WATERS AND MOVEMENTS: Women, Politics and Territory among the Mendonça Potiguara of Rio Grande do Norte
Water, women, Mendonça Potiguara, Rio Grande do Norte, indigenous peoples of the northeast Brazil
The present doctoral research deals with women, politics and the environment, in the context of indigenous peoples in the State of Rio Grande do Norte (RN), which corresponds to forms of relationship, conflicts and demands for water, based on the ethnographic study in the Mendonça Territory, in times of the Covid-19 pandemic. The objective is to problematize the Mendonça's perceptions and ways of relating to water and how their narratives and practices mediate processes of identity, ethnicity, organization, alliance, mediation and negotiation in the context of ethnic emergence and political mobilizations of the indigenous peoples of RN. In order to do so, the work invests in the description of the landscape of the Mendonça Territory, moving on to the places that make up specific territorialities, and then entering the issue of water as a vital element that promotes hydrosocial relations through the struggle and territorial resistance carried out by indigenous women.