The time and hour of peasant women: social movements, identity and health in the State of Maranhão (a Hirschmanian tale)

Abstract

This paper discusses the growth of a social movement in the backlands of Brazil and its implications for the progress of community health care. The peasant population of the State of Maranhão traditionally earned money by selling the oil-rich kernels of nuts from babassu palm trees to local traders, or exchanging them for hard-to-find consumer items. The peasants historically had free access to this practically inexhaustible resource, but recent capital accumulation projects closed their territory and prevented the peasants from picking the babassu nuts. The landowners’ attitude created widespread resentment among the women known as quebradeiras (nut crackers), responsible for the hard manual work of cracking, separating, and removing the kernels from the nuts. This important work performed by the women in this society has enabled their political mobilization. “Getting ahead collectively”, as Albert O. Hirschman reminds us, may involve quite unpredictable results. Having begun as a social movement with a precise goal – free access to the babassu trees in the landowner’s territory – the struggle of Maranhão’s peasant women emerged in the last decade as a struggle for broader citizenship rights, and the right to health became an important point on their agenda.