BIOGRAPHICAL FEMALE BODY

Links between memory, identity, gender and heritage

Abstract

This work is part of my doctoral research in Cultural Heritage and Society. The thesis aims to address the biographical body of women and cultural heritage. The concept of the biographical body developed by Josso (2012) understands the body as part of the narrative of life, since it is from the body that one experiences being-in-the-world. Thus, the body is also a carrier of memory and identity, since these concepts are connected. Understanding that the socio-historical constructions of gender roles place women in a situation of vulnerability in relation to men, especially black women, insofar as these roles operate as mechanisms of power in patriarchy, aiming to discipline women's bodies and the ways in which they should be-in-the-world, meaning violence that is sometimes subtle - the beauty and body standards imposed on women; the ways they behave; the way they sit; what they wear; the places they go; or even explicit violence that goes as far as femicide. Considering that patriarchy is embedded in the social and cultural sphere, since heritage is a vector of memory and identity, it can also operate in this dynamic of gender inequality. Therefore, this article will articulate initial reflections on these concepts and their relationships, which will later be further developed in the doctoral thesis on Cultural Heritage and Society.