Famílias chefiadas por mulheres no bairro do benguí

Abstract

This work is part of a more extensive research, to which I am linked, on "Family and Productive Units in the Amazon". According to the research objectives, the itinerancy field/city/countryside is part of the Amazonian reality due to several factors, among them, the desire for a better life and the search for urban equipment. Whether or not they stay in the city also depends on many other factors, such as social and individual adaptation, and, obviously, the possibility of employment. Thus, according to the preliminary interviews, it was observed that the Benguí neighborhood presents characteristics of great spatial mobility, a high rate of violence, and poverty. It is also noted that the family is going through transformations, either in the reformulation of its concepts, principles and values, or in its insertion in the social and community framework. We see that the urbanization of the region is playing a role in this transformation of family forms, manufacturing other types of families. In the case of Bengui we observe that there is a considerable number of families headed by women, where the man often moves from one house to another, giving or not his share of financial contribution during his stay. The works that focus on this theme (Dias 1984, Woortmann 1987) shed light on this situation in other localities and time in Brazil. In Belém, the frequency of itinerancy and the insecurity of men's work, combined with the cultural practice of men with many women (D'Incao 1995), may be characteristic of a region that has a particular development.