Body and Menstruation in the Indigenous Amazonia: a synthesis

Authors

  • Melissa Santana de Oliveira Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
  • Chloe Nahum -Claudel Department of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester
  • Johanna Gonçalves Martin Red del cuidado de la vida y la salud, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Amazonia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9584-2023v31n395367

Keywords:

Menstruation, Indigenous, Ecology, Knowledge, Health

Abstract

This Dossier focuses on the ways menstrual cycle rituals and care practices are being adapted with the biomedicalization of reproductive health, urban migration, and State education. We ask how these changes are being experienced by menstruators themselves and how they are being debated in Amerindian communities, shaping the future of menstruation. The Dossier brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous social anthropologists whose works are discussed in relation to the following themes: menstruation and menstrual suppression as a frontier of contestation in contemporary feminism; the power or danger of blood; menstruation as a mediator of relations between humans and ‘others’; and gendered, intergenerational knowledge transmission. We consider the implications of changing menstrual seclusion and containment practices that imply new risks and opportunities for menstruators in Amazonia and elsewhere.

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Author Biographies

Melissa Santana de Oliveira, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina

Melissa Santana de Oliveira, in her doctorate in Social Anthropology (UFSC, 2016), explored the transformations in the modes of construction and circulation of knowledge among Tukano groups, Alto Rio Negro Indigenous Land, Northwest Amazon. She was a visiting student at the University of Cambridge (2014). In the post-doctorate held at PPGAS/UFSCar, she researched female knowledge related to practices of care in the life cycle (childbirth and menstruation) and in the relationships between women and manioc in gardens and kitchens. She was visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics (2019-2020) and currently is a researcher associated with the Colar - Laboratory of Anthropology of Life, Ecology and Politics (PPGAS/UFAM) and has carried out collaborative research on Garden, regeneration and life among the Baré (Arawak) and Tukano people of the Cuieiras River, Lower Rio Negro, Amazonas .

Chloe Nahum -Claudel, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester

Chloe Nahum-Claudel (chloe.nahum-claudel@manchester.ac.uk) received her doctorate in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge (2012) and she is currently a Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester, UK (since 2022). She previously worked at the University of Cambridge (2012-2017) the London School of Economics (2017-2020), and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (2013-2014). Her research in Brazil’s Amazon region and in highland Papua New Guinea focuses on themes of gender and kinship, ritual and politics, human relations with the environment, and colonial and post-colonial social transformation

Johanna Gonçalves Martin , Red del cuidado de la vida y la salud, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Amazonia

Johanna Gonçalves Martin (johanna.goncalvesmartin@gmail.com) received her doctorate in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge (2016), after a degree in medicine in her home country of Venezuela and further studies in epidemiology. In her work with indigenous Yanomami people in Venezuela, and currently with indigenous communities in the Colombian city of Leticia, she has looked on issues surrounding reproductive care, gender and fertility, focusing on tensions between biomedical and Amazonian ideas around health and well-being. As an affiliated researcher at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (sede Amazonia in Leticia) she is currently involved in projects that explore relationships between humans and non-humans in the care and protection of life and territories, through times of intense transformations such as those entailed by urbanisation

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Published

2023-12-14

How to Cite

Santana de Oliveira, M., Nahum -Claudel, C. ., & Gonçalves Martin , J. . (2023). Body and Menstruation in the Indigenous Amazonia: a synthesis. Revista Estudos Feministas, 31(3). https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9584-2023v31n395367

Issue

Section

Dossiê Corpo e Menstruação na Amazônia Indígena

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