The oddments of mardina

Abstract

“Nossas Senhoras” is a book of oddments that narrates some of the journeys of Mardina, a character who is the result of the history of three generations of seamstresses, wanderers, and storytellers. The book was produced during the Covid-19 pandemic and is one of the material outcomes of the autoethnographic process entitled “entre o grito e o respiro, costuro em minhas mãos rotas de fuga: aprendizagens em antropologia" ("between the scream and the breath, I stitch escape routes in my hands: learnings in anthropology") (Guimarães, 2022), which explores sexual violence, racism, racialization, and training in Anthropology. The book’s playful nature echoes the possibilities of multiple simultaneous narratives, where violence is not the final story for women. It expresses memories from Mardina’s path, the learnings she experienced with other women, and the slow insistence of the exhausting acts of trying.