Gender and the semiotics of political visibility in the Brazilian northeast

This article analyzes how local narratives on political leadership in Northeast Brazil make use of gender ideologies. Previous research, and ethnographic work, suggests that there is a deep contradiction between women's central roles in local social and economic activities, and the ways in which they are depicted in dominant narratives. Through the analysis of ethnographic material and the case of the displaced community of Jaguaribara, we argue that local political rituals function as meaning-making practices that affect the political visibility of women, through the manipulation of local gender ideologies and local perceptions of society and the environment. We further suggest that awareness of such a state of affairs and the pragmatic strategic use of cultural prescriptions do not grant a group political visibility, if this group does not find ways to act upon the semiotic configuration of the context where social actions unfold; that is, upon dominant local interpretive genres.

Keywords

• gender,
• politics,
• visibility,
• semiotics,
• Northeast Brazil