“Do dendê eu tenho medo até dos espinhos”: resistência cotidiana à integração à agroindústria do dendê pelos camponeses de Maçaranduba – Tomé-açu, Nordeste Paraense

Abstract

I've built this dissertation in order to analyze the daily forms of resistance to the integration into the agricultural industry of dende palm from the farmers of the colony Maçaranduba, municiplatiy of Tomé-Açú, northeast of Pará State. The daily forms of resistance are not usual subjects within researchs on resistance because they are subscribed in the daily life of the peasant societies that do not always allow the researchers to take them as object of analysis. Maçaranduba is geographically inserted in monoculture expansion zone of dende palm, where integration is a mechanism used by agribusinesses, to the expansion of areas planted with oil palm, supported by the creation of the National Program for Production and Use of Biodiesel (PNPB) and Sustainable Production program of Oil Palm (PSOP). As a result, assumed that individuos are not static, but develop justification, opinions and attribute meaning to their choices based on the projects that the family has and into the "fear" that integration might reduce the autonomy that are used to possess. I've used as a theoretical basis the reflections of James Scott, author that considers the daily life the place where the peasant resistance become plausible and real. The methodology was based on a case study, which allowed to understand how the subjects of Maçaranduba undertook the resistance to the integration, to design the data were applied thirty questionnaires whose organization of the questions focused on the knowledge of the families about the program and their positions about the integration, as well as interviews with key informants to understand local history and public agents involved in the debate. With the research I observed that the families elaborate their justifications for resistance from their everyday experiences, always thinking about productive projects that guarantee the family's permanence in the agricultural establishment, rejecting projects that take risks for the maintenance of future generations. I also observed that the families acquire knowledge about integration from an invisible network of information that they weave among the subjects that are part of their daily lives, among them are the families residing in nearby localities that have joined the project. Despite the resistance to integration, the peasants of Maçaranduba feel the reflexes of the expansion of oil palm plantations, through the application of agrochemicals in the nearby crops and in the modification of the landscape to which they were used to.