Território de pesca no estuário marajoara: comunidades quilombolas, águas de trabalho e conflito no município de Salvaterra (Pará).

Abstract

This study is about groups of traditional fishermen working in a non-industrial scale, either for their own subsistence or for trading. Such groups come from rural black communities, in Salvaterra, located within the municipality boundaries of Salvaterra itself, and the municipality of Soure, both in the Island of Marajó, State of Pará, Brazil. However, the groups’ fishing territory is located beyond such limits, in an environment of social reproduction, identified by the fishermen as a space for common use. Through techniques such as oral history and housing count, we found out that fishing is the main activity for communities like Caldeirão, Mangueiras, Barro Alto, and Pau Furado. However, this activity – which is the daily source of food for other nine communities, besides those already mentioned – has been restrained by a local oligarchy, whose members forbid family groups to have access to rivers and lakes. We understand that this situation generates a lot of conflict, inhibiting and causing damages to a significant number of people in the rural black group living in Salvaterra (around 42.9 percent). This work is based on ethno development theories in order to state that situations like this must be identified and recognized by the public.