The transformations in labor and familial relations between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the Ribeira Valley in São Paulo - Brazil

Abstract

The present International Internship Project aims at deepening and placing under scrutiny of the academic community the formulations up to now developed in my Ph.D. studies about the formation of labor and its reverse (the vagabundo, or "tramp," and the obnubilated form of the feminine) in the Ribeira Valley region in São Paulo. I will ground my work on the studies elaborated up to the point of my doctoral Qualifying Examination. I have focused on understanding the relations established between the Black communities and local traders and farmers, from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. In order to do so, my work will be supervised by Professor Sidney Chalhoub. He is a specialist on the subject of the mobility of labor in the slavery and post-abolition periods in Brazil (see CHALHOUB, 2011, 2012a and 2012b) and teaches at the History Department and the Afro-Latin American Research Institute (ALARI), both subordinated to Harvard University. Thus, both the research themes of my supervisor and, chiefly, the meetings and debates offered by and at the ALARI, will contribute to the in-depth development of my final Ph.D. studies. In view of what I present, the project proposed here is justified as an opportunity for the submission to and debate with Professor Chalhoub, the academic community based in the ALARI and at Harvard University, regarding the results I have elaborated to date. These three spheres of dialogue will encourage me to develop further my studies about slavery and mobility of labor in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Brazil; the critical comparison of my research with other ones developed at and/or presented within the scope of the ALARI and Harvard University; and the reformulation, if necessary, of my hypotheses. Such gains will be incorporated into the revision of my Ph.D. Qualifying Examination text and subsequent submission to the Mark Claster Mamolen Dissertation Workshop, and into the production of a final synthesis essay grounded on questions raised in the course of my internship, critically compared with my own research themes in the doctoral studies. (AU)