A Middle-of-Nowhere Somewhere

Abstract

The chapter begins with a story detailing the ethnographer’s initial encounter with a community of bohemians on which the ethnography centers. It then reveals the problem underpinning the entire book: Teresina, Brazil’s location in the poorest state in the nation’s poorest region, renders it marginal at best within the national imaginary. When Teresina’s population growth is met with economic prosperity, status performances among the city’s large and expanding middle class seem to only exacerbate residents’ desires to establish a sense of place and belonging. The chapter introduces the book’s concept of be-longing in the world at home—being both local and cosmopolitan in a city like Teresina. The chapter concludes with explanations about fieldwork, questions of representation, and the structure of the book.