Morro da Conceição: uma etnografia da sociabilidade e do conflito numa metrópole brasileira

Abstract

Morro da Conceição is located in the quarter of Saúde, the port area of Rio de Janeiro, and is an important historical site in the city that currently presents a special case of territorial dispute between a group of residents who self-recognized as Black Community of the Pedra do Sal and a religious order called Venerável Ordem Terceira de São Francisco da Penitência - VOT. Based on ethnographic research done at 2008 year, we tried to understand how were organized networks of sociability among inhabitants in the context of territorial dispute. During the ethnographic excursion, other relationships were being revealed in the everyday practices. From an intricate mesh of sociability that mixed interests and agents, a detailed thread conflict was being discovered. The ethnographic experience allowed us to see that the problems involved in the discourses and projects of revitalization of port area affected the territory, letting observe endeavor to keep its symbolic and spatial diversity. Thus, conflicts appeared as constituting sociability and were mixed in the most usual relations. Analyzing the brazilian context concerning Black Communities is possible to understand the construction of social networks and political representations. The sociability‟s studies revealed the Morro da Conceição as a singular space that transits between being city and being slum .