Os Humanos e o Rio Paraguaçu: Agenciamentos do rio por quilombolas da Baía do Iguape e pelo Estado

Abstract

The main theme of this research is the relationship between the quilombolas communities located at the Baía do Iguape region, in the downstream portion of the Pedra do Cavalo dam, and the Paraguaçu river, which has its entire extension in the interior of Bahia state. This relationship was analyzed by mapping the agency produced by the State and by the quilombolas of Baixo Paraguaçu, on the Paraguaçu river. A multi-situated ethnography was carried out to capture the flow of the processes under study. A portion of the empirical universe is composed by organizational processes that constitute circulation networks of meanings, events, actors, groups and subjectivities. These are mapped by following of mobilizations that are catalyzed by socio-environmental conflicts experienced between the Baixo Paraguaçu communities and the companies located in the region. The other portion of the empirical universe is the Baixo Paraguaçu quilombola communities, where the fieldwork was carried out, Engenho da Ponte, Kaonge, Santiago do Iguape, São Francisco do Paraguaçu and SalaminaPutumuju. The thesis aims to compare the agency of the Paraguaçu river by government and by the quilombolas of Baixo Paraguaçu. The first guiding axis of this research is the relations between the Paraguaçu River and humans. This axis is based on the tracking of the plots which builds up the social relationships between quilombolas fishermen living on Paraguaçu River margins and the Paraguaçu River itself. The second axis is government technologies: on one hand, those carried out by the State in relation to Baixo Paraguaçu quilombola fishermen; and on the other, the government technologies implemented by the State in relation to the Paraguaçu River. The government technologies that manage the river affect the quilombolas directly, as they depend on the river in its material, symbolic and affective dimensions, which is why they mobilize themselves in relation to these technologies in different ways.