Rodeio, Cavalgada e Cotidiano : Women and Girls in Contemporary Brazilian Equestrian Communities.

In the late 1990s, girls and women who were part of southern Brazilian equestrian communities staked their claims as participants in local and regional gaucho (campeiro) rodeos which, although functioning as integrative community festivities, had relegated women to a limited set of cultural and supporting (non-sporting) activities. Since then, women of all ages have gained entrance, as well as increasingly visibility and recognition, within campeiro rodeo, alongside other growing roles (notably, as equine veterinarians, but also as horse trainers or breeders, riding instructors, agronomists and agricultural technicians, and equine-assisted therapies practitioners) in the Brazilian equestrian world. I examine these changes in gender relations at the meso- (equine industry) and micro (local community) levels, looking specifically at a recent cultural wave of “all-women’s rides”. As participant-observer of equestrienne communities of practice, I strive to capture the embodied subjectivities of women and girls who take part in them. The visual anthropology component of my work uses images to document aspects of (female) human/ (equine) animal embodied interactions (or “mutual corporealities” (Birke and Brandt,2009). My theoretical and methodological framework brings references and concerns from the relatively new field of Human-Animal Studies into conversation with other sources and fields of contemporary sociology/social theory (gender studies, cultural studies, sociology of sport, etc.).