Bem viver vivido, conquistado e almejado: um estudo sobre comunidades tradicionais que lutam por reconhecimento territorial na Baixada Maranhense

Abstract

The notion of buen vivir emerges inspired by the knowledge emanating from the ways of life of indigenous peoples of Latin America, being presented by academics and militants as an alternative to the models of achievement of the State based on the hegemonic proposals of development. Since its incorporation into the constitutional order of Bolivia and Ecuador, on the basis of this notion, nature has been elevated to the position of subject of rights, historically occupied only by human beings. In this notion, there is an intrinsic relation between human beings and nature, and a strong linkage of traditional peoples and communities to their territories. In this sense, this dissertation sought to analyze the notion of buen vivir in the light of a land regularization case for traditional peoples and communities in Brazil. It is a claim for regularization as a quilombo by traditional communities of the Sesmaria do Jardim Territory, in the Baixada Maranhense, an area of natural fields that are composed of dry lands and wetlands inserted in the Environmental Protection Area of Baixada Maranhense, which is considered a site under the Ramsar Convention. The research was carried out based on a critical review of the literature in the light of observed and participated empirical processes and by means of action research with the communities involved and with the land agency that formalizes the process of land regularization. The work has a juridical and anthropological approach, has a qualitative character and was carried out from July 2016 to January 2018, with field work in the villages and in the Institute of Colonization and Lands of Maranhão. It was identified a complex link between the process and the form of land regularization with the notion of buen vivir, given the diversity of traditional groups in situation of conflict in common territory. It was learned that, on the same territory, there are groups with different conceptions on how to live on shared lands and water bodies: while self-identified Quilombolas conceive the notion of buen vivir based on commons, while others reject this notion and its consequences. These antagonists, even those with shared ancestrality, do not share the notion of buen vivir based on common use of certain components of nature, because their practices and forms of private appropriation of nature disqualify and are incompatible with this notion. This creates conflicts that have forced traditional communities to mobilize in the face of violations of rights and to find solutions that will allow them to recover the so called time of buen vivir and to guarantee their right to land - dry and flooded lands - that allows their physical and social reproduction. The case investigated showed that buen vivir is constructed from the articulation of specific territorialities, in which distinct conceptions and forms of appropriation of nature can be responsible for breaking the cohesion of community and territory, although the traditional communities can cope with certain degree of dissent based on the right to difference. The study also shows that buen vivir has being built at daily basis, through social and juridical practices that embrace resistance as current practice and freedom as a desired stage. However, buen vivir, in the discourse, is viewed as a potential better future. The research aims to problematize and better qualify who and in what situation subjects have rights to have which rights and the effectiveness of that issue. This dissertation is, therefore, a reading and a reflection about social and localized processes as emerging alternatives for the attainment of lived, participated and conquered buen vivir.