https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ Theses Digitisation: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/research/enlighten/theses/digitisation/ This is a digitised version of the original print thesis. Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] The Rhetoric of Collectivity: An Anthropological Examination of a Brazilian Favela Miesbeth Knottenbelt Doctor of Philosophy Institute of Latin American Studies University of Glasgow May 1991 ©Knottenbelt 1991 ProQuest Number: 10987063 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10987063 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 A bstract This research is based on one year of anthropological fieldwork in a well-established vertical shantytown with a population of around 200,000 located between the two most affluent residential neighbourhoods in Rio de Janeiro. The thesis addresses the question of the political organisation of this shantytown’s population and aims to understand this question by looking at how these people are divided among themselves at all levels of organisation. Chapter 1 provides the context. It portrays the infrastructural development of the shantytown and investigates its population’s economic well-being, and traces the significance of both of these factors for its political potential. The remainder of the thesis consists of two parts. In the first part (Chapters 2-4) I examine what organisational principles are at work at local levels and the degree to which they can ultimately play a part in group formation. The analysis starts with an examination of these principles at the most local level (i.e. in the household) and then expands to wider levels. Thus Chapter 2 sets out the form kinship relations take in the household, and traces their importance in larger group formations. Chapter 3 examines relations between neighbours and the degree to which locality and regionality is articulated. Chapter 4 looks at the shantytown as a whole, questioning to what extent and in what ways its population expresses itself as a social unit, a “community”. This chapter also explores other potential principles on which this population bases its identity (e.g. rural associations, skin colour, religious persuasion), the degree to which these are articulated and can serve as a basis of mobilisation. The first part of the thesis provides a basis for the second part (Chapters 5-8), which examines in detail the development and dynamics of political activity in the shantytown. Abstract iii The form that the political activity takes depends partly on the resource struc­ ture and the wider national political context. These are developed in the first two historical chapters of the second part. The purpose of these chapters is to identify the major developments in national politics at federal and local level, the policies that governing bodies implemented which directly affected this shantytown pop­ ulation, and how these shaped the power structure in the shantytown. Chapter 5 develops the story during the repressive years, while Chapter 6 takes it from there. The emphasis of the thesis falls on the final two chapters, which portray the workings of the political activities in the shantytown at the time of fieldwork, drawing together all previous chapters. The first of these examines in detail how leadership in action groups is established and maintained, it spells out the organ­ isational models according to which they operate, and the relations between the groups. The problematic nature of relations with the political party structure and the resident drug traffickers causes them to be articulated in a different hidden sphere. Their examination forms the subject of a separate last chapter. The picture that emerges is one of constantly changing group formations that exist as a result of temporary individually-motivated interests at all levels. Locally, kinship, locality and other sources of identity are not well articulated as organising principles. For example, in the case of kinship, residential units are largely formed on the basis of primary kin relations, though in actuality, their composition is easily transformed and there is little evidence of larger kinship networks. Similarly, in the case of locality, there are action groups which present themselves as local neighbourhood centres, but these draw political support from all parts of the shantytown and their leaders cannot be said to represent their own neighbourhood. These principles do not by themselves account for group formation at higher levels of shantytown organisation and they do not play a significant part in mobilisation for action group activity. The resulting sense of flexibility and division is reflected in the action groups which are highly competitive, short-lasting affairs. This is partty because resources are scarce, short-termed and unreliable and individuals rise and fall in response to these initiatives. The same individuals monopolise these resources and act Abstract iv as patrons who gather around them a temporary clientele. A case study of two particular groups shows that there is a contradiction between the groups’ ideals (largely defined by the national political context) as formulated in the language of their activists, on the one hand, and their actual workings (a clear example of the old-style patronage politics, criticised in the national rhetoric) on the other hand. This contradiction is particularly apparent in the groups’ relationships with the political party structure and the drug traffickers. These are therefore denied in public, yet both are important elements in the shantytown’s power structure. The resulting picture is a complex one in which different organisational principles interrelate and play differing parts. V Acknowledgements I owe thanks to many people, without whose support this thesis would not have been possible. In Brazil my good friends Alda and Teotonio Ferreira, Marines Pio Gomes and Chico and Iara Bazelmans provided me with everything I asked for and more, with the Brazilian hospitality to which I discovered no limits. I also owe a lot to my friends Mariluci da Silva Pinheiro, Cristiano Camerman, Gilmar and Rosimar de Souza Ribeiro, and Claudio and Pascale Charlier, who allowed me to share their experiences as Brazilian social workers. Many long conversations with them provided me with a lot of food for thought and helped me understand some of the complex bureaucratic structure in which it all takes place. Thanks also to IBRADES and IUPERJ for the use of their libraries especially. My fieldwork would not have been possible with the generous help, patience and friendship of many people in Rocinha. I would like to mention especially: my good neighbours Dona Joselita and Seu Joaqui'm, Silvio and Luciana, Seu Alberto and Salete; my friends from ASPA Creche (especially Clotilde, Zilda, Rita and Antonio, Nell and Maria); from the other ASPA groups (especially Marlucia, Arlinda, Marta and Vera); from AM ABB, Robertinho and Martins; from the Methodista, Dona Nancy and the Pastor and all the tias (especially Regina and Suelf); from Imperio da Gavea, especially Gere and Lua; from Rua Dois, especially Sergio and Fabio; from Alegria das Criangas, Francisca, Gongalinha, Anita and Aurelio; from Rua Um, especially, Marli and Antonia. I dedicate this thesis to them, and to all small people like them whose lives are a daily struggle often fought in silence. They are overlooked or ignored by the powerful who make decisions that affect them directly and often adversely. I wrote this thesis in the hope that I can at least remind these decision-makers of their existence. There were many people (especially from outside Rocinha) whose views I didn’t always agree with, but were very kind to me in their own ways. From these I would like to mention especially Marta, some members of the Residents Association of Sao Conrado, Capitao Orizon, staff of Escola Paula Brito, Light, CEDAE, SMDS, LBA, DEC, IPLANRIO, CEHAB and Seu Joel from Vila Canoa. There are many others who supported me during my fieldwork whose names I have forgotten to mention or never learned. Not only did they teach me all I know about Rocinha, I owe to them a lot more than I can even express. I thank the ESRC for funding the first three years of my research, and Peter Flynn for arranging it for me and taking me on. In Glasgow University, I thank the rest of the people of the Institute of Latin American Studies also for their support, but especially my supervisor, Simon Mitchell, for the time and encouragement he gave me and, more importantly, for teaching me to do anthropological research. In Edinburgh University, I thank the people in the Department of Social An­ thropology for generously allowing me the use of their facilities and participation in Departmental activities, and I would like to thank my friends and fellow post­ graduates there, especially Anne Marie Bostyn, who counselled me through diffi­ cult times.