Campesinato e abastecimento na Zona Bragantina (1880–1960)

Abstract

Historically constituted by free workers who had occupied the territory nearby Bragança, the bragantino peasantry contributed for the supplying of commercial circuits and developed industrial activities in Para. The theoretical and conceptual articulation that based the interpretation of transformations on the Zona Bragantina is placed in a critical perspective, whose conceptions deal with categories as dynamic elements, therefore inserted in a historical and materialist perspective. It criticizes the interpretations on the responsibility attributed to the peasantry for the ambient degradation, Para’s supplying crisis and for the agricultural production frequently assigned as declining, always placing the field in relation to the city. Bragantina’s occupation and expansion was observed, as well as the transformations which passed the road of Bragança and the contribution of producing nuclei created by the colonies. Even though the excluding character of the imperial government actions, during the republican phase the peasantry passed through social transformation processes, whose critical perspective put it back in history as responsible for part of Amazonia’s supplying. In consequence of the shortening of fallow period, the peasants made a technical change that evidences its sensitivity to the markets. Thus, the production of diverse foodstuffs and other products for the agro industry based its reproductive processes, guided not only for the attendance of family needs but also for the attendance of market demands. In conclusion, the Zona Bragantina, although has been received capitalists investments, still configures itself which a peasant frontier and, ultimately, the declining argument would be replaced by diversity.