O extrativismo de mangaba é “trabalho de mulher”?: duas situações empíricas no Nordeste e Norte do Brasil

Abstract

Despite recent academic investments, the work of the women is not very well known yet, as the insistent initiatives of emphasizing its importance for their lives prove to be, so they become more visible and valued. This little knowledge agrees with the fact that the habitual categories of economical and social analysis, for a long time, either omitted or denied female activities, or associated them exclusively to a particular universe called “the works of the women”, marked by a large number stereotypes which escamoteiam socially acquired capacities. The aim of this article is to analyze the social construction of the notion of “work of women” from the refl ection of the two empirical situations of the Extractivism of mangaba practiced, predominantly, by the women of the North and Northeast of Brazil. The research was made in 2007, in the towns of Indiaroba/SE (Village of Pontal) and in Salvaterra/PA (Marajó Island). Besides the distance and the social-cultural particularities, there is still the idea that the extractivism of mangaba is “work of women”. What are the meanings attributed to this expression in so different contexts?