Estudo das práticas de mutirão: transformações no conhecimento em comunidades tradicionais do Vale do Mearim, Estado do Maranhão

Abstract

The mutirao, viewed as set of social practices developed by the peasant families from São Manoel, brings itself the maintenance of social relations expressed in actions of cooperation and help based in principles of reciprocity and solidarity. These practices contributed for that the studied group build new knowledge and transform your reality. This study cross about mutirao practices, emphasizing the transformations in the knowledge of traditional communities from Valley Mearim, Maranhão state. The study object is inserted in discussions about family farming and extractivism in fields of babaçu palm occurrence (Attalea speciosa), and will be treated in the village of São Manoel, municipality of Lago do Junco, microregion of Médio Mearim, Maranhão State. Highlights are the changes in the intrafamily and interfamily work relations and the importance of local collective organization for the maintenance of social community relations. It is observed that even in the face of great social transformations imposed by a hegemonic economic model, the community maintains an interaction that allows the renovation of cooperation activities and help. Studies already indicated, since the decade of 50, the trend of the disappearance of the practices referred as mutirao, however, observed that in the village of São Manoel, these practices have been renewed even with the changes in the socioeconomic organization of families. In this case study aimed to describe and discuss the practices of mutirao both in current times and the past history of the place, bearing in consideration the economic, politic and cultural aspects. Sought to understand how and why this social group, subordinate to hegemonic economic and social model, maintains and renews, through its intrafamily and interfamily relationships, the practice of mutirao. It is worth mentioning that the process of learning resulting from praxis has contributed to the political organization, the construction of spaces of common use and consolidation of the social visibility politics of São Manoel.