Le identità ibride della natura: pratiche, discorsi, corporeità. Un’etnografia della Reserva Extrativista Quilombo do Frechal (Maranhão, Brasile)

Based on an anti-essentialist and ‘monist’ framework, this thesis deals with the epistemological potentialities of interpretative anthropology in the study of ‘nature’. Influenced by post-structuralist political ecology, this ethnography of a Brazilian Amazonian natural reserve - inhabited by a community of afro-descendents - tries to experiment with theoretical formulations that overcome the traditional ‘nature-culture’ dichotomy. The category ‘hybrid identity’ applied to ‘nature’ suggests its relational and situational character, a by-product of the interrelation between practice and discourse, as well as symbolic and material dimensions. The case-study highlights the coexistance of different paradigmatic configurations of ‘nature’ in the same ethnographic context: a pragmatic nature experienced in everyday life through the incorporated practices of the roça, example of swidden agriculture; a contested political-managerial nature, discursively constructed through the relation between local community and government institution that controls the Reserve; finally, a “magical/spiritual” nature, domain of invisible entities – known as encantados – invoked on occasions of specific sicknesses that harken back to the world of pajelança rituals. Combining an actor-oriented methodology with a reflexive and reflective approach, the thesis also problematizes the logocentric attitude of anthropology in order to valorize the role of researcher’s body in the field work