De Quilombos a quilombolas: notas sobre um processo histórico-etnográfico

Abstract

This paper seeks to demonstrate, through a brief bibliographical discussion, that despite the need to acknowledge the historical definition of quilombo, this category does not define adequately remanescentes de quilombo or quilombolas, because these concepts refer to a self-recognition process involving ethnic groups that mobilize this ethnicity towards achievements, such as the final possession of their social territory. The category remanescente de quilombos is, therefore, a construction that only reaches its fullness in the interface of anthropological, legal and native discourses, including also social and political movement's expressions. The ethnographic practice is needed for the correct comprehension of this category, and this practice should be taken as the privileged moment in which the quilombo can be understood not only as an externally defined place - in other words, geographically determined, historically built and (maybe) documented or an archaeological finding - but also as a living entity.