Turismo comunitário como sistema de dádivas na Amazônia: uma aliança entre reciprocidade e autonomia na gestão local do turismo em Anã e Coroca, Santarém, PA.

Abstract

This investigation analyzed how the social relations woven between the endogenous social agents of the Anã and Coroca communities (Santarém / PA) are structured, and the relationships they establish with exogenous agents for the tourism offer, in order to identify the function of autonomy community in tourist initiatives led by local populations. The field research was guided by the assumptions of anthropological ethnography, in three different periods of immersion in the communities microcosms and macrocosm formed by Santarém and Alter do Chão. The methodological way of data anal􀁜sis 􀁚as b􀁘ilt from the conception of Lanna (2000) on the 􀂳ethnograph􀁜 of e􀁛change􀂴. The field sho􀁚ed that to􀁘rism establishes relations of e􀁛change of ambivalent gifts (economic / symbolic) between internal social agents and those with agents external to the communities. This relational exchange of gifts creates an interdependent social network structure, without which the experience of tourism does not happen in the community. By promoting the connection of the microcosm with the macrocosm, tourism generates alliances and sociability in a systemic and complex way, as there is a reciprocal dependence between these environments. Therefore, in social environments that promote the exchange of goods and their spirituality in an ambivalent way, tourism can be understood as a gift and, the relational dynamics that it produces, as a gift system. The understanding of the dynamics of these social relations allowed me to infer that community tourism prod􀁘ces a 􀂳total social fact􀂴 in the conception of Ma􀁘ss (2017). Detailed obser􀁙ation of the tourist initiatives in Anã and Coroca revealed that, although both are called community-based tourism (TBC), the community or endogenous base is currently active only in Coroca. This is because this community operates its collective actions through reciprocity. As the social structure that sustains the autonomy of a community of dependence, tutelage and domination processes by external agents, reciprocity is responsible for promoting the self-management of collective interests, such as tourism. When identifying the alliance between reciprocity and autonomy in the microcosm of Coroca and its absence in the microcosm of Anã, I understood the function of autonomy and its relevance as a guiding characteristic for recognizing community tourism initiatives, as there is no way to mention the role of a local population in tourism management, if it is not free to choose; if it is not fully capable of making decisions in all the processes that involve the tourism operation, which ABSTRACT occur both in its endogenous environment (the community), as well as in the exogenous environment (travel market). I believe that self-management of community tourism is a possible way, as long as local populations have access to knowledge and technical training to self-manage in an integrated manner between their community demands and the expectations of the travel market.