir Tadeu Biondo, a self-taught specialist and researcher of medicinal plants in the Amazon for over 30 years. To this end, we conducted postgraduate research (Ramos, 2018) linked to CNPq/MCTI action research No. 25/2015 (ethics committee approval No. 1,955,267), adopting the perspective of the CSP in dialogue with the definitions of ST (Dagnino, 2010; Lassance Jr & Pedreira, 2004). ST was approached in the research with traditional peoples and communities, who are understood as those culturally differentiated and self-recognized groups, with forms of social organization, occupation of territory, relationship with nature,

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knowledge, and innovations in the use of natural resources transmitted by tradition and that guarantee their reproduction at all levels (Calegare et al., 2014; Diegues et  al., 2000). In this context, the Amazonian riverine communities are inserted, where the residents experience a forest environment (Calegare, 2017) and have a way of life with typical characteristics such as shared solidarity in community work, which helps to strengthen the fundamental affective bonds in mutual support to overcome social problems (Lira & Chaves, 2016; Rodrigues, 2015). We chose to carry out this research in an Amazonian riverine community located on the Grande Lago of Manacapuru, a rural area in the municipality of Caapiranga, Amazonas, Brazil. Our theoretical-practical reference was CSP, which helped us to understand social phenomena particular to it, focusing on psychosocial processes important to the strengthening of identity, community networks, and social participation in collective decision-making (Calegare et al., 2013; Ximenes & Góis, 2010). Through CSP, communities are considered to be based on what is experienced at the community level, freeing themselves from individualistic reductionist psychologism. In this sense, the role of social subjects is favored by reflection based on their reality, resulting in the search for improvements in community difficulties (Montero, 2004). Thus, a bridge is created between the needs, problems, and solutions, which are important for the recognition of a ST (ITS, 2007). Our research made it possible to identify typical characteristics of the social groups in the riverine community we studied, who evidenced trusting behaviors and calm and supportive expressions of people who share the same spaces for leisure and work. It is in this environment that someone from a riverine community personifies themselves as a result of the sum of their relations, fulfilling themselves as a political being in the intimacy of the community environment (Guareschi, 2010). We have divided our chapter into three parts: (a) description of the methodological path applied and developed in the research; (b) presentation, realization, and objectives of the application of the AKL in a riverine community; and (c) results and discussion of the recognition of AKL as ST.

19.2  Methodology To achieve the research objectives, we opted for the triangulation of methods, which mixes quantitative and qualitative methods (Minayo et al., 2016), ideal for research in riverine communities (Calegare et al., 2013) and the recognition of a ST for providing access to different and comprehensive sources of information. Initially, we performed systematic and unsystematic observation with a field diary record of the AKL made by Moacir Biondo in the riverine community, in April 2016, verifying all the steps used by him and that are based on a collaborative and participatory approach (Ramos et al., 2016). We also used documentary research of secondary data, using photographs, reports, and footage, made available by an interdisciplinary research group at the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM).

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We conducted an individual semistructured interview with Moacir Biondo, in March 2017 in Manaus, in order to record and understand how the AKL was conceived and developed by him. In May 2017, we went to the riverine community again, where we applied a focus group guided by questions regarding the 12 characteristics of ST (Garcia, 2007). Eleven people participated, ten females and one male, all of them of legal age (18+) and who had previously participated in the AKL. Both instruments contained questions related to the 12 dimensions and characteristics attributed to the ST. We identified, categorized, and organized the clippings of the central contents of the speeches according to content analysis (Bardin, 2011), seeking to establish a relationship between the dimensions and characteristics that define a ST with the interviewees’ report.1 The Social Technology Analysis System (SATECS) was responsible for producing the quantitative data for this research. It is an online tool for diagnosing ST, available on the ITS Brasil website, which works through a web platform using the SATECS software. This software made it possible to identify the ST-promoting entity (Moacir Biondo) and the answers given to the online questionnaire, based on the dimensions and characteristics of the ST according to the categories raised in the interviews. This generated a measurement and presentation of the results in the form of a radar-type graph.

19.3  Assembly of the Knowledge Landscape (AKL) Traditional knowledge is an important part of the cultural wealth of riverine communities. Simple and practical solutions to social problems can be found from the requesting group itself and from the means available locally. In this sense, since the 1980s, Moacir Biondo has been developing the social practice he calls AKL, so-­ called because “each person is a piece of the puzzle, in that landscape, in that community, any place, that group of people represent their added knowledge, represent the landscape of knowledge, the landscape of knowledge inherent to the theme of medicinal plants” (M. Biondo, personal communication, March 2017) (translated by the authors). This arose from his perception that the demand for solutions to health problems could be met from the traditional knowledge of medicinal plants in the community itself: “born from the necessity of not losing that knowledge, Mary’s knowledge, Joseph’s knowledge, Anthony’s knowledge” (M.  Biondo, personal communication, March 2017) (translated by the authors). The AKL aims to recognize, record, and value traditional knowledge about the use of medicinal plants in traditional communities and to contribute to the treatment

1  The focus group participants were oriented about the research and informed about the ethical aspects regarding their anonymity. They provided consent by signing a specific informed consent form for each stage of data collection. All names of participants used here are fictitious, with the exception of Moacir Biondo.

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and solution of some health problems in Amazonian riverine communities (Ramos et al., 2016). AKL is organized in three parts, with eight phases: Part 1 1. Walk to identify and verify the diversity and potential of native and cultivated medicinal plants in the community 2. First “Conversation Wheel” to present the proposal of the AKL activities 3. Division of participants into working groups to record information from residents about the plants in the community and their medicinal properties Part 2 4. Second meeting, sharing the forms of use and indications of medicinal plants brought by the residents and the technician 5. New walk through the community to identify in loco the native and cultivated medicinal plants in the community Part 3 6. Third meeting, to prepare home remedies made with medicinal plants from the community 7. Making a booklet with information on the medicinal plants of the community, with properties, forms of use, and appropriate dosages 8. Free distribution of the printed booklet with information from the technician and residents about the medicinal plants of the community During the action research, it was not possible to perform step 6 due to lack of available time, but the booklet referred to in steps 7 and 8 was elaborated and delivered to the community (Rodrigues & Pedrosa, 2018). This booklet has the function of safeguarding and protecting the traditional knowledge of the community, being in compliance with international regulations and Law No. 13,123/2015, known as the Brazilian legal framework for biodiversity. In 2021, M. Biondo himself synthesized in written form the AKL, as a strategy of complementary and integrative practices in the Brazilian Unified Health System, as follows (Biondo, 2021, pp. 09–10): Phase I – Construction of the Medicinal Plants booklet 1st Step: Motivational lecture ‘The importance of traditional knowledge and the people who hold it’. 2nd Step: Survey of the names of medicinal plants 3rd Step: Description of medicinal plants Phase II – The technician’s knowledge

19.4  AKL as a Social Technology Radar Chart In 2018, in order to produce quantitative data, the AKL was analyzed using SATECS. This generated the radar graph below (Fig. 19.2), which is structured in

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Knowledge I1 - Aims to solve Social Demand - 8.46 I2 - Organization and Systematization 8.20 I3 - Degree of Innovation - 5.90 Citizenship I4 - Democracy and Citizenship - 6.00 I5 - Participatory Methodology - 4.17 I6 - Diffusion / Dissemination - 1.25 Education I7 - Pedagogical Process - 5.63 I8

- Dialogue between Knowledge -

6.25 I9

- Appropriation / Empowerment -

6.50 Social Relevance I10 - Effectiveness - 7.69 I11 - Sustainability - 3.85I12 - Social Transformation - 4.50 Fig. 19.2  AKL-SATECS Radar chart. (Made by the authors on the SATECS website)

concentric circles that are spaced by different levels of magnitude. This is expressed using Arabic numbers that increase from the center to the edge. The dimensions are divided and represented by different colors within the quadrants. The legend, next to the graph, shows the degree achieved by each of the 12 characteristics analyzed, on a scale of 0–10 points. These scores were obtained by completing the SATECS online questionnaire, with the information obtained from the interviews. Next, we will present, from the 4 dimensions and 12 characteristics of the ST, the crossing of interview results with SATECS, in order to qualitatively understand whether the AKL can be considered a ST or not.

19.5  Knowledge, Science, Technology, and Innovation It Aims to Solve Social Demand Social demand corresponds to the desire shared by the group to satisfy a collective need, usually involving questions about lack of access to basic rights or social

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problems that become the starting point of ST (ITS, 2007). This indicator scored 8.46 points on the SATECS, which is high. The interviews revealed that there is a demand in the riverine community for solutions to the residents’ health problems which can be met by the AKL: I knew the whole countryside of the state of Amazonas and many people were dying for lack of doctors or medicines (...) they always waited for a doctor, they always waited for a medicine and with great difficulty sometimes they came, sometimes they didn’t. (M. Biondo, personal communication, March 2017) (translated by the authors) The clinic has little medicine. (Marlene, personal communication, May 2017) Something more advanced, there is no way, you usually have to go to the doctor in the city. (Chico, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors)

These statements confirmed the perception of the absence of healthcare made by public policies. Calegare et al. (2013) recalled that we need to know the degree of awareness that riverine communities already have, searching alongside residents the solutions that are possible for them. This highlights the importance of having an alternative, such as the AKL, in the treatment of health in the community itself.

19.6  Organization and Systematization This corresponds to the structuring of the ST in well-defined and organized phases, which makes it possible to classify the information in a systemic way and better understand and connect to the demanding public (ITS, 2007). We obtained a score of 8.20 points, which is high. This is corroborated by the interviews: The AKL has three stages, you know, the first is the (...) survey of medicinal plants that the community knows and then they describe its properties in the way of preparing the medicine and the recommended dosage. (M. Biondo, personal communication, March 2017) Then we got together, and divided into five (...) we had to see, to remember the plant and what it was for, the group, and the name of the group was a plant name, right? And how [the plant] worked, I guess, how we prepared. Then, the next day we had to collect a bit of the plant. (Marlene, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors)

Even 1 year after its completion, the interviewees were able to express a relationship of order and sequence in the development of the AKL. We think, therefore, that this ST acted by valuing traditional knowledge and existing community practices, strengthening the community (Montero, 2004). We recognize, therefore, that it is a ST applied to social demand in a practical, organized, and systematic way, verified in the division of labor, cataloguing, and detailed classification of medicinal plants.

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19.7  Degree of Innovation This is the ability to innovate, and it can be related to an artifact or a way of using it (Dagnino, 2010). It consists of an action, favored by social interaction, which aims to meet social needs and is being developed in a democratic way and measured from the effectiveness in solving a social problem (ITS, 2007). We obtained a score of 5.90 points, which is a median score. This differs from Biondo’s perception, who states: The AKL is unprecedented, it is a product that has not been described previously, although a participatory technology is known (...) to rescue and register for the community its own knowledge, added to the technical knowledge (...) that with relation to medicinal plants known by the community and even some plants that they did not know were medicinal, then it increased the knowledge of the community. (M. Biondo, personal communication, March 2017) (translated by the authors)

Residents confirmed the technician’s perception of innovation by stating that they were unaware of a practice similar to AKL. There were also no records that indicated the previous performance of a similar activity in the riverine community. Social innovation occurred due to the originality and generation of new knowledge from the AKL, registered and preserved in the booklet on medicinal plants of the community (Rodrigues & Pedrosa, 2018) and which guarantee respect for the community and its autonomy (Calegare et al., 2013). On the other hand, we know that there are projects similar to the AKL, which remove its uniqueness in a certain sense.

19.8  Participation, Citizenship, and Democracy Democracy and Citizenship These are inseparable aspects in societies that share equal rights and obligations for all, corresponding to personal freedom, satisfaction of basic needs, political participation, and well-being (Marshall, 1967). We obtained a score of 6.00 points, again a median score. However, this is due to the fact that the online questionnaire requires data not collected in our research, which was related to income, housing, water resources, and energy. We can verify, in the excerpts of the interviews, reports that the AKL was aligned with the ideas of democracy and citizenship: AKL means (...) gathering all the knowledge of each person who is participating. Then he comes and speak, write, participate, interact, it is all the members who participate equally in this first part of the AKL which is the rescue of this traditional knowledge. (M. Biondo, personal communication, March 2017) (translated by the authors) The girls spoke, there was something [the technician] didn’t know, you know, but he had other information that he taught. (Elizabete, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors)

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Democracy and citizenship were present when we identified equal access to information, during a freely developed dialogue, which was neither hierarchical nor prejudiced, to the extent that all could manifest themselves during the activities of the AKL. This is in line with the scope of the CSP, in which it is hoped that the residents of the community will have a voice, be respected, and have autonomy, ratifying the presence of citizenship and democratic practices (Ximenes & Góis, 2010).

19.9  Participatory Methodology The creation of a ST requires favorable conditions, made possible by a democratic environment that allows the participation of all social actors involved in the process (ITS, 2004). Participation – being part of it – can be understood as a human need and an individual and collective right (Bordenave, 1994). This corresponds to the way in which the participatory methodology of a ST must be organized and structured, aiming at the autonomy of social groups through active and conscious participation in collective matters. We obtained a score of 4.17 points, considered a low score. We believe that this occurred because the online questionnaire required data related to the diagnosis, monitoring, evaluation process, coordination of the management council, and definition of access criteria as a beneficiary, which we only partially surveyed in our research. In this context, the interviews pointed out that: They feel motivated because I believe it is a topic that concerns their culture, so they feel motivated and participative because they experience the process. (M.  Biondo, personal communication, March 2017) (translated by the authors) I remember he put the plants on a table, then he started separating them, then he said this one is NAME, this one is for this complaint, for a different complaint use another plant. And then he was saying this plant is for this, for headaches, for stomach ache and such. And then he went from plant to plant talking about what it was for. (Chico, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors)

From our observations of the AKL and the reports, it is clear that this only occurs through the participation of all and the exchange of experiences. Participating in the AKL implies respect for the participants’ autonomy in choosing the medicinal plants to be studied, which is in line with the CSP (Calegare et al., 2013). Because it is a very simple device, the AKL did not include elements important to the ST and available in the form, hence the low score.

19.10  Diffusion Diffusion is the way in which ST spreads and reaches different demanding audiences. This characteristic is very important for the reapplication of ST, at the place of its creation or in different environments and contexts (ITS, 2004). We obtained a

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score of 1.25 points, which is a low score. Again, there were criteria from SATECS that we did not address in our research, such as organization of events, press relations, reapplication in another community, articulation in forums for debate, and contests and cycles of awards and dissemination in the media. It is noted that many of these criteria depart from the AKL, which proposes to function and act from community to community without much fanfare. According to the interviews, the dissemination of knowledge constructed in the AKL occurred in a simple way: To do the job you don’t need to be an expert on plants, that just stops the process. After someone is empowered and does a first job he already detain the steps and can do this job in other communities with other people, because it is very simple (...) empowerment itself ends up spreading the work. (M. Biondo, personal communication, March 2017) (translated by the authors) [Knowledge] has already been passed, today the girl, Lara, went to look for the NAME with Fernanda to show her (...) then it goes by, you know, it has already been taught to another and the other has already gone after it. (Leonora, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors)

We can see that the AKL is easily disseminated and that the knowledge generated has already been passed on to other people in the community. There are also proposals for new forms of dissemination, reapplication, and diffusion of the AKL: “I think one of the ideas that could be improved was if I passed this same work on to the children” (Leonora, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors). In addition, the community booklet (Rodrigues & Pedrosa, 2018) serves for both the protection and the preservation of knowledge, as well as for its dissemination. In short, although the SATECS criteria require media input, in essence, the AKL has simple mechanisms for the appropriation and dissemination of knowledge by residents, which we can recognize as an important element of autonomy and emancipation of the subjects (Ximenes & Góis, 2010).

19.11  Participation, Citizenship, and Democracy Pedagogical Process The pedagogical process in a ST aims to satisfy the collective needs with the solution of the social problem in a contextualized way, which is integrated to the local reality and developed in a clear and easy way, awakening the interests of its participants (ITS, 2007). The identification of the participants with the subject is fundamental for the teaching and learning process to be successful and become a liberating practice (Freire, 1979). We obtained a score of 5.63 points, which is a median score. Again, the SATECS questionnaire required items not covered by the AKL, such as training courses. On the other hand, the interviews reveal that the AKL involves a collective pedagogical process, addressing a subject of interest to everyone, contextualizing to the local reality, and arousing the interest of the participants through a didactic sequence that favored the understanding of the subject focused on medicinal plants from the community:

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The moment he realizes he has the knowledge, it starts to flow, he remembers the plants (...) they keep interacting, exchanging recipes with other participants, usually with a very evident joy. (M. Biondo, personal communication, March 2017) (translated by the authors) We had to see, to remember the plant and what it was for, the group, and the name of the group was a plant name, wasn’t it? And how it could be used and what it did. How the tea was made, the medicine. It seems that from there we went home and the next day we had a task. (Marlene, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors) On another day he went to teach the ones [plants] he knew, he asked everyone to take a plant we knew. (Isadora, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors)

As noted, there is a sequence of application of the AKL that was learned because it was organized in a didactic way, involving everyone’s knowledge equally. Thus, this process is participatory and pedagogical simultaneously. This brought motivation and makes the participants appropriate and engage more and more in solving community problems (Montero, 2004).

19.12  Dialogue Between Knowledges This indicator implies the expansion of the way of thinking about the world, opening possibilities beyond the hegemonic knowledge presented by Western science (ITS, 2007). The perspective of a global world must respect and consider cultural diversity; in this sense, it needs dialogue for the construction and development of new epistemologies (Leff, 2010). As described by Dagnino (2010), the dialogue between knowledge means being receptive and attentive to popular knowledge. We obtained a score of 6.25 points, which is an average score. Let’s see what some interviewees report: There are plants that they talk about, that everyone knows, but then there are others where the technician will make his knowledge available to the community (...) I add their knowledge to my knowledge. There may be that plant that I don’t know and I’m learning from them. (M. Biondo, personal communication, March 2017) (translated by the authors) There were plants that he said one name and we knew a different name. (Elizabete, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors) There were some that he didn’t know and we told him what it was for. (Eleonora, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors) The NAME plant was good for that remedy. And then the guy already knew it for something else and then we would find out. (Vanderlea, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors) One of the things that became very clear (...) that he taught me, you know, was that one should not take the medicine daily, as we used to. We used to take a little bit from time to time, so it was harmful and instead of getting better it got worse. (Leonora, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors)

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Despite the median score, we can see that the exchange of knowledge is the fundamental basis of AKL. Each participant brought their own knowledge about plants, and, by the sum of all these knowledges, the general landscape of community knowledge was created. Thus, all the knowledge of the community about plants and herbs was enhanced through the exchange between those present and between them and the technician, which occurred with a reciprocal attitude of talking and listening (Freire, 1996). Therefore, AKL made it possible to hear popular knowledge about the use of medicinal plants, and, together with technical-scientific knowledge, it constituted new community knowledge beyond the barriers imposed by absolute scientific truths (Dagnino, 2010). As argued by Calegare et al. (2013), raising awareness in a riverine community requires that we recognize and respect the conscience and knowledge of its residents, who in many cases already have answers and solutions to their demands. In short, we can see that the dialogue between knowledges is a common element between CSP, the AKL, and a ST.

19.13  Appropriation and Empowerment This indicator is related to the development of the autonomy of the social group. When the local agents take a ST to themselves, the result of its application in the solution of a social problem must contribute to increase confidence in the individual and collective capacity to solve collective problems (ITS, 2004). We obtained a score of 5.50 points, which is an average score. We attribute this to the fact that the answers to our research do not exactly fit the questions and form filling of the SATECS, even though it is a common theme. Let’s see what the interviewees say: To show that each person’s knowledge is important (...) so people start to truly see the value of their own knowledge (...) as they feel valued (...) they will feel important, you know, they will be able to work and treat many diseases. (M. Biondo, personal communication, March 2017) (translated by the authors) The girls that know, and we who don’t know how to use a certain medicine (...) here we know in a way (...) there are many over there who know things that we don’t know, right? And so we exchanged. (Vanderlea, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors)

For these and other reports, it is noted that both the technician and the residents perceive the valorization of local knowledge. Once recognized and valued as knowledgeable, residents realize that other people also have knowledge that can be exchanged. This is indicative of protagonism and autonomy, which are expressions of social empowerment resulting from the work developed and that makes residents feel able to reapply the AKL, in the community itself or in neighboring communities, in an autonomous way (Dagnino, 2010). The person feeling important in their community and active in finding solutions to local problems is another aspect that we find in common with CSP (Guareschi, 2010) and that guided all stages of our action research.

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19.14  Social Relevance Effectiveness Effectiveness is the ability to solve the social problem, producing a concrete, desired, and effective outcome in solving a specific social demand from the use and application of a ST (Garcia, 2007). We obtained a score of 7.69 points, which is a high score. The interviewees’ report indicates that several health problems, common in rural areas of the Amazon, can be solved with the knowledge of medicinal plants and herbs rescued by AKL: It improves their quality of life a lot and then they manage to treat the most prevalent diseases in the community, treat them successfully (...) if the person uses the correct plant, in the correct dosage, in the correct way, they will be able to treat almost all basic health problems. (M. Biondo, personal communication, March 2017) (translated by the authors) He taught that the NAME water was good for cleaning the eyes (...) and that she was using it and said that it really improved, cleaned it (...) I think what we use most here is that NAME, right, which is the NAME we use for anemia, most women drink this tea, always, always they drink. (Leonora, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors)

In another unrecorded conversation, one participant reported that after the AKL, she used a plant to treat a local health problem, restoring the health of the person being treated. AKL did not bring anything new, as the use of medicinal plants and herbs was already a common practice in riverine communities for the treatment of health problems (Diegues et al., 2000; Lira & Chaves, 2016). But what the AKL did was to recognize and value this knowledge, reinforcing its use and the confidence that treatment with these resources will achieve an effective cure. Therefore, the revival of this knowledge generates appropriate and effective results for the community (Garcia, 2007). This is another aspect recalled by Calegare et  al. (2013) that is important to CSP in riverine communities: valuing and strengthening potential that already exists in community networks.

19.15  Sustainability In ST, sustainability has three categories: social, economic, and environmental. The first two relate to financial maintenance and the integration of ST into public policies as a means of subsistence (ITS, 2007). The environmental category concerns the use of natural resources while preserving the environment for agreements in future generations (Garcia, 2007). We obtained a score of 3.85 points, which is a low score. AKL does not involve the generation of work and income and partnerships with companies or with the government, which were items required by SATECS. Nor is it directly proposed to integrate with public policies, although it can be a valuable tool for complementary and integrative health practices. Thus, the

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only SATECS requirement that AKL meets is that of environmental sustainability. Along this line, the creator of AKL declared: In nearly everywhere [community] is where they know medicinal plants best, there is usually a preservation and an increase in the cultivation of these plants, and an exchange of seedlings. (M. Biondo, personal communication, March 2017) (translated by the authors)

In addition, on the walks we took with the residents through the community in the footsteps of the AKL, we found that it is normal to have a patch in the backyards with medicinal plants. Participants had the opportunity to identify the places where the plants grow and the residents who grow them. In addition to the intentionally planted herbs, there were also places around the houses or in the community environment where the plants occur naturally. In itself, this indicates the environmental sustainability standards inherent to the way of life of traditional peoples and communities (Calegare et al., 2014; Lira & Chaves, 2016), despite not directly addressing other SATECS sustainability issues.

19.16  Social Transformation This is linked to the idea of social justice, of making the conditions of social life more just and less unequal, with emphasis on the role of the State and other social actors involved in the mobilization in search of access and guarantee of social rights through the use of ST (ITS, 2007). In this sense, social transformation is related to changes in social relationships, resulting from the use of a specific ST (ITS, 2004). We obtained a score of 4.50 points, which is median-low, since we did not meet the requirements of the SATECS with the AKL, which required data on improving family relationships, union participation, politics or social movements, and information about people’s social vulnerability. From the interviewees’ perspective, knowledge is a form of power that generates social transformation: At that moment when someone has this knowledge of curing diseases (...) there is a transformation in the community, due to the respect that is imposed on people who really know how to work with medicinal plants correctly, respect and appreciation of people. (M. Biondo, personal communication, March 2017) (translated by the authors) For those who participated here, I think we learned a little bit, you know, we were there, like this, we realized that it is good so we will value what we learned. (Chico, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors) I think it was very good, you know, that knowledge there and if we hadn’t had that knowledge, it would have stopped, you know, but as we had that knowledge, it improved. (Leonora, personal communication, May 2017) (translated by the authors)

Social transformation requires a longer and more detailed study, which allows a better assessment of how the valorization of traditional knowledge can create social transformations. The new knowledge can cause positive effects on social relationships, since it favors the use of medicinal plants in places with few resources,

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valuing the local culture. AKL, recognizing that traditional knowledge is as relevant as technical-scientific knowledge, favored the self-confidence of community members and contributed to the reduction of social alienation, creating fertile ground for social changes (Freire, 1979). The role of residents in AKL is analogous to that of CSP, as it contributes to the strengthening of identity and social participation, stimulating social autonomy (Ximenes & Góis, 2010).

19.17  Final Considerations Adopting the theoretical and methodological perspective of CSP, in our research, we seek to enter the environment and daily life of residents of the riverine community attempting to know, rescue, value, and strengthen their knowledge about medicinal plants and herbs. In this sense, a first important aspect of our work was to develop it in an Amazonian forest environment (Calegare, 2017), which demanded from us social psychologists attention to the design and conduct research and field activities (Calegare et al., 2013). In addition, we always had as guiding elements the valorization of the forest way of life, respect for those with knowledge, and the strengthening of the knowledge and practices of healthcare, which we can characterize as related to the autonomy and social emancipation desired by the Latin American CSP. To this end, we tested the AKL, which uses a collaborative and participatory methodology in its execution, to see if it would fit as an appropriate ST for the riverine communities in the Amazon. The AKL took a social problem as its starting point and aimed to solve the community’s health requirements. Through this tool, we sought to gather knowledge in an organized and systematic way, generating innovation by expanding the knowledge about medicinal plants in the community. In addition, we registered and created a printed booklet, recognizing the existence and value of traditional community knowledge. The way in which the AKL was developed favored citizenship and the democratic participation of those involved with social inclusion, using a methodology that can be reapplied by the participants of this activity, in the same or in other communities. Using the SATECS criteria, we saw that in some dimensions, we obtained high scores while in others median scores and low scores. However, due to the fact that the AKL does not contain all the dimensions required by this ST recognition system, we believe that the scores would have been higher. Despite this counterpoint, we concluded in our study that the AKL contemplates all four dimensions of ST, with variations in magnitude in relation to its 12 characteristics, some with opportunities for improvement and others very relevant. The AKL, as a ST, contemplates the pedagogical and interdisciplinary process, is integrated with the culture and the local reality, and enables the dialogue between traditional and scientific knowledge, as well as extolling positive aspects of social identity. It proved to be effective in treating health problems in the community, in addition to having environmental sustainability promoting a harmonious and responsible relationship with nature.

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Thus, it helped people to realize that they are able to take care of their own health and that of others, with the local means they have, which favored the self-confidence and autonomy of the community benefited by this ST. Finally, in future work, it will be up to us to seek the alignments of the AKL with the National Program for Medicinal and Herbal Plants (PNPMF) and with the National Policy on Integrative and Complementary Practices (PNPIC) of the Public Health System (SUS). Both public policies have scopes similar to that of this ST. At the moment, we can see that the AKL is an appropriate ST for riverine communities in the Amazon as a healthcare strategy and enhancement of the local way of life, deserving to be used and improved, with great potential to include the existing regional public policies. Acknowledgments  We thank Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM), Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq n.025/2015) for the support granted.

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Instituto de Tecnologia Social. (2007). Conhecimento e cidadania 1: tecnologia social. Author. Retrieved from http://itsbrasil.org.br/conheca/publicacoes/cadernos/ Lassance, A.  E. Jr, & Pedreira, J.  S. (2004). Tecnologias Sociais e políticas públicas. In Fundação Banco do Brasil (Ed.), Tecnologia Social: uma estratégia para o desenvolvimento (pp. 65–81). Author. Leff, E. (2010). Epistemologia ambiental (5a ed.). Cortez. Law n. 13.123, 20th may, 2015. (2015, 20th may). Dispõe sobre o acesso ao patrimônio genético, sobre a proteção e o acesso ao conhecimento tradicional associado e sobre a repartição de benefícios para conservação e uso sustentável da biodiversidade. Presidência da República. Lira, T.  M., & Chaves, M.  P. S.  R. (2016). Comunidades ribeirinhas na Amazônia: organização sociocultural e política. Interações (Campo Grande), 17(1), 66–76. https://doi. org/10.20435/1518-­70122016107 Marshall, T. H. (1967). Cidadania, Classe Social e Status. Zahar Editores. Minayo, M. C. S., Souza, E. R., Constantino, P., & Santos, N. C. (2016). Métodos, técnicas e relações em triangulação. In M. C. S. Minayo, S. G. Assis, & E. R. Souza (Eds.), Avaliação por triangulação de métodos: abordagem de programas sociais (5a reimpr., pp. 57–68). Fiocruz. Montero, M. (2004). Teoria y practica de la psicología comunitária: la tensión entre comunidad y sociedad. Paidos. Ramos, P. R. O. (2018). Montagem da Paisagem do Conhecimento: uma tecnologia social apropriada para comunidades ribeirinhas amazônicas (Masters dissertation). Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus. Ramos, P. R. O., Biondo, M. T., & Calegare, M. G. A. (2016). Reconhecimento e valorização do conhecimento de plantas medicinais em comunidade ribeirinha amazônica. Retta – Revista de Educação Técnica e Tecnológica em Ciências Agrícolas, 7(14), 73–84. Rodrigues, D.  C. B. (2015). Conhecimentos tradicionais e mecanismos de proteção: estudo de caso nas comunidades de Ebenézer e Mucajá em Maués/AM (p. 2015). EDUA. Rodrigues, D.  C. B., & Pedrosa, E.  B. (Eds.). (2018). Cartilha de plantas medicinais (Cartilha). UFAM. Rodrigues, A., Assmar, E. M. L., & Jablonski, B. (2000). Psicologia social (19ª ed. reform.). Vozes. Ximenes, V. M., & Góis, C. W. L. (2010). Psicologia Comunitária: uma práxis libertadora latino-­ americana. In F. Lacerda Jr. & R. S. L. Guzzo (Eds.), Psicologia & Sociedade: interfaces no debate sobre a questão social (pp. 46–64). Alínea.

Chapter 20

Human-Wildlife Interactions and Rural Environmental Psychology in Mexico Alejandra Olivera-Méndez

20.1  Introduction Since it is not often that we see in psychological publications the terms “human-­ wildlife interactions” (HWI) and “rural environmental psychology,” the chapter will begin defining what we understand by each term. Then, some psychology’s contributions to HWI will be discussed, supplemented with examples of research done by the author and her collaborators.

20.2  Human-Wildlife Interactions Studying human-wildlife interactions (HWI) can be accomplished from the transactional metatheory perspective as human-environment systems, and specifically socioecological systems, operate in a relational, interdependent manner across scales (Heft, 2012; Bouamrane et al., 2015). HWI are relations of mutual dependence (Manfredo et al., 2009), and both humans and wildlife are active participants that affect and are affected by their environment. Human populations and wildlife interact directly and indirectly in numerous ways (i.e., direct contact, sightings, remote detection of smells or signs), varying in intensity and occurring in different geographic and temporal scales, within complex socioecological systems (Thirgood et al., 2005; Quigley & Herrero, 2005; Decker et al., 2012). As explained by Thirgood et al. (2005): Our species has directly exploited wild animals for food and furs for millennia and more recently for sporting and cultural reasons. Humans have greatly modified habitats and A. Olivera-Méndez (*) Colegio de Postgraduados, San Luis Potosí Campus, Salinas de Hidalgo, Mexico e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_20

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l­andscapes through agriculture and other extractive industries with far-reaching and typically negative impacts on wildlife populations. We have also translocated species around the globe, either deliberately or accidentally, with major consequences for native fauna. From the human perspective, our interactions with wildlife are often positive  – we gain material benefit from harvesting species for food or other animal products. In other situations, however, human interactions with wildlife are negative. Wild animals may eat our livestock or damage our crops, they may compete with us as hunters for wild prey populations, and they may even injure or kill us. (Thirgood et al., 2005, p. 13)

The need to regulate HWI to facilitate positive outcomes and avoid negative ones gave birth to wildlife management (Decker et  al., 2012). Physical and figurative boundaries were drawn to keep human and wildlife separated to reduce the effects on human activities on wildlife (Woodroffe et al., 2005; Frank & Glikman, 2019; Buijs & Jacobs, 2021). As stated by Frank and Glikman (2019), “this separation often represents the root cause of human-wildlife conflicts through the creation of exclusive places  – either for humans (e.g., cities) or for wildlife (e.g., protected areas)” (Frank & Glikman, 2019, p. 3). It is widely recognized that human activities, including agriculture, mining, leisure, and hunting, among others, are the major threats to wildlife populations and their habitats and have increased the potential for human-wildlife encounters (Quigley & Herrero, 2005; Woodroffe et al., 2005; Buijs & Jacobs, 2021). Many authors have acknowledged that wildlife management is more about managing and changing human behavior than about managing wildlife (Decker et  al., 2012; Cinner, 2018; Selinske et al., 2018). The ways societies view the role and place of wildlife has changed throughout history and differs across different cultures (Frank & Glikman, 2019). They can be viewed as food or goods-providers, spiritual beings, part of the cultural heritage, pets, means of transportation, competitors for resources, and vermin. In addition, according to Manfredo et al. (2009), “every culture’s relationship with wildlife is a response to universal needs (e.g., food, protection, reproduction), and across cultures, both differences and similarities exist in how these needs have been met” (Manfredo et al., 2009, p. 31). The way wildlife species are defined and the way humans relate with them will determine the outcome of HWI (Decker et al., 2009; Frank & Glikman, 2019). Impacts take a variety of forms and may be negative, reflected in economic costs, threats to human health and well-being, and productivity losses, or they can be positive, such as economic benefits, enhancement of human health, provision of ecological services, and recreational enjoyment (Decker et al., 2012). Negative impacts are commonly perceived as conflicts. Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) encompasses competition for space, resources, and life, as well as threats to property, safety, livelihoods, and well-being (Conover, 2002; Thirgood et al., 2005; Treves, 2009; Ohrens et  al., 2019). HWC is escalating worldwide due to human expansion, environmental changes, and in some cases wildlife recovery (Treves, 2009; Marchini et al., 2019). The outcomes of HWC may affect not only wildlife populations but the structure of the entire ecosystems (Woodroffe et  al., 2005). Research in HWC has focused mainly on the negative impact HWI have in humans (Frank & Glikman, 2019), although recently some authors have included the

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negative impacts of humans on wildlife (Conover, 2002; Woodroffe et  al., 2005; Frank & Glikman, 2019). The perception of a HWI as conflict depends on various factors such as culture, location, severity, and time (Frank & Glikman, 2019). Additionally, “wildlife damage can alter a person’s perceptions about wildlife, especially when damage exceeds his/her tolerance” (Conover, 2002, p. 357). Furthermore, there can be a perception of conflict regardless of the real damage cause and even without any tangible cost of the HWI (Conover, 2002; Thirgood et al., 2005; Dickman & Hazzah, 2016). As an alternative to ameliorate HWC, several researchers have proposed analyzing and improving tolerance toward wildlife (Conover, 2002; Fascione et al., 2004; Olivera-Méndez et al., 2014; Kansky et al., 2016; Frank & Glikman, 2019; Slagle & Bruskotter, 2019). Tolerance can be defined as the ability and willingness to accept wildlife presence and its associated risks, including the costs of sharing the landscape with wild animals (Kansky et al., 2016; Frank & Glikman, 2019). Clearly, tolerance of HWC depends upon what is at risk. As Conover (2002) explains, it is easier to be tolerant of nuisance problems than of threats to human health and safety. Changing the perceptions of people experiencing wildlife damage by increasing their appreciation and knowledge of wildlife, compensating losses, and enhancing the appreciation of the tangible and intangible benefits species can have to the well-­ being of the society is crucial to wildlife conservation (Conover, 2002; Frank & Glikman, 2019). More recently, researchers have focused on achieving peaceful coexistence with wildlife outside protected areas (Quigley & Herrero, 2005; Woodroffe et al., 2005; Glikman et al., 2019; Buijs & Jacobs, 2021). Peaceful coexistence requires preventing/reducing conflicts, effective conservation laws, individual decisions to refrain from killing or harming individual animals or their habitat, and active stewardship (Slagle & Bruskotter, 2019). Human-wildlife coexistence acknowledges that people live with wildlife and that wildlife can thrive in human environments with an ethical acceptance that human existence and quality of life is enhanced by the presence of wildlife and when the interests of both humans and wildlife are satisfied and a compromise is negotiated (Quigley & Herrero, 2005; Frank & Glikman, 2019). As Buijs and Jacobs (2021) describe: Coexistence with wildlife is more than living together in the same landscape through avoiding conflict. Nurturing positive human–wildlife interactions is at least equally important. Balanced understanding of human–nature relationships and more systematic understanding of positive consequences of human–wildlife interactions would complement the current knowledge base focusing on negative consequences. (Buijs & Jacobs, 2021, p. 285)

20.3  Rural Environmental Psychology Psychology is not only about the cognitive processes that constitute experience and determine behavior but also how people are affected by and affect their environments (Clayton & Saunders, 2012; De Young, 2013). It is widely recognized that

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individual behavior is influenced not only by individual traits but by the sociocultural, historical, and environmental contexts in which the person lives. The context that surrounds and sustains our daily lives exerts a huge influence in the way we think, feel, and behave (Holahan, 2011). As Landini et al. (2010) mention, psychology “is a science that studies and seeks to understand both the individual psychological processes as well as the differences and specificities that exist among social groups or within the multiple contexts/environments in which human life is developed” (Landini et al., 2010, p. 222) (translated by the author). Psychologists are acknowledging that the discipline’s theories, interventions, and methods were generalized and universally applied but that rural people and communities are in many ways different from their urban counterparts due to their history, sociocultural development, demography, migration patterns, climate, and economic and political factors (Alburquerque, 2001; Sánchez Quintanar, 2009; Casari & Oros Cabrini, 2013; Calegare, 2017; Hargrove et al., 2017). Even more, although the rural areas share certain historical, social, cultural, and ecological characteristics, there is no universal rural culture or context (Hargrove et  al., 2017; Dantas et al., 2020). Dantas et al. (2020) see the “rural” as a moving space, noticeable for an immense diversity, characterized by different livelihoods, land use, and ways of life, a heterogenic and singular setting. Therefore, there is a need to adapt and apply the discipline’s knowledge in rural contexts, where population, poverty, social vulnerability, territory, and other dimensions play an important role (Landini et al., 2010; Báez, 2015; Landini, 2015). Rural psychology studies the specificities of rural residents, their way of life, and their livelihoods, including the increasing daily commute to work in urban areas (Alburquerque, 2002; Landini et al., 2010). However, it is important to mention that rural psychology is seen as an application or convergence field that articulates rural and psychosocial topics, and not as a subdiscipline (Hur & Calegare, 2016; Conti et al., 2020). Environmental psychology, in specific, studies the interaction between individual humans and their environment, both built and natural (Selinske et al., 2018), or, as Holahan (2011) states, the interrelation of the physical environment and human behavior and experiences. The boundaries of this subdiscipline are not easily defined, as Stokols (quoted in Nickerson, 2003) pointed out “the study of human behavior in relation to the environment, broadly speaking, would seem to encompass all areas of psychology” (Nickerson, 2003, p. 1). Environmental psychology has traditionally focused on the built environment and on the impact the environment has on human well-being. Although often overlooked, environmental psychology has emphasized the need to understand behavior in context, the recognition of the reciprocal relationship between people and their environments, and the need to be interdisciplinary (Clayton & Saunders, 2012). Within the interaction between rural people and their environment, it is also necessary to contemplate the natural environment since not only sense of belonging, identity, attitudes, and behavior are linked to physical and social factors, but quality of life, human well-being, and food security depend on biodiversity and ecosystem services (Nickerson, 2003; Miranda Murillo, 2013; Márquez & Correa, 2015; Conti et  al., 2020). It is important to understand the impact of human behavior on the

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natural environment. However, few environmental psychology researches have been relevant to the natural environment, climate change, or the depletion of natural resources (biodiversity among them), and thus conservation psychology emerged “not only to understand the interdependence between humans and nature but to promote a healthy and sustainable relationship” (Clayton & Myers, 2009, p. 2). Considering the complexity of HWI and human behavior, there is a need for interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration between disciplines (i.e., sociology, anthropology, biology, geography, ecology, and agricultural sciences, among others), within the existing subdisciplines in psychology, and with different types of knowledge, such as local, traditional, or indigenous knowledge (Migliaro, 2015). Psychology can contribute to conservation and environment recovery efforts, both institutional and social, including biodiversity protection, preservation of natural areas, risk reduction, resilience, and natural resources conservation (De Castro, 1997). In this chapter, the term “rural environmental psychology” is loosely defined as the psychological processes of the interactions between humans living in a rural context and their environment, with a particular emphasis in their interactions with wildlife and their habitats. This term integrates various theories and approaches from different psychological subdisciplines such as environmental, social, community, cultural, educational, organizational, and conservation psychology applied in rural contexts. To simplify the argument, the term “psychology” will be used as a synonym of rural environmental psychology.

20.4  Psychology Contributions to Human-Wildlife Interactions Applying concepts from psychology to understand human beliefs, attitudes, value orientations, emotions, interests, needs, preferences, and expectations related to HWI can help influence tolerance, predict and promote risk-reducing behavior, and improve the likelihood of achieving wildlife conservation goals (Manfredo et al., 2009; Decker et al., 2012; Vaske & Manfredo, 2012; Kansky et al., 2016; Lischka et al., 2020; Wallen & Landon, 2020). “Psychology offers powerful insights into various conservation problems, not least human–wildlife conflict, and may provide a useful perspective for understanding and developing tools to address conflict” (Perry et al., 2020, p. 880). Although most research emphasizes the contributions of social psychology to wildlife management, rural environmental psychology can provide applied knowledge and methods that can help the promotion of peaceful coexistence. Even more, as Parathian et al. (2018) suggest, we need to integrate psychological research with an understanding of the local and demographic contexts. Acknowledging the specificities and diversity of the rural environment, especially in Latin America, is essential to develop effective wildlife conservation strategies. Therefore, it is important to first understand the context and ways of life of the individuals and communities.

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With this in mind, the research we have done in Mexico has always began with participatory rural appraisal (PRA) workshops, ecological research of the study area, and/or socioeconomic surveys. For example, in the Huasteca Potosina region, in the state of San Luis Potosí, within a jaguar conservation program, we (an interdisciplinary team) facilitated PRA workshops in 14 rural communities to understand the interactions they had with their natural resources (including wildlife), the main problems they faced, and their perception of living in their community (Figueroa Hernández et  al., 2009). Although the bulk of the participants (63%) worked as agricultural producers or workers, there were other more “urban-­ associated” occupations, such as musicians, bakers, teachers, and construction workers. Nonetheless, we were impressed by the knowledge they had about their natural resources. In total, they mentioned 167 animals, most of them wildlife, some of which could be used for food or medicine, while others were perceived as harmful to either crops, livestock, or humans. As we were especially interested in human-­ jaguar conflicts, we were surprised that only in four communities there was mention of having livestock depredation. The way these communities perceived this conflict and their suggestions to solve it were quite different, from perceiving them as vermin and suggesting eradicating them as the only solution to seeing them as part of their environment and proposing mitigation strategies, mainly better livestock management or avoiding encounters. Interestingly, the first point of view was from a relatively new ejido (created in the 1970s), while the second was from an indigenous community with long-established roots in the region. We also implemented a socioeconomic survey in three communities in the surrounding areas of the Sierra del Abra-Tanchipa Biosphere Reserve (RBSAT), where jaguar presence had been detected (González-Sierra, 2011). A total of 160 people were surveyed, with a significance level of 95%. Some of the results indicate a dependence of some communities on the forest for their subsistence. For example, in one community, we found that all the respondents depended completely on firewood collected from the surrounding forest for cooking and bathing and that they had to walk 1 kilometer through the forest to the nearest source of water for their daily needs. Thus, the members of this community were more vulnerable to encounters with jaguars. Other results indicated that although many raise livestock for subsistence purposes, there were few problems with livestock predation, and only two respondents signaled jaguars as the responsible predator, corroborating the conclusions of the previous workshops that jaguar predation was not a significant problem in the region. Furthermore, two thirds of the respondents agreed on the importance of jaguar presence in their forest and considered jaguar conservation to be important. Some of the main explanations given in this regard were that: (1) jaguars are part of the natural environment, (2) they provide a balance in the ecosystem, (3) they are beautiful creatures, and (4) they have a right to exist. However, only about a third of the respondents stated their willingness to have jaguars living in their surroundings. These results show that even when there are not real conflicts and when people perceive some benefits from a wildlife species, people are not willing to interact with them, which indicates the possibility of other factors influencing their attitude.

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In HWC with large carnivores, wildlife managers tend to mention livestock depredation as the main cause of conflict (Linell et  al., 2010; Palmeira et  al., 2015; Teichman et al., 2016; Amit & Jacobson, 2017; Mkonyi et al., 2017). However, from both systematic and psychological points of view, HWC might be more complex. To conserve these species, we need to understand the defining factors of the conflict. On the one hand, large carnivores can prey on livestock, pets, and game, generate productivity losses (i.e., dairy production, damages to infrastructures, and additional economic costs for mitigation of damages), transmit zoonosis, and even attack humans (Linell et al., 2010; Olivera-Méndez et al., 2014; Dickman & Hazzah, 2016; Mkonyi et al., 2017; Olivera-Méndez & Utrera-Jiménez, 2020). On the other hand, people can have negative attitudes toward large carnivores due to fear, a sense of security loss, and the reduction of human well-being (Conover, 2002; Thirgood et  al., 2005; Linell et  al., 2010; Olivera-Méndez et  al., 2014; Olivera-Méndez & Utrera-Jiménez, 2020). To understand and improve tolerance toward large carnivores, we designed a model (Olivera-Méndez et  al., 2014) based on the dynamic systems approach (Fig.  20.1). This model considers costs and benefits due to the presence of large carnivores, as tolerance can increase when the positive effects of HWI surpass the negative (Decker et al., 2012). The costs were based on the aforementioned factors of conflict, while the benefits considered both tangible (income generation and governmental subsidies) and intangible (mainly the intrinsic values associated with the species). To increase tolerance, we proposed conflict resolution interventions that consider good governance processes (i.e., active participation) as the process to inform and facilitate decision-making. We integrated the four more common general strategies that have been implemented in wildlife management programs: policies and regulations, mitigation, environmental education and conscientization, and conservation and sustainable development projects. In a latter research, we were interested in understanding the defining factors of the conflict with jaguars and pumas in two natural protected areas (NPAs), RBSAT and Los Mármoles National Park (PNLM), and associated communities (seven for Policies & regulations (knowledge & acceptance)

Zoonosis

Loss of agricultural productivity

Conflict resolution

Direct costs

Loss of wild prey for human benefit Human injuries or fatalities

Level of losses due to presence of carnivores

Loss of security (risk) Reduction in well-being Fear of carnivores

Conservation & development projects

Mitigation & loss reduction

Predation on livestock & pets

Decision-making process (good governance)

Tolerance level towards the presence of carnivores

Direct benefits (economic)

Level of benefits due to presence of carnivores Indirect benefits (intangible)

Indirect costs Environmental education/concientization

Government subsidies/programs for wildlife management & conservation Income from recreational activities (e.g., tourism, hunting)

Recreational Existence Historic-cultural Ecological

Fig. 20.1  Tolerance toward the presence of large carnivores’ model. (Made by the author)

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each NPA). We designed a questionnaire that included all the costs of living with large carnivores (Olivera-Méndez & Utrera-Jiménez, 2020). For each factor/variable, we developed five items that reflected potential attitudes and beliefs toward each one and used a Likert scale to better understand the influence each item and factor had. The main factors influencing conflict in RBSAT were “loss of agricultural productivity” and “pet predation,” while in the other NPA, the main factor was “fear of being attacked by the carnivores.” These results demonstrate the importance of considering the local attitudes and context to better understand HWC and inform decision-making processes to achieve successful wildlife conservation. An additional research focused on the socioecological feasibility for Mexican wolf reintroduction in the municipality of Susticacán, Zacatecas, where a survey was applied to understand the attitudes and beliefs that people had toward this species (Michel-Hernández, 2018). In this instance, it was noticeably clear that sociodemographic characteristics can play an important role in the level of acceptance of wildlife reintroduction. Analysis by occupation determined that cattle ranchers had the lowest willingness for wolf reintroduction in the nearby forests. To mention some examples, most of them believed that wolves attack livestock and pets (93.3%) and that they deplete game populations (86.7%), and did not agree with the idea of wolves living in the area again (76.7%). Analyzing the results regarding age range, all the respondents with more than 60 years of age believed that wolves attack livestock and pets, and only 37.5% of this age group admitted they would like to see wolves in the wild again, while the group of 20 years or younger were more willing to have wolves living in the area again (88.30%) and perceived more benefits from wolf reintroduction (i.e., increment in tourism revenue and creating a wildlife protection unit as an alternative source of income). In addition, cross-tabulation by gender showed that women were more willing to have wolves again living in the nearby forests (64.8% of women compared to 46.5% of men). Women and younger people showed more positive values (i.e., that wolves are part of nature and have a right to exist) and tended to perceive more benefits from a potential interaction with wolves (i.e., they would like their grandchildren to see wolves in the wild). In total, only 55.1% of the respondents would like to have wolves living in the nearby forests. Based on these results, we concluded there were some actions that needed to be taken before reintroducing wolves in the area, such as improving livestock management and enhancing the communities’ knowledge of the species and their function within the ecosystem. Knowing the reasons for their willingness to coexist or not with wolves helps to find effective and appropriate strategies for each case. The examples provided here serve to stress the importance of understanding the context of HWI. Individual traits, identity, values, and a sense of community stewardship play an important role in the way individuals and communities perceive HWI. Even in the same region or with comparable conflicts, individual attitudes, beliefs, and values are influenced by their local environment and by the interactions they have had with specific wildlife species. Selinske et al. (2018) argue that HWI are often context-specific, which makes the link between behavior and HWI impacts difficult to examine, and thus the same methods or interventions cannot be used to improve HWI even in similar settings. As Cetas and Yasué (2016) suggested,

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“uncovering the costs and benefits of conservation in very specific cultural contexts may improve the understanding of why people engage in conservation projects” (Cetas & Yasué, 2016, p. 210). In the studies we have done so far, the interest has been in the way people perceive HWI, with an emphasis in the interaction with large carnivores, but there is a need to nurture positive HWI. Wildlife can provide important psychological benefits to humans (Bartee et al., 2017), and the next step should also be focusing on those and on other non-consumption values that help people feel better connected with the natural environment and its biodiversity. However, we cannot ignore the fact that some wild animals, such as large carnivores, can cause significant losses to people’s livelihoods and safety. When people feel powerless to protect their way of life due to the risks to their own safety, negative attitudes are reinforced (Thirgood et al., 2005). Thus, we need to work along with colleagues of different disciplines that can help them to reduce the risks or improve their ability to overcome them. In sum, rural environmental psychology or psychology can contribute to wildlife conservation in various ways. Some of these contributions are understanding the way humans interact with wildlife, especially within the rural context; assessing attitudes toward conservation actions; identifying those values, beliefs, ideologies, social norms, and emotions that promote or obstruct wildlife conservation; facilitating active participation in decision-making processes and governance; fostering pro-environmental behaviors; improving the resilience of rural communities to face environmental problems and mitigate HWC; studying the role of nature in identity and sense of belonging; analyzing HWI as well as interactions among people to better understand the way environment values are created and transmitted; designing methods that help predict behavior in HWI; increasing tolerance toward wildlife; applying this knowledge for designing communication and education strategies to enhance tolerance and encourage beneficial and peaceful coexistence; and collaborating in the implementation of interdisciplinary projects for wildlife management and conservation through the discipline’s understanding of human behavior.

20.5  Conclusion Wildlife fulfills important functions as part of the environment/ecosystem they live in, and as such, it is important to understand the way rural residents interact with them if we want to meet conservation goals while ensuring sustainable livelihoods (Mogomotsi et al., 2020). Attitudes and behavior are conditioned by the way people perceive their environment, and we cannot continue separating humans from the natural environment. As Fascione et al. (2004) insisted, “for people and predators to coexist in the future we must look not only at how to manage predators but at how to manage our own attitudes and behaviors” (Fascione et al., 2004, p. 267). Since the main environmental problems that our planet faces nowadays are caused or aggravated by human behaviors, psychology has the ethical responsibility to participate in wildlife conservation initiatives. As mentioned before, we

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positively or negatively affect and are affected by our interaction with the environment, including the rest of the species that exist within it. Rural environmental psychology, as defined in this chapter, can provide a better understanding of HWI in a transdisciplinary effort to achieve a beneficial coexistence for both humans and wildlife. Acknowledgments  Many people have collaborated in the studies mentioned in this chapter. I would like to acknowledge the contributions of my students Ruby González-Sierra, Misael A.  Michel-Hernández, and Elsy Utrera-Jiménez, as well as the participation of my colleagues, especially Octavio Rosas-Rosas, Jorge Palacio-Núñez, and Francisco J.  Morales-Flores, among others. Additionally, the participatory workshops were designed and facilitated by Adrián Figueroa, organized by Socorro Sierra and Gilberto Torres, from SEDARH (the San Luis Potosí State’s Ministry of Rural, Agricultural & Hydric Development), and with the financial support from Wildlife Without Borders. Alejandro Durán, director of the Sierra del Abra Tanchipa Biosphere Reserve (RBSAT), has always enabled our research, as well as Alejandro López Portillo, director of Los Mármoles National Park. Last but not least, I would like to thank all the people from the different rural communities who have been willing to participate in the different studies, without whom the results from this chapter would not be possible.

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Chapter 21

Transitioning Ruralities: Migration Processes and Emerging Socioenvironmental Spaces Ma. Verónica Monreal, Sofía Fonseca, Ma. Jesús Larraín, and Felipe Valenzuela

21.1  Introduction The literature reflects that rururbanization, amenity migration, economic reorganization in rural areas, and increasing levels of concern for the environment, among others, can be noticed as features of current sociospatial and productive transformations associated with has been denominated as New Rurality (Gaudin, 2019; Hidalgo & León, 2021; Hembuz, 2018; Ubilla-Bravo, 2020). This is connected to the idea of overcoming the urban-rural dichotomy (Berardo, 2019), which strains the romanticized view on rurality, in particular when it becomes an object of consumption for those who arrive to such spaces, transforming the livelihoods of the historical inhabitants of those territories (Monreal et al., 2020). There has been a noticeable phenomenon of amenity migration, where inhabitants of urban settings seek new spaces, either for residence or leisure, with the objective of abandoning city contexts and the sort of lifestyle they impose. This has meant that the local identities of places receiving migrants have been subject to a process of transition and dispute (MacAdoo et al., 2019; Hembuz, 2018; Hidalgo & Zunino, 2012). Thus, the use of spaces, economical and cultural practices, ways of developing social connection, and sociopolitical participation of such communities see a multidimensional expression, one that requires a complex system of policies, where all these variables are accounted for, in order to engage with it (Stefoni & Stang, 2017).

M. V. Monreal (*) · S. Fonseca · F. Valenzuela Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, School of Psychology, Santiago, Chile e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] M. J. Larraín Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Institute of Aesthetics, Santiago, Chile e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4_21

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For the purpose of delving into the coexistence and exchange processes partaken by the traditional inhabitants of a locality (the receiving community) and the urban area migrants, we propose a qualitative case research focused on a locality that faces rururbanization and economic activity transformation processes. From a decolonialist and environmentalist standpoint, we analyze and discuss stories that reveal community worldviews, dynamics, and interactions. This research was conducted in El Convento, a locality of Valparaíso Region, Chile. This locality is part of Santo Domingo, the commune with the largest index of rurality (43%) in the San Antonio Province (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas INE, 2017.) El Convento is the largest settlement in the surroundings of Yali Reserve, a wetland complex under the protection of the Ramsar Convention, a treaty designed to protect these landmarks. This complex is conformed by approximately 20 water bodies (Vidal-Abarca et al., 2011), several of which are currently dry. The locality is the first in rural population density in Santo Domingo, showing an increasing case of urban-rural migration (Nuevo Siglo consultores, 2016). In recent years, El Convento has seen a persistent increase of both primary and secondary residence population due to several factors: real estate projects, amenity migration, the search for improvements in the quality of life, environmental motivations, and counterurbanization processes (Junta de Vecinos El Convento, 2021). According to the Chilean National Institute of Statistics (INE, per its abbreviation in Spanish), its total population by the year 2017 amounted to 1375 inhabitants. Data collected by the research team, derived from a digital survey with 107 participants, shows that 72% of the residents are first-time home buyers, while 28% are acquiring a second home. Most of them have lived less than 5 years in the location (51.4%), stating that improvement of quality of life is a driver for migration (80%) (Table 21.1). A majority (87.9%) of the respondents shows a significant interest in environmental stewardship, which is consistent with a positive assessment for nature, tranquility, and silence, with an 80% rating in the survey. With the aim of developing a better understanding of the dynamic aspects involved in the interactions linking different groups in the locality, we defined the following research question: What are the meanings involved in the relationship between the receiving community and lifestyle migrants in El Convento locality? The main research objective was understanding the relational, sociospatial, and

Table 21.1  El Convento inhabitant’s circumstances, motivations, and length of residence What is your housing situation in El Convento?

First home 76 72.4%

Second home 29 27.6%

Why did you look for residence or housing in El Convento? Familial or territorial Quality of connection Other life 85 8 14 80.2 7.5% 12.3%

How many years have you been living or had a home in El Convento? More than Less than 5 years 5 years 55 52 51.4% 48.6%

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community integration dynamics between El Convento’s traditional inhabitants and amenity migrants. In light of the above, the following specific objectives are derived: (a) Identifying the receiving community stories on the features of community identity, worldviews, and ways of relating and space inhabiting. (b) Inquiring on the meanings and motivations for migrating from urban areas to a particular rural area. (c) Understanding the inner social dynamics in play in El Convento from stories told by the receiving community and amenity migrants. (d) Identifying perspectives regarding rural environmental and sustainability issues. (e) Analyzing values attached to rurality by amenity migrant and traditional inhabitant communities. In order to achieve these objectives, an exploratory, transversal, and descriptive approach was selected. The research used an analytic-comprehensive qualitative methodology design and intentional sampling oriented to probe into the features of the relation between the receiving community and amenity migrants. The primary data collection instrument used were in-depth interviews with both migrants and traditional residents in El Convento, supplemented with collaborative observation instances during neighborhood committee sessions. The analysis was mainly done on the basis of stories told by the participants themselves regarding their experience and perception of their involvement with the locality’s social dynamics. A phenomenological approach was adopted so to better engage with subjective experiences, understood as meanings conferred by a given participant (Finlay, 2014.) The interpretation and data analysis were done following two types of logic: (a) Singularity logic and discourse hermeneutics: interviewee story building regarding their life as a part of the community and its history. (b) Inductive, discourse-transversal, logic: interpretation of the interviewee’s stories. Due to ethical concerns, the names in the story reconstructions in this text were omitted for the sake of the participants’ anonymity.

21.2  Theoretical Background 21.2.1  New Rurality New Rurality has been defined as a theoretical approach that puts forward new forms of dynamic and systemic analysis as to reflect, among other things, undergoing translations in rural environments related to production, environmental concerns, and the sociocultural impact that urban-rural migration has had (Gaudin, 2019; Hidalgo & León, 2021; Ubilla-Bravo, 2020). This approach is an attempt to

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overcome the urban-rural binary, where urbanity is equated to what is considered modern, developed, and centric, relegating rurality to what is considered as agrarian, antiquated, and isolated, providing a basis for understanding the way globalization comes into play in ruralities, such as agricultural multifunctionality and territorial development (Hembuz, 2018; Berardo, 2019). Current studies reveal that an observable population dynamic is rururbanization, defined as a process that occurs due to poor urbanization in rural areas, as a consequence of urban groups relocating into rural spaces motivated by a negative view on their city experience (Ubilla-Bravo, 2020; Jiménez & Campesino, 2018).

21.2.2  Amenity Migration Amenity migration describes people movement from metropoleis to small cities or towns whose ambient or culture is perceived as superior. This movement constitutes a worldwide social trend that has a particular effect on smaller towns or rural areas (González, 2011). Sánchez and González (2011) define migration as abandoning a place of permanent residence to adopt a new place. Lifestyle migrants usually have experienced a given environment as tourists and decided to settle in such a place with that memory in mind. Moss (2006) indicates that the duration of this migration can be either seasonal or fixed. McCarthy (2008) explains that, in broad terms, the ownership of first or second homes in rural areas in regard to their aesthetic and recreational aspects is not a strictly contemporary phenomenon. This sort of migration fluctuation arises in a context of a late-stage capitalist society, one that underscores the search of locations to develop new lifestyles (Zunino et al., 2016). Morales and Rainer (2013) indicate that rurality is no longer regarded as lacking worth due to its remoteness, or even as a developmentally constrained situation, to become a recreational environment that provides peace and quiet, aspects lost to city life. This positive reevaluation of ruralities, this view on nature, has been significant for the emergence of amenity migration (Morales & Rainer, 2013). The migrant population is attracted to the beauty of the wild and the recreational opportunities presented by the outdoors (Stefanick et al., 2012). Rodríguez et al. (2016) illustrate that, in modern times, rurality meant backwardness, whether in terms of communication, offerings, services, or culture, but recently it has taken precedence a view of the rural-urban opposition as a dichotomy on slowness and acceleration, respectively, in the domain of life itself, which gives way to an inverse migration process, one of counterurbanization. Standing out among the causes of amenity migration are the strongly positive assessment of the outdoors, the distinction between culture and leisure, learning, and spirituality (Moss, 2006). An aspect of the human condition translates to a fluid, increasingly moving society, where individuals that participate in it seek to reinvent themselves, frequently in remote locations of residence (Zunino et  al., 2016). Amenity or lifestyle migration is not limited to the movement of people and objects, but also the moving of memories and emotions plays a role here (González, 2011).

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MacAdoo et al. (2019) state that a particularly significant contextual component at play is identity crisis that affects the contemporary world, as it explains the different attempts of reinvention, that of people and of the places where this occurs. There is a significant change in the perception of amenity migrants, as there is a social representation of nature that reconceptualizes the ways of relating between people and desirable nature, and the behaviors and answers triggered in response to it (Rodríguez et al., 2016.) According to Zunino et al. (2016), recent studies carried out in Chile suggest that migrant changes are, generally, deep on a personal, occupational, and familial level. All of these aspects are relevant in the decision of moving, added to a need of leaving behind certain geographical and social experiences of their original location. Lifestyle migration generates space for unfolding currently unexpressed potentialities of moving people. Due to this reason, new residents usually dedicate the earlier part of their stay to personal search (or personal consolidation) or to creation through different crafts (Williams & McIntyre, 2012). Simply put, this means the start of a new life, one regarded as more fulfilling or meaningful, in  locations with abundant aesthetic features, outdoor spaces that enable leisure and artistic and cultural development, and aspects that are at the core of the idea of inhabiting a better place (Zunino et al., 2016). Although economic concerns can be relevant in the decision of moving, imaginary factors are culturally fundamental in the concept’s research, most of which put idyllic representations of rurality as the key stimulating factor (Rainer & Malizia, 2015). The idealization of rurality becomes an icon that explains this migratory phenomenon, one that consequently becomes a driver for urbanization of certain rural locations (Rainer & Malizia, 2015). Regarding mountain regions, González et al. (2009) point out that people move to such places driven by idyllic imagery, but those aspects of their city life are retained during this change. All instances of migration are a result of attracting and repelling forces; among the attractive factors of urban life, readily available services are highlighted, while the repelling ones are related to natural and social environments implicit in the base residential region (Hidalgo et  al., 2009). Likewise, heightened crime and low security levels and increasing urban development also represent repelling factors that entice movement to rural areas. Migrants desire community life and better environments for enjoying family life and protecting the environment (Zunino et al., 2016). The main motivator is based on the idyllic representations of rural areas and the desire of inhabiting spaces regarded as having better environmental and cultural quality, opposed to the ones featured in their original locations (Rainer & Malizia, 2015). The literature points to several features related to amenity migrants. As a general definition, migrants are a group that show high educational level, usually holding academic degrees, which desire to distance themselves from the urban implications of modernity. In other words, they aspire to a different lifestyle (Hidalgo & Zunino, 2012). Benson and O'reilly (2009) describe lifestyle migrants as relatively affluent individuals within no particular age grouping that move on a temporal or permanent basis to places that offer, for different reasons, better quality of life. Zunino et al. (2016) agree in that these migrants are in possession of a particular type of cultural and social capital. González et al. (2009) suggest the term “mirror effect” to explain

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that amenity migration generates a replication of their earlier urban lifestyle but relocated in a natural landscape. In this new setting, images, values, and social forms lived and felt as urban are reiterated. A noticeable reaction of the locals is a search for recognition: earlier inhabitants feel that distinctive attributes, ones that might be considered as belonging to them, are usurped by migrants (MacAdoo et al., 2019). MacAdoo et al. (2019) distinguish two groups in amenity migrants. On one hand, reflexive migrants are conscious of the discomfort their presence creates on earlier residents. In other words, these migrants are thoughtful of the impact they have on the ways of life the locals had until their arrival. On the other hand, dominant migrants value the resources granted by the landscape and the more relaxed lifestyle of the location. Nevertheless, they establish an asymmetrical relationship logic with the traditional inhabitants, one that exacerbates the differences between the different groups that inhabit the territory (MacAdoo et al., 2019). The social differences arising from the encounter with dominants are accompanied by discourses composed by notions that affix certain appraisals on the resident individuals on the basis of the identified groups and any stereotype associated with them. This style of migration, in regard to how it relates to otherness, unfolds narratives connected to colonialist ideologies (MacAdoo et al., 2019).

21.2.3  Environmental Space and Sustainability The migratory phenomenon in discussion is not exempt of consequences for rural areas. On the contrary, they are immeasurable. For example, it is possible that the ecological impact is considerable since, even if this is an understudied subject, there is a noticeable change in the patterns of land and water use by the new owners (McCarthy, 2008). Zunino and Hidalgo (2010) agree in that migration changes the territory morphology, with ecological consequences. Thus, amenity migration frequently leads to environmental damage and subjects the environment to pressure, and it might derive into losing farmable soil (Hidalgo et al., 2009). Besides, in this context, the consequences of both political and social participation are of theoretical and empirical interest due to the potential of triggering a series of alterations, or unbalancing the political, social, and economical domains in a local and regional level (Janoschka, 2013). New inhabitants refuse to lose the benefits provided by their original large urban centers and proceed to pressure local resources to obtain the comfort and quality of life they aspire to, including the availability of technological resources; safer, better equipped conditions; amenities; recreational services; and access to high-level formal education (González et al., 2009). The arrival of migrants creates new demands, ones that municipal authorities must face, such as improvements for road infrastructure, health centers, and educational institutions and the loss of local safety (Hidalgo et al., 2009). If the migrant population possesses certain economical and social capital privileges, they can aspire to

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achieving leadership roles wherever they settle in, which might have a significant impact in the management of local development (Sánchez & González, 2011). All this sets the stage for obtaining a deeper research-based understanding, one designed to ponder the territorial and sociopolitical implications, anticipating environmental consequences and promoting sustainability processes.

21.3  Story Analysis and Discussion The collected field work results have been organized in a three-part presentation. The first and second parts introduce perspectives of traditional and amenity migrant community residents in El Convento locality, their worldviews, and ways of relating and space inhabiting. The third part is an analysis on New Rurality-related results, from a decolonial and environmentalist perspective. Through these, we intend to address the phenomenon from its current complexity, doing away with a migrant/ resident binary, so to introduce new challenges and issues affecting cultural and environmental stewardship in current ruralities. This structure is divided in (1) receiving community and rural cultural worldviews, (2) migrant community and urban-specific notions, and (3) community interaction from a new rurality start point.

21.3.1  Receiving Community and Rural Cultural Worldviews The receiving community interview analysis targeted people who have lived a significant part of their lives in El Convento locality, so as to recover particular worldviews and space-inhabiting understandings. In the receiving community, we found a specific way of relating with the natural environment and its features. The stories emphasize landscape-related factors that describe nature and inhabiting it, bonding to that space, as a way to create identity and as an aspect that gives way to a feeling of belonging. It underscores a story where nature presents itself as a living subject related to its inhabitants: “This land received me, this land will have to carry me” (receiving c.) Meaning in the ways of relating and space inhabiting are derived from their rural stories. The landscape becomes a living presence that participates in daily life: in sowing, labor, and occupational struggles, even as a georeferencing instrument, with a focus on using localization strategies through nature-related references. Their stories show numerous activities related to that sector’s land and nature use, such as salt extraction; fishing; chickpea, wheat, and pea harvesting; and sheep shearing and livestock breeding in general: “We raise livestock and sow oat, I have fruit and native trees... whenever you return, you get crowded by animals” (receiving c.). Considering the geography of El Convento, its rural features, and the sociohistorical context in which the interviewees grew, there is constant reference to an

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experience of distance from the city, thus, to accessibility and connectivity concerns that are at a contrast with urban lifestyles. It shows habits that, instead of relying on instruments such as the telephone and other sorts of technologies, favor others, such as horse riding as a customary method of local travel, locally known as rapelinas: “We used to have a landline up there, in the main house. When I wanted to talk with someone I had to ride all the way up there to do it” (receiving c.) (translated by the authors). Due to geographical aspects of the locality, interpersonal relationships are mainly familial, i.e., social relationships are organized around the notion of those who are thought of as family. This also has roots in sociohistorical factors, such as the Chilean land reform, a later twentieth century social and political process of land redistribution and bestowing of ownership to peasants, fostering familial bonds between specific groups. Worldviews that mainly underscore local ways of life and geography can be observed. The traditional culture of this rural locality developed in accordance with these sociospatial factors, which have a direct incidence on standing local customs and rituals. It is noticeable that El Convento’s community has developed amidst historic processes of colonizing cultural syncretism, as its name, Spanish for “the nunnery,” suggests, and its resulting consequences on the amalgamation of ideological mixing. There is an active presence of Catholic rituals and customs, and its stories reflect the participation of missionaries, priests, Virgin imagery, and a traditional celebration called Santa Rosa de Lima, described by the residents as part of the Church’s traditions. This observance is an annual local custom which involves the participation of most of the locals. Similarly, narrations can be noted that relate to typical games such as rayuela and traditional food that are consistent with the fruits of the land, such as nearby coast fishes. On the other hand, interviewee stories describe economical life views that differ from the notions of progress and development that are the mainstream perspectives in cities and urban areas. They generally describe simple lifestyles, with scarce economic resources, and a less academic sort of education than the one that can be found in urban areas, with a single, elementary-level school locally available. Due to this, and a precocious beginning of occupational life, the receiving community has low ratings of complete schooling. This has an impact in their self-perception as community members, as from self-­ reflection on their status arises a disadvantaged or lesser view of themselves in contrast with the migrant population, which incorporates this idea to personal views on the meaning of knowledge. In other words, the receiving community views itself as being perceived as less knowledgeable and lacking cultural capital. Some of them try to stand their ground, attaching value to other sorts of folk knowledge: “We don’t know much about law, nothing really. We lack study, we really do” (receiving c.) (translated by the authors). Another example: “I went to the school in El Convento, and I got a lot from it, but my grandfather’s teachings were more useful to me. Those teachings are very valuable” (receiving c.) (translated by the authors). We can see a cultural heritage and a rural lifestyle that has tremendous value for the traditional community, thus generating strain and friction with the migrant

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population, which becomes a diverse sociospatial coexistence of worldviews and ways of attributing meaning to space and nature. Consequently, the migration phenomenon under study does have an effect not only on space but also in a sociocultural context, and this is shown in the interviews, which suggests certain estrangement with the locality’s new inhabitants: “People that have little idea on how to live in the country are starting to come, but here, we, the local folk, keep to our customs” (receiving c.) (translated by the authors). This situation unveils a feeling of estrangement from migrants, reflected in stories of distrust on their intentions and motivations for their arrival: “I’ve never heard a good reason. I mean, they sold their houses back there and came here, I guess they’re looking for fresh air or whatever, who can tell? They always say that there’s fresher air in the country” (receiving c.) (translated by the authors). While such estrangement is partly owed to the lack of common gathering spaces, it should be noted that the number of migrants in political and community spaces, such as social organizations, is increasing. The local perception has mixed views in regard to this migrant participation. The negative views show certain wariness on migrant activities: “You know? Maybe they aren’t using the hall just for meetings. I mean, do they do meetings every day? Really?... I don’t know, I just can’t shake off that idea” (receiving c.) (translated by the authors). The negative aspects of participation also derive in stories of imposing behaviors on the migrant’s side, a problematic aspect to be developed in part three.

21.3.2  Migrant Community and Urban-Specific Notions The migrant population interview analysis is partially supported by a recent paper by Monreal et al. (2020) that specifically engages on the findings in the interviews of recently arrived El Convento migrants. In contrast with this text, the aforementioned one focuses on migrant discourses, i.e., new El Convento residents with a mostly urban background. Migrant discourses show some distance from the cultural worldview of the receiving community at El Convento, one which highlights an amenity-based appreciation of nature. Landscapes, social bonding, environment, transport, socioeconomic structures, and nature, among others, are a major constant in the stories, one that presents a positive view on rural lifestyles, expressing a more fulfilling existence in comparison to city-dwelling. While in both groups there is a positive view on the natural landscape, the way in which nature is experienced changes, with the story and perspective taking a more visual and scenic aspect over day-to-day meanings: “You look up and you see the stars, you can see the infinite up there. You don’t get that in (the capital city) Santiago” (migrant c.) (translated by the authors). Similarly, “Peace, the plant life, the starry nights, and the place itself is beautiful, because there’s beautiful plant life, you can see hills sown with wheat and all of that makes this a beautiful place” (migrant c.) (translated by the authors).

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On the other hand, the survey reveals a positive assessment of the sort of isolation related to rural areas, but it should be noted that a significant proportion of the migrant population retain certain urban dynamics, such as exclusive reliance on automobiles for transport, use of connectivity technology such as the Internet, or telecommuting for city-based employment. In other words, while there is a change of residence location as a way to attain an improvement in quality of life, urban customs, rhythms, and views on space persist. Amenity migrants lack a biographical bond with the wild that the receiving community does hold, as the latter has been a constant inhabitant of such environments, which also derives in engaging with this connection with nature as a source of income. Urban customs generally are aligned with capitalist perspectives on development and progress. These are inextricable to the different ways to view and relate with the world, be it from an educational, occupational, or cultural perspective, or otherwise. This is a cause for strain, hindering interactions with the receptive community, as a consequence of views of colonial discourses in regard to knowledge, which instantiate non-conscious dynamics of superiority over traditional, local knowledge. This can be noticed in a claim by the migrant community to the local, receiving organization for the chance of applying for administrative roles while omitting current regulations (which require a period of at least a year of participation) to provide a different approach for this organization’s action: “Here they just play lottery and collect funds for the Christmas food gift basket, but they don’t really concern themselves with the real issues happening here at El Convento” (migrant c.) (translated by the authors). This estrangement, while looking to set common grounds for their ways of life, hampers the development of an agreeable relationship between neighbors.

21.3.3  C  ommunity Interaction from a New Rurality Perspective The last findings analysis part discusses a problematic aspect observed regarding strains in El Convento, which can be approachable under what is currently understood as the New Rurality phenomenon. The different obstacles in integration and the lack of social and local policies that lead the way toward sincere community dialog between the diversity found inside rural spaces act as a warning of consequences related to (1) rural environmental and sustainability issues and (2) the loss of cultural tradition, identities, and history. Current rural spaces and their conflicts form a complex entanglement that must not be simply attributed to a resident/migrant binary. For example, the underlying causes of environmental issues transcend amenity migration and are rooted in the operation of country-wide extractivist neoliberal practices that affect these territories.

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This environmental endangerment is a cause of concern for the many rural localities, with El Convento as one of them, where natural resources extraction and the arrival of large-scale poultry farming has had a significant impact on the local livelihood, reflected in specific stories of rururbanization that show this uneasiness: “Once you have a general level of understanding on environmental issues, it’s astounding to see that, even with the reserve’s existing regulations in place, you can see a facility that is evidently terribly polluting and cruel towards animals” (migrant c.) (translated by the authors). These sorts of rururbanization facilities and practices have had a deleterious effect on local flora and fauna, generate pollution, extract excessive amounts of water, and perform extensive mono-crop farming that aggravate water scarcity, among other consequences, becoming a cause of consternation for some migrants and traditional inhabitants alike. Stories reveal concern for the lack of regulation on environmental and social responsibility on the side of large and medium-sized businesses. It is noticeable that, in the circumstances described by El Convento’s migrants, the inhabitant’s capacity to influence decision-making done by large businesses, large-scale agricultural exploitation, or real-estate projects is limited, but the effect these decisions have in their own quality of life and access to natural resources is considerable in magnitude. This is compounded by the lack of interest these organizations have for the impact their decisions have on the area and its residing community. Even though the aforementioned environmental issues transcend migrant individualities and operate according to entrepreneurial logic, it can also be noticed that some migrant discourses tell of colonial superiority in regard to knowledge and an urbanizing intent through local projects: “Lots of people that are starting to make their homes here would rather... I don’t know, have paved roads, access to the electric grid, and, basically, bring Santiago’s comforts down here” (migrant c.) (translated by the authors). Any role taken by amenity migrants might result in new opportunities but also in an aggravation of latent environmental threats. Its conclusion will depend on the local communities’ ability, both of migrants and traditional residents, to relate and go beyond their differences as to elaborate effective solutions in consonance with their interests, needs, and resources in order to move toward ways of life that are more understanding, respectful, and consistent with their biosocial environment. Lastly, regarding the loss of traditional culture, identity, and history caused by urban lifestyles imposed by some migrants, there is a clear statement on the importance of local traditional culture and historic memory preservation: “It’s important to have these sorts of memories, knowing what makes you alive, because you go through much in life... and also, to be able to share it, someday, to future generations” (receiving c.) (translated by the authors). The collected and analyzed interviews reflect that intercultural coexistence from a place of respect for different types of knowledge in El Convento has been somewhat hindered, which is why the community challenges of local empowerment toward this sort of cultural preservation have become urgent, if the rural disadvantages in this subject are considered.

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21.4  Conclusion This research has allowed the development of a better understanding on the relationship between the receiving community and lifestyle migrants in the El Convento locality and, consequently, defining the relational, sociospatial, and community integration dynamics. Regarding the stories of the receiving community, aspects of the community’s identity, worldviews, and ways of relating and inhabiting spaces were identified, such as (i) a specific way of relating with the natural environment and its peculiarities, (ii) a sense of distance from the city and its consequences in terms of accessibility and connectivity that differ from urban ways of life, (iii) interpersonal relationships organized through familial interconnections, (iv) a tight connection between sociospatial factors and the preservation of community traditions and rituals, (v) economical concepts of life that are different from the notions of progress and development widely held in cities, and (vi) self-concepts of lack of knowledge and cultural capital. After inquiring on the meanings and motivations for migrating from urban areas to a particular rural area, the stories revealed an appreciation of nature from the amenities it can provide, shown through the positive assessment of a rural lifestyle over city-dwelling. This implies a positive view on isolation, even if urban dynamics, particularly those related to transportation and technology, are retained. Also, capitalist views on development and progress derived from colonialist views in regard to knowledge, which promote non-conscious dynamics of superiority over traditional, local knowledge, have been noticed. Considering the abovementioned aspects, in the interaction between the receiving community and amenity migrants, strain and friction emerges, hindering social dynamics represented by the diversity of worldviews on the sociospatial coexistence and the ways of attributing meaning to space and nature, which also affects the sociocultural context, evidenced by certain distance and estrangement between both groups. As MacAdoo et al. (2019) explain, relationships are established from the starting point of the styles assumed by migrants, i.e., reflexives and dominants. While the former demonstrates consciousness of the discomfort their presence creates on earlier residents, the latter establish an asymmetrical relationship logic with the traditional inhabitants, one that exacerbates the differences between the various groups that inhabit the territory. Regarding the perspectives on environmental and rural sustainability issues, a significant aspect of the urban-rural amenity migration is biodiversity and wildlife stewardship. In El Convento, as in many other cases throughout the country, one of the features that encourages migration is the natural, biodiversity-rich landscape, since, as it was pointed out at the beginning of this research, this settlement is located in the Yali wetlands complex, a high-value ecosystemic zone. Regarding this aspect, noted during fieldwork, the research done by Mardones (2018) on the levels of social bonding between multiple actors showing interest or holding influence on the reserve and its buffer zone showed a low density of social relations, a high level of social texture fragmentation on the subject of sectorial interests

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(agriculture, fishing, and tourism, among others), and a significant level of social isolation from the protected area. A part of the explanation points out to the existence of a reserve management model that does not integrate the participation of the vast variety of local and regional actors, particularly those coming from the communities. All of the above direct to the implementation of strategies that promote territorial decision-making engagement through local organizations, which would improve both community social capital and its cohesion, a core issue in the interaction between traditional and migrant residents (Gerhard & Malizia, 2014; Huiliñir-Curio & MacAdoo, 2014). Lastly, in the subject of views on ruralities held by traditional inhabitants and amenity migrants, it is noticed that cultural differentiation and obstacles for integration emerge as analytical categories, suggesting preliminary recommendations on key research areas and action, such as inquiring on rural heritage and sustainable rural development. On the subject of rural heritage, analyzing sociospatial and political dynamics in migratory contexts could lead to valuable findings. An earlier study (Monreal et al., 2020) cautioned about the need of having a concept of rural or natural heritage that allows directing relevant institutions toward generation, promotion, development, and protection of communities and territories that require local- and national-level public policy, fostering decentralization. This concept is not part of the present understanding of heritage; thus, regulatory frameworks that protect these cultural landscapes are not included in any public policy implemented so far, as defined by the articles that constitute current laws on the subject. On the issue of sustainable rural development, it is urgent to advance compliance with the agenda promoted by the United Nations, particularly on the goals of sustainable cities and communities, responsible production and consumption, and life on land. It is necessary to design territorial development plans that promote community and local identity as to reinforce a cohesive social texture, an organization that is critical for building an inclusive and sustainable society. In conclusion, it should be emphasized the urgency of sustaining this type of research due to the emergent yet unexplored nature of this phenomenon. Increasing and deepening our knowledge on the dynamics at play in amenity migration contexts will reveal and give way for the analysis and improvement proposals of local policies, leading to community and social well-being.

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del IV Encuentro Latinoamericano de Extensión y Desarrollo rural y del III Congreso Latinoamericano de Psicología Rural, 6, 33–49. Retrieved from: https://www.uniagraria.edu. co/wp-­content/uploads/2020/10/Revista-­Encuentro-­Latinoamer.-­Extensi%C3%B3n_compressed-­1.pdf Morales, S., & Rainer, G. (2013). Migración por amenidad y turismo: ¿dinámicas globales en el espacio rural? El caso de Tafí del Valle (Tucumán, Argentina). Pasos. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural, 11(4), 571–582. https://doi.org/10.25145/j.pasos.2013.11.051 Moss, L.  A. (Ed.). (2006). The amenity migrants: Seeking and sustaining mountains and their cultures. CABI. https://doi.org/10.1659/mrd.mm008 Nuevo Siglo Consultores. (2016). Plan de Desarrollo Comunal, Informe Final PLADECO Santo Domingo 2016–2020. Retrieved from: https://www.santodomingo.cl/wp-­content/ uploads/2016/10/Nuevo_Plan_de_Desarrollo_Comunal.pdf Rainer, G., & Malizia, M. (2015). En búsqueda de lo rural: Migración de amenidad en los Valles Calchaquíes, Argentina. Journal of Latin American Geography, 14(1), 57–78. https://doi. org/10.1353/lag.2015.0014 Rodríguez, J. C., Reyes, S., & Mandujano, F. (2016). Reconfiguración espacial y modelos de apropiación y uso del territorio en la Patagonia chilena: Migración por cambio de estilo de vida, parques de conservación y economía de la experiencia. Revista de Geografía Norte Grande, 64, 187–206. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-­34022016000200012 Sánchez, L., & González, R. (2011). Destinos turísticos de montaña con migración de amenidad: Implicancias en el desarrollo turístico local  - Caso Caviahue, Argentina. Estudios y Perspectivas en Turismo, 20(2), 288–306. http://www.estudiosenturismo.com.ar/PDF/V20/ N02/v20n2a02.pdf Stefanick, L., González, R., & Pascal, N. S. (2012). En busca del paraíso. Migración por amenidad y la crisis de crecimiento de los pueblos de montaña del oeste canadiense. Estudios y perspectivas en turismo, 21(5), 1114–1141. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260772700_En_busca_del_paraiso_Migracion_por_amenidad_y_la_crisis_de_crecimiento_de_los_pueblos_de_montana_del_oeste_canadiense Stefoni, C., & Stang, F. (2017). La construcción del campo de estudio de las migraciones en Chile: notas de un ejercicio reflexivo y autocrítico. Íconos. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 58, 109–129. https://doi.org/10.17141/iconos.58.2017.2477 Ubilla-Bravo, G. (2020). Rururbanización, suburbanización y reconcentración de la tierra: Efectos espaciales de instrumentos rurales en las áreas periurbanas de Chile. AGER: Revista de Estudios sobre Despoblación y Desarrollo Rural, 28, 75–106. https://doi.org/10.4422/ager.2019.07 Vidal-Abarca, M. R., Suárez, M. L., Figueroa, R., Enríquez, M., García, V., Dominguez, C., & Arce, M. I. (2011). Caracterización hidroquímica del complejo de humedales El Yali, Chile Central. Limnetica, 30(1), 43–58. https://doi.org/10.23818/limn.30.05 Williams, & McIntyre. (2012). Place affinities, lifestyle mobilities, and quality-of-life. In M. Uysal, R. Perdue, & M. J. Sirgy (Eds.), Handbook of tourism and quality-of-life research (pp. 209–231). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­94-­007-­2288-­0_12 Zunino, H., Espinoza, L., & Vallejos, A. (2016). Los migrantes por estilo de vida como agentes de transformación en la Norpatagonia chilena. Revista de Estudios Sociales, 55, 163–176. https:// doi.org/10.7440/res55.2016.11 Zunino, H., & Hidalgo, R. (2010). En busca de la utopía verde: migrantes de amenidad en la comuna de pucón, IX Región de La Araucanía, Chile. Scripta Nova, Revista Electrónica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales, 14(331), 75. Retrieved from: http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn/ sn-­331/sn-­331-­75.htm

Index

A Aberration, 114 Act of the Transitory Constitutional Dispositions, 151 Adolescence, 86 Afro-Brazilian History and Culture, 156 Agrarian reorganization policy, 199 Agri-food system, 192 Agrochemicals, 192 Agroecological fairs, 187 Agroecological Space of Várzea (EAV), 184, 186 Agroecology, 182, 187–189, 191, 193 Agrofood system, 191 Agro-pop, 119, 126 Agrotoxins, 191 Alcohol rural communities community psychology and rural contexts, 46–50 complexity and challenges, 51 epidemiological data, 43 health care and drug use, challenges to, 44–46 health care, investigation and intervention on, 44 Alcohol/drugs in indigenous community age, 102 community diagnosis, 105–107 fermented alcoholic beverages, 100 rounds of conversation, 107–110 social exclusion, 102 sociotechnical objects, 100 Alcohol/drugs in indigenous psychosocial intervention and community insertion, 103–105

Alcohol use, 65–67 Amazonian riverine communities, 294, 295 Amenity migration, 325, 328–330 Analetics, 265 Analytical/propositional movement, 167 Antibacterial gel, 137 Anti-quilombola campaign, 157 Appropriation social technology, 304 Article 68, 152 Artisanal marine fishing community artisanal and industrial fisheries disputes, 170 body aches, 177 ethical-political suffering, 168 international commercial interests, 170 Pure Resort installation process, 174 socio-anthropological studies, 170 socio-environmental conflicts, 172 tourism, 171 tourist complex, 173 wind farms, 174 wind power, 171 work-art, 176, 177 Assembly of the Knowledge Landscape (AKL), 294, 296, 297 radar chart, 297, 298 Associação Brasileira de Psicologia Social (ABRAPSO), 183 Atos das Disposições Constitucionais Transitórias (ADCT), 151 Attitudes, 315, 318, 319 Autonomy, 201, 203–205

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J. F. Leite et al. (eds.), Psychology and Rural Contexts, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82996-4

341

Index

342 B Bacurau, 113–116, 119, 125, 126 Bananal Island, 88 Barker, Roger, 278 Bartering, 138 Basic and High School levels of Brazilian Education, 156 Basic Health Unit, 221 Biodiversity-rich landscape, 336 Biondo, Moacir, 296 Biopolitics, 56 Black Awareness Day, 149 Black Brazilian Front, 149 Black Experimental Theatre, 149 Black population, 60 Black revolt movements, 147 Black rural communities, 153 Black social movements, 149, 155 Bolsa Família Program (BFP), 220 Bom Jesus Municipality (RN), 63 Borderline thinking, 264 Brazilian Black Movement, 150 Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), 173 Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 285 Brazilian land structure, 199 Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), 27 Brazilian Northeast, 281 Brazilian Public Health System, 45 Brazilian quilombola communities, 57 Brazilian reality of care, 72 Brazilian Social Psychology Association, 183 Bullying practices, 123 C Canauanim Community, 99, 106, 110 Canoe Passage, 99 Caxiri, 108 Center for Psychosocial Support– (CAPS-AD), 109 Citizenship, 301 Clinical practice, 80 Cochabamba (Bolivia), 116 Cogitatio natura universalis, 114 Cognitive-instrumental support, 213 Colonialism, 260, 261 Colonialities of power, 262 Coloniality, 261 Coloniality germs, 117

Coloniality of being, 262 Coloniality of power, 261 Colonization of the Americas, 85 Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT), 150 Commercialization, 187 Commission of Inquiry (CPI), 159 Commission of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), 134 Commodities, 116, 118 Communication, 187 Community psychology alcohol, tobacco and drugs use, 46–48 Community Social Psychology (CSP), 294, 295 Community Social Psychology and Public Health, 49 Connectivity technology, 334 Conscientization, 48 Conselho Ultramarino, 148 Conservation psychology, 315 Conservation unit (UC), 172 Constitutional Transitory Dispositions of the 1988 Brazilian Federative Constitution, 144 Contemporary quilombos, 144 Convergence, 196 Coordenação Nacional de Articulação das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas (CONAQ), 154 Cosmology, 125 COVID-19, 110, 189 Cultural Foundation Palmares, 157, 162 Cultural heritage, 332 Culture, 187 D Decolonial attitude, 266 Decoloniality, 260, 263 Decolonial-making, 266 Decolonization, 263 Decolonizing genders, 13 Degree of innovation social technology, 300 Democracy, 300, 301 Democrat Party, 157 Democratic life, 126 Descoloniality, 260, 261 Diabolical visual hallucinations, 120 Dialoguing, 115 Diffusion, 301, 302 Direct Unconstitutionality Action n.º 3.239/2003, 159 Distilled beverages, 102

Index E Ecology knowledge, 181 Economic reorganization, 325 Ecuadorian government, 133 Education, 187 Effectiveness, 305 Emotional-cooperative support, 213 Empowerment, 304 Environmental endangerment, 335 Environmental protection areas (APA), 172 Environmental psychology and rural, 277–281 rural, knowledge about, 284–287 ruralities in, 281–284 Environmental space, 330, 331 Epistemological pragmatism, 181 Espaço Agroecológico da Várzea (EAV), 184 Esperantina (PI) Municipality, 64, 65 Ethical-political suffering, 165, 168–175, 177–179 Ethnopsychiatry, 60 Eurocentered capitalism, 262 European immigration, 118 Extended clinic guideline, 78 F Familiarization, 47 Family Allowance Program, 155 Family farming, 199 Favelas, 149 Federal Attorney General (AGU), 160 Federal Constitution of 1988, 152 Federal Institute of Pernambuco, 185 Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, 185 Federal University of Pernambuco, 185 Federal University of Roraima, 99 Fermented alcoholic beverages, 100 FIOCRUZ researchers, 169 Fishing strategies, 176 Flu dissemination, 132 Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI), 159 G Gaia, 189 Gender and Generational Affairs Coordination (COGER), 249 Gender Coordination of Generational Issues and Social Mobilization (COGEM), 249 GMO-free organisms, 192 Government of Dilma Rousseff, 156

343 Green Revolution, 118 Gross domestic product (GDP), 212 H Health racism and, 55–61 Health promotion, 187 Health Social Determination, 77 Herbs, 137 Heteronormativity, 263 Homosexualities, 260 Human rights, 158, 182, 184, 185, 187, 188, 193 Human-wildlife interactions (HWI), 311–313 psychology contributions to, 315–319 I IBGE’s Censo Agropecuário, 117 Ideas to Stop the End of the World (Ideias para adiar o fim do mundo), 189 Ilha Grande, 173 Imbangalas, 146 INCRA, 158 Indigenous communities, 99, 100, 105, 107, 111 Indigenous Special Sanitary District (DSEI), 88 Indigenous women’s movements academic participation, 245 access to justice, 251 affective and spiritual dimension, 250 Brazilian, 251, 252, 254 collective organizations, 251 communities, 251, 253 cosmopolitics, 247 democratic society, 255 diversity, 243 equal rights, 252 ethnicity, 254 face oppression, 254 feminism, 244, 252 gender, 245, 246, 248 gender inequality, 252 governmental policy decisions, 244 indigenous sexuality, 248 intersectional relationship, 253–254 land demarcation, 244 leaders, 249 leadership, 247 mononaturalism, 247 moral and political system, 254 mother-earth, 250 multiple knowledge, 255 national movement, 249

Index

344 Indigenous women’s movements  (Cont) nonhuman beings, 247 nonindigenous people, 243 organizations, 249 participation, 243 planetary issues, 246 political movements, 253 political organization, 253 race, 245 scientific and nonscientific knowledge, 246 self-determination, 251 sexuality, 246 social psychology, 244 social reality, 246 social rights, 249 traditional people, 248 visibility, 243 vulnerabilities and territorial dispossession, 243 Influenza, 132 Instituto Federal de Pernambuco (IFPE), 185 Interethnic friction, 95, 96 International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), 21 International Labor Organization (ILO), 154 International Monetary Fund, 133 Intervenção psicossocial e compromisso: desafios às políticas públicas, 182 Inỹ population suicide in Bananal Island, 88 complex and multidetermined phenomenon, 87 epidemiological data, 89 etiology, 87 indigenous populations, 87 indigenous, high rates of, 88 interpretation and anthropological intercultural point of view, 91–93 Karajá and Javaé, 90, 91 psychological point of view, contributions from, 93–96 territoriality, 89, 90 J Javaé, 90, 91 K Karajá, 90, 91 Kilombo, 146 Kingdom of Congo, 146 Kite surfing, 171, 174

Knowledge, 200 L Land for work, 200, 201 Land ownership, 143 Land Reform (Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária), 157 Landless Rural Workers Movement, 198 Law on Public Forests Management, 172 Liberal Front Party, 157 Living We, 137 Local Development and Solidarity Economy Project Promotion, 155 Lula da Silva’s project, 155 Luz para Todos, 94 M Mangroves, 171 Map of Conflicts, 169 Matrix support, 73 Matrixing process, 122 Mayan Train, 134 Meaning of work, 196, 197, 199, 202, 204, 205 Measles, 132 Medical anthropology, 60 Medicinal plants, 138, 296, 297 Mental health, 68, 74 alcohol use, and common mental illnesses, 65–67 institutional rhetoric, 77 psychology and rural contexts, research lines in, 11–13 rural zones, challenges, 78–82 Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs National Policy, 158 Mental health promotion, 122 Mental health reception, 75–78 Mental Health specialized support, 81 Mental illnesses, 65–67 Migrant community, 333, 334 Ministry of Education and Culture, 158 Ministry of Health and the General Health Council, 134 Ministry of Social and Agrarian Development, 158 Money, 167 Movimento Negro Unificado (MNU), 150 N National Basic Care policy, 158

Index National Coordination of Black Rural Quilombola Communities Articulation, 154 National Copper Reserve, 160 National Council for the Rights of Women (CNDM), 249 National Development Policy for Traditional Peoples and Communities, 156 National Family Agriculture Program, 155 National Health Council, 216 National Health Foundation, 102 National Indian Foundation, 159, 160 National Indigenous Women’s Health Conferences, 249 National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform, 159 National Institute of Indigenous Languages in Mexico, 134 National Institute of Indigenous Peoples, 134 National Integral Health Policy for Field, 156 National Integrated Health of Black Populations Policy, 156 National Land Reform Program, 162 National Policy for Agroecology and Organic Production, 192 National Policy on Sustainable Development of Peoples and Traditional Communities (PNPCT), 165 National Provisional Black Quilombola Rural Communities Commission, 154 National System of Protected Areas Management (SNUC), 172 Natural vaporizers, 137 Neo dirigisme program, 155 Network articulation, 187 New Rurality, 327, 328 Non-cinematographic setting, 117 Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), 173 Non-instrumentalization of work, 201 Normative Instruction IN n.º 49/2008, 157 Northeastern Tourism Development Program (PRODETUR/NE), 171 O Olho D’agua dos Negros, 62 P Pacha Mama, 189 Parasite, 115, 116 Parasitism aberrant movement, 114

345 Bacuralizing in the Serão and other health rituals, 122–125 Bacuralizing with Nativistas da Serra (see Nativistas da Serra) subjetivities parasitized by the colony, 117–119 Parnaíba, 173 Participatory rural appraisal (PRA), 316 Pastoral Land Commission, 150 Peasant family economy, 200 Pedagogical process, 302, 303 Pedra do Sal (PI), 166, 172–175 PF stand, 187 Política Nacional de Agroecologia e Produção Orgânica (PNAPO), 192 Political dynamics, 337 Political participation, 15 Pontal do Delta, 173 Postcoloniality, 260 Poverty analysis, 213 characteristic of families, 212 childhood, 220 children, 218 cognitive-instrumental support, 213 community, 216, 220 community resilience, 217 cultural environment, 223 daily lives, 220 emotional-cooperative support, 213 empowerment, 222 environmental hazards, 213 experiences of deprivation, 212 family members, 217 family support, 214 financial support, 217, 220 formal support, 219 friendships, 218 gender, 212, 217 government policies, 219 health care, 221 informal network, 216 informal support, 214, 216 method analysis, 215, 216 ethical considerations, 216 field study, 214 instruments, 215, 216 participants, 215 procedures, 215, 216 qualitative study, 214 multidimensional and gender poverty, 214 neighborhood, 219, 222

Index

346 Poverty  (Cont) participants, 216, 217, 221, 222 professional development, 218 protection and prevention, 214 psychosocial implications, 211, 214 public health policies, 221 public policies, 212, 214, 221, 222 quality of life, 214, 222 recognition of inequalities, 213 rural settings, 211, 221, 222 series of problems, 211 sexual division of labor, 212, 218 social policies, 221 social protection, 212 social relationships, 213 social support, 213, 214, 216, 222, 223 source of material and emotional support, 218 structures, 212 Primary Health Care (PHC), 45, 82 Problematization, 47 Productive restructuring, 196 Productivism, 116 Programa Bolsa Família (PBF), 155 Programa Brasil Alfabetizado (PBA), 155 Programa Nacional de Agricultura Familiar (PRONAF), 155 Projeto de Promoção do Desenvolvimento Local e Economia Solidária (PPDLES), 155 Proposed Amendment to Constitution No. 215 (PEC 215), 159 Psychodynamics of work, 197 Psychological science, 3 Psychology, 4 decolonizing process of research, 265–267 in rural contexts mental health reception, 75–78 rural zones, challenges in mental health, 78–82 research lines in, 8 challenges, 16 diversity and complexity, 16 gender relations, 13–15 investigations, 16 mental health, 11, 12 and modes of meaning, 8–10 rural contexts, 8 urban tradition of, 3 Psychosocial attention, 77 Psychosocial phenomenon, 203 Psychosocial praxis, 167 Psychosocial suffering, 56, 60, 68 Public policies, 205

Pure Resort installation process, 174 Q Quilombagem, 144 Quilombo Grande, 147 Quilombola communities, 57, 59 anti-quilombola campaign, 157 Black slavery, 144–146 Black social movements, 149 Black urban movement, 153 Brazilian Black Movement, 150 definition of quilombo, 147 historical recognition line, 156 Kilombo language, 146 labor and pension reforms, 158 land ownership issue, 143 legal proposition, 152 Lula da Silva’s project, 155 macroeconomic policy, 155 parliamentary coup to risk to democratic stances, 159–161 political and institutional violence, 161 public policy, 145 self-declared identity, 145 social lives, 148 struggle for freedom, 148 territories, 148 urban Black movement, 150 Quilombola population, 68 Quilombola territories inequality markers in mental health, 61–63 Bom Jesus Municipality, 63 Esperantina (PI) Municipality, 64, 65 R Racism and health, 55–61 Rapelinas, 332 Receiving community interview analysis, 331–333 Recognition, 204 Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Ceará, 216 Research Program for the SUS (PPSUS), 89 Resident Indigenous Communities, 134 Resistance, 113, 114, 126 Rio Grande do Sul, 117, 118, 122, 125 Riverine community, 295, 304 Roraima, 102, 110, 111 Rosa, João Guimarães, 277 Rural environmental psychology, 284–287

Index Rural Assistance Reference Center (CRAS-­ Rural) of Pentecoste, 214–215 Rural communities, 114–116, 120, 122, 123, 126, 182 alcohol, tobacco and drugs community psychology and rural contexts, 46–50 complexity and challenges, 51 epidemiological data, 43 health care and drug use, challenges to, 44–46 health care, investigation and intervention on, 44 Rural contexts, 4–8 alcohol, tobacco and drugs use, 46–48 racially stigmatized populations, necropolitics, and mental health in mental health needs, alcohol use, and common mental illnesses, 65–67 quilombola territories, inequality markers in mental health, 61–65 racism and health, 55–61 research lines in, 8 challenges, 16 diversity and complexity, 16 gender relations, 13–15 investigations, 16 mental health, 11, 12 and modes of meaning, 8–10 Rural cultural worldviews, 331–333 Rural environmental psychology, 313–315, 319 Rural population density, 326 Rural psychology, 21, 22, 205, 314 challenges, 33 complexity, 32 construction and shaping, 22 in developing and developed world, 28–30 emergence of interest, 24, 25 framed and structured in urban terms, 31 in institutional context, 23, 24 interest and topics of debate in, 25–28 meaning and preliminary characteristics, 32, 33 positivism, guidelines of, 31 underserved communities, 22 Web pages, 23 Rural settlements, 195 agricultural production units, 198 land concentration in Brazil, 198 meaning of work, 205 peoples, 199 policy, 198 public policies, 199

347 rural settlers, 201 struggle process, 198 wage-earning work, 202 Rural socio-environmental, 287 Rural women academic relevance, 228 agency, 229 agricultural production units, 228 community pharmacy, 230 dimension of family work, 228 direct political action, 230 division of labour, 229 family farming contexts, 228 family labour force, 228 field of language, 229 forms of subjectivation, 228 gender studies, 227 integral health, 230 local community healthcare, 228 medicinal plants, 228 movement and reinvention of existence, 237–239 narratives acquisition of machinery, 236 action and political participation, 236 community, 234 cultural configuration, 234 diverse activities, 236 experience-affections, 233 family agriculture, 237 family cultural legacy, 237 family farming, 233, 237 family members, 234 political action, 233, 235, 236 self-government, 235 self-organization systems, 234 self-recognition, 235 social gains, 236 subjectivation process, 236 threats, 237 work organization and management, 236 political actions, 228 practices and knowledge, 227 production of food, 229 professional recognition, 228 rural contexts, 229 self and experience-affections bibliographic sources, 233 collective relations and experiences, 232 community radio programmes, 232 documentary sources, 233 family farming, 232

348 Rural women  (Cont) gender, 231 genealogical approach, 232 identity and recognition, 233 national movement, 233 political action, 230, 231 social and economic conditions, 232 social practices, 231 state movement, 233 transformation, 231 women’s social movements, 232 self-organization, 230 social agency, 227 social practices, 228 subjectivation processes, 227, 229, 232, 233 territory, 228, 233, 234 Rural young, 259 Rural zone challenges, in mental health, 78–82 routes in, 72–75 Ruralities in environmental psychology, 281–284 Rururbanization, 325, 326, 335 S SARS-CoV-2 pandemic consciousness of Us, 138, 139 feeling the Us, 139, 140 living the Us, 137, 138 Mexican indigenous peoples, 132–135 sense of Us, 136 SATECS, 302 Schizophrenia, 67 Secretariat of Indigenous Peoples and Neighborhoods, 134 Self-destructive humanity, 126 Self-management, 116, 122, 203 Self-perception, 332 Sentinel program, 137 Serão, 125 Sexual diversity, 10 Shrimp farming, 172 Smallpox, 132 Social Assistance Policy CRAS, 219 Social bonding, 336 Social contexts, 197 Social dynamics, 336 Social justice, 306 Social movements, 198 Social psychology of work, 197, 202, 203, 206 Social relevance, 305

Index Social remuneration, 196 Social technology appropriation and empowerment, 304 degree of innovation, 300 democracy and citizenship, 300, 301 dialogue between knowledges, 303, 304 diffusion, 301, 302 effectiveness, 305 for health care and enhancement of the way of life, 293, 295 Assembly of the Knowledge Landscape, 296–298 CSP, 294 dimensions and characteristics, 294 methodology, 295, 296 research with traditional peoples and communities, 294 knowledge, science, technology, and innovation, 298, 299 organization and systematization, 299 participatory methodology, 301 pedagogical process, 302, 303 social transformation, 306, 307 sustainability, 305, 306 Social Technology Analysis System (SATECS), 296 Social transformation, 306, 307 Social well-being, 76 Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health (SESAI), 88 Spinoza, 167 State legislations, 152 Structural racism, 118 Suicide in Inỹ population, 86 Bananal Island, 88 complex and multidetermined phenomenon, 87 epidemiological data, 89 etiology, 87 indigenous populations, 87 indigenous, high rates of, 88 interpretation and anthropological intercultural point of view, 91–93 Karajá and Javaé, 90, 91 psychological point of view, contributions from, 93–96 territoriality, 89, 90 Supreme Court, 157 Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), 157 SUS National Humanization Policy, 73 Sustainability, 305, 306, 330, 331 Swine flu, 132

Index T Tequio, 138 Territoriality, 278, 281 suicide, in Inỹ population, 89, 90 Test for Identification of Problems Related to Alcohol Use-AUDIT, 108 Therapeutic Accompaniment (TA), 120 Tijuco, 147 Tobacco, 119–121 work perspectives for, 48–50 Tolerance, 313, 317 Tourism, 170 Traditional knowledge, 296 Traditional medicine, 137 Training process, 122 Transformation-creation dynamic, 195 Transitioning ruralities amenity migration, 328–330 environmental space and sustainability, 330, 331 migrant community and urban-specific notions, 333, 334 New Rurality, 327, 328 new rurality perspective, community interaction from, 334, 335 receiving community interview analysis, 331–333 rural cultural worldviews, 331–333 U Unconstitutionality Direct Action, 157 Unidade Básica de Saúde (Basic Health Unit), 120 Unified Health System, 71 United Nations, 337 Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), 185 Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE), 185 Urban and rural articulations in an agro-­ ecological space aerial view of neighbourhood, 186 agroecological fairs, 187 community psychology, 183 creation of a political and pedagogical stand, 187 dialogue rounds about agroecology, human rights and citizenship, 187

349 dialogues about/with that experience, 188–190 EAV, 184–187 ecology knowledge, 181 exchange between clients and farmers, linking urban and rural contexts, 187 horticulture and production benefits workshops, 187 organizing a seminar, 188 pedagogical perspective, 182 producing and divulging communication material, 188 realization of weekly fairs, 187 research-action, 182 social psychology, 183 visitations to public schools, 188 Urban customs, 334 Urban-specific notions, 333, 334 V Vaccination, 135 Vaccination programs, 134 Vaccines, 134 W Ways of life of young homosexual men, 260 Work for yourself, 201–203, 205 Working for yourself, 201, 203–205 Y Yellow fever, 132 Young homosexual rural men’s ways of life, 259 colonialities of power, knowledge, being, and gender, 260–263 decoloniality and affirmation, 263–265 insurgent and disobedient ways of, 267–271 psychology, decolonizing process of research, 265–267 Z Zona da Mata region, 170