‘Social Chess’ on Madeira

Tese de doutorado se transformou no livro ‘Mundos do Trabalho e Conflitos Sociais no Rio Madeira’, lançado em maio deste ano, pela editora Valer (Ricardo Oliveira/Cenarium)

July 27, 2021

16:07

Paulo Bahia – Special to Cenarium

MANAUS – A look at the conflicts and relationships between different social agents of the Rio Madeira region, in Amazonas, such as rubber extractors, indigenous people and residents of the “beiradões” in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The subject is the theme of the doctor’s thesis of the historian and professor of the Federal University of Amazonas (Ufam), Davi Avelino Leal, and became the book ‘Mundos do Trabalho e Conflitos Sociais no Rio Madeira’ (Worlds of Work and Social Conflicts on the Madeira River), released in May this year, by Valer publisher.

By means of documental research, the researcher made a trip through localities, parishes and villages, between the years 1861 and 1932, with a vision that goes beyond the victimization of traditional populations by the exploitation of land by the “white”, considering that the Amazon people are not merely passive in the face of social, cultural and economic transformations.

“It’s not a world between good guys and bad guys. But it is a world of extremely complex social relations,” Davi Avelino Leal, historian and professor at Ufam.

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Historian Davi Avelino Leal researched historical documents from a 70-year period, which comprises the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century (Ricardo Oliveira/Cenarium)

Davi Avelino analyzed historical documents in Manaus and in the municipalities of Novo Aripuanã and Humaitá, investigating the social relationship between these characters over a 70-year period. Being a classical theme for Amazonian history scholars, the researcher reinforced the analysis from the indigenous and traditional peoples’ perspective, during the period of the explosion of international demand for natural rubber from the Amazon.

With the growth of the economy in rubber plantation regions, such as the Purus, Juruá and Madeira rivers, the rush of traders to settle in these locations grew exponentially, causing confrontations between rubber extractors, indigenous and non-indigenous residents.

The populations had different responses in this occupation process because there were distinct people occupying the same region. “They were not passive in the face of this new universe of profound transformations that they went through. They managed, they resisted this world, but they also appropriated this world trying, many times, to take advantage, to readapt their lives, to reconfigure, to re-signify this universe of the world of work within a conflictive dimension,” said the researcher.

According to Avelino, the idea of the agency refers to the fact that Indians also appropriate the world of whites. They are not victims, they are not only passive of this world, they also elaborate strategies to apprehend and appropriate this other white world. “We call it agency because not everything is resistance, not everything is opposing, they are also part of this world, but they are appropriating and re-signifying it. This is the idea of agency,” says Avelino.

The work shows the different relationship of the Parintintin, Mura and Munduruku people with rubber extractors and Brazil nut growers. The reaction of the Parintintin, from the region of the upper and middle Solimões, for example, was not to accept the usurpation of land by the rubber extractors, according to the author. The book shows how they resisted and, for a long time, attacked, killed and also suffered with the so-called ‘correrias’, armed expeditions organized by whites to exterminate a certain community.

Despite the conflict with the Parintintin, the response of the Mura and Muduruku was different. They were inserted into the world of work in the rubber plantations, acting as extractors, extracting rubber, and also participating in expeditions to attack the Parintintin, who were resisting the war. The work highlights that before the arrival of the white man there were already interethnic conflicts, where the landowners took advantage to strengthen themselves, a strategy of colonial Brazil.

“Our concern as a researcher is also to try to understand how the indigenous people appropriate this other world. Otherwise, we are left with the vision that they were only victims, that they had no action, no agency. The indigenous people also appropriated this in order to strengthen themselves to obtain resources, to articulate themselves politically. This is part of a complex world reading game. It is not a world between good guys and bad guys. But it is a world of extremely complex social relations,” added Davi.