Noemi Sakiara Miyasaka Porro

Traditional communities in the Brazilian Amazon and the emergence of new political identities: the struggle of the quebradeiras de coco babaçu—babassu breaker women

Global environmental concerns have provided greater visibility to Amazonian traditional communities that have adopted new political identities to struggle for their livelihoods and territories. Through a case study of the quebradeiras de coco babaçu, babassu breaker women, this article offers a critical analysis of the challenges and opportunities involved in these processes. Through analyzing empirical evidence of their strategies of political representation, economic initiatives, a combination of productive and conservation concerns, and forms of accessing land and forest resources, this study addresses the risks of reproduction of relations of domination within their organizations, imposition of agendas by their allies and donors, and dilution of political capital due to the multiplication of social organizations. By confronting these risks, quebradeiras’ organizations have managed to maintain a dynamic process of social learning. Embracing their internal diversity and sustaining a continuous dialogue between external actors and communities, they have been able to manage the tensions which emerged in their socio-political struggle. Quebradeiras have continuously reinvented their traditions, to strengthen new political identities and to bring concrete changes in the cultural geographies of their communities.

Coercive Harmony in Land Acquisition: The Gendered Impact of Corporate “Responsibility” in the Brazilian Amazon

In rural development, womens access to land is recognized as a condition for reaching gender equality. This contribution discusses the tension between this formal recognition and concrete realities in rural development for traditional Amazonian communities by examining large-scale land acquisitions in Brazil, a land-abundant developing country, in the wake of the 2007–08 global food price crises. This study applies anthropological and legal perspectives to analyze problems related to gender inequality caused by large-scale land acquisitions. It argues that inequalities cannot be resolved by simply changing regulations related to traditional communities’ and womens rights and that gender relations and land tenure issues reflect interconnected social arrangements based on historical specificities of traditional communities. Case studies show that land acquisitions by outsiders disrupt these arrangements, despite stated commitments to social and environmental responsibility. Such “coercive harmony” is only unmasked when communities are conscious of their rights, enabling effective use of the legal apparatus.

As catadoras de mangaba no Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos - PAA: um estudo de caso em Sergipe¹

This article is about the experience of a group of women in the commercialization of gathered wild fruits through the governmental Food Purchase Program (PAA) in the Brazilian State of Sergipe. The analytical framework is associated to the debate on poverty and specific public policies for traditional communities in rural areas. The women hold a collective identity as the mangaba gatherers, based on their use of common pool resources with low environmental impact. They mobilize themselves through the MCM – Movimento das Catadoras de Mangaba, Mangaba Gatherer Women s Movement. Although they have recently been recognized as having specific legal rights, they are experiencing the dwindling of the resources they gather, as well as difficulties in commercialization of the fruits due to their seasonality and the unpredictability of access. The research was carried out between 2008 and 2011 and involved direct and participant observations and open-ended interviews. The main results show that the PAA has contributed to increased income, consumption and self-esteem. There was a re-arrangement in their way of participating in the program, meanwhile some of their traditional practices were relegated. The program rules were re-signified and adapted locally. While growing solidarity has been observed among the gatherers, competition for the fruits has also increased.

Mobilidade de camponeses entre assentamentos de reforma agrária: territorialidades em cheque no desenvolvimento local da Transamazônica, Pará, Brasil

O artigo trata do papel da mobilidade espacial de familias camponesas entre assentamentos da chamada reforma agraria no desenvolvimento local da regiao Transamazonica, Estado do Para. A analise das praticas e narrativas de sujeitos locais no contexto de politicas publicas fundiarias e ambientais evidencia que essa execucao vigente nao se coaduna com os processos de territorializacao concebidos pelos chamados beneficiarios de reforma agraria.

Babaçu livre e queijo serrano: histórias de resistência à legalização da violação a conhecimentos tradicionais

Este artigo analisa experiencias protagonizadas por comunidades cujos modos de vida geram e se sustentam em conhecimentos tradicionais em face de tentativas de implementacao de um regime global de propriedade intelectual. Estudos de caso sobre quebradeiras de coco babacu, no estado do Maranhao, e produtores de queijo serrano, no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, revelam significados da tradicao implicita no conhecimento que se pretende proteger. Dados empiricos, analisados juridica e antropologicamente, evidenciam, apesar de aparente progresso na legislacao, ameacas a multiplas dimensoes de modos de vida fundados em territorios tradicionais. Argumenta-se que, sem a imediata e integral aplicacao da Convencao OIT 169, invertem-se os efeitos da incorporacao de convencoes internacionais no ordenamento juridico nacional, a exemplo da Convencao da Diversidade Biologica. Conclui-se que as comunidades tradicionais resistem a ilegal apropriacao de seus conhecimentos, enquanto setores privados neles interessados utilizam-se do estado de direito para legalizar sua pilhagem.