Quero seguir viagem sem pai nem mãe, nem amante tutelar: uma etnografia sobre solteiras de classe média que moram sozinhas

Abstract

This thesis is the result of ethnographic work that arises both from a practical research experience and from a reflective and theoretical process around the axes: female singleness, family, home and kinship in the Amazon. Initially, it addresses singleness anchored in a discussion of female autonomy, but, during the fieldwork and writing of the thesis, this understanding expanded to include family issues, kinship, gender relations and generations. Singleness and female autonomy are no longer central themes and the focus has shifted from an approach to the feminist perspective to an anthropological analysis that also considers singleness as an issue in family studies with an emphasis on maintaining family ties. This discussion also culminated in the importance of the native category “Home” for understanding the relationship between singleness and family. This is an ethnography in which the aim is to understand the singleness of women who have decided to leave or have already left their parents' house to live alone without ever having experienced a consensual union or marriage and what are the family moralities surrounding this process. This work addresses the relationship between family, marriage and singleness, focusing on these single middle-class women in the city of Manaus. Women with access to particular logics, which bring them closer to bourgeois logics about home, housing and domestic work in a very particular metropolitan region that is the Amazon. By looking at this specific group, this thesis aims to contribute by providing opportunities for comparisons between the moral logics and organizations of middle-class families in contrast to the moral logics and organizations of families and women from popular groups. Finally, we hope that this thesis will contribute to the debate on singleness in social anthropology, providing new perspectives and reflections on an increasingly relevant topic in the contemporary world.