Abstracts Womens Studies

Vidas e mortes em trabalhos: um estudo antropológico a partir de um presídio feminino

by Juliana Deprá Cuozzo

This is an ethnographic thesis. In it, the life stories of Débora, Dona Maria and Helena – the three main interlocutors of this study – are knitted, considering the closed regime of serving time for each of them. These are stories full of life, death, and pain. The purpose of this study is to understand the meanings of works and projects – activities available to some women prisoners in the Madre Pelletier Female Penitentiary (PFMP), located in Porto Alegre (RS) – in the life of each of the three main interlocutors of this research. The life stories were knitted in this study having as pivot works or projects that women participated in the Penitentiary; the latter is understood as a heterogeneous space, and therefore, the way in which it is defined is provisional. It is understood that these stories – knitted over the years by the chain of many stories narrated by women – make up indepth interviews; participant observation; daily life at the Penitentiary; silences; texts written by one of the interlocutors, and many other dimensions of fieldwork. From these stories, it was possible to understand the meaning of activities in these women's lives. The knitting of these meanings established relationships and limits between the “inside” and the “outside” of the Penitentiary for each of them. The formulation of these relationships and limits may contribute to a perspective of studies on prisons interested and attentive to the intertwining of the “inside” and “outside” of these institutions and what they produce in people's lives.