Do barro de A caverna ao cobertor mostardeiro : o artesanato a partir de uma perspectiva territorial.

Abstract

The theme of this research focuses on traditional handicraft while product of popular culture, apprehending it as a result of a context that is not isolated, but no less it stops being specific; that is: with characteristics that are proper and that make the handicraft product particular before the global. This specific context is understood as territory, an appropriate space by social actors and defined by relations of power. The territory disposes of a set of material and immaterial elements denominated territorial capital, which rebound in all their dynamics. From this perspective, in this dissertation we seek to comprehend how components of territorial capital rebound in handicraft production, having as locus chosen for the research the territory of production of cobertor mostardeiro (mostardeiro blanket) a traditional handicraft proper of the municipality of Mostardas, north coast of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. As theoretical-methodological contribution, we drew on the cultural studies, seeking to break with the romanticism that isolates the handicraft. Thus, we proposed the construction of an analytical protocol, from a communicational approach, which problematizes the relations between popular culture (traditional handicraft) and territory (territorial capital). For this, the traditional handicraft, while complex and complete process of communication, was analyzed here in a circuit of production and consumption of material and symbolic forms, from the mediation theory of Jesús Martín-Barbero (2013), concentrating the analysis on the moments and the components of territorial capital considered more relevant in the comprehension of traditional handicraft production. The issues addressed throughout this dissertation were thought from observation, seeking to identify the meanings that surround the production of this handicraft; informal and semi-structured interview with the subjects that experience the reality under analysis; bibliographic research, seeking to be in contact with all published material in relation to the studied theme; documentary research performed in historical collection of the municipality and in legislation, newspaper reports and photographs. Besides that, in a complementary way, we sought information on social network Facebook and blogs, taking them as research sources of public character. Comprehending the handicraft through the components of territorial capital is to admit that the artisan of cobertor mostardeiro is producer of culture, although she is in negotiation and in conflict with the hegemonic sectors. Thus, it is reinforced the understanding that the popular culture cannot be treated as if it was an autonomous field, and that the territorial capital is demarcated by a traditional experience, which particularizes a territory, but does not inhibit its reconfigurations.