A reinveção das tradições na agricultura familiar: produção de novidade e conhecimentos na trajetória da apicultura do Vale do Jequitinhonha

Abstract

The present study uses the Novelty Production Approach to understand the production and social reproduction strategies of peasant family farming, here called “peasant tradition”. It analyzes the link between the categories “traditions” and “novelties” in the empirical field of rural domestic industry, especially in the field of beekeeping in the Jequitinhonha Valley. It shows that novelties areproduced through constant improvement and re-signification of a self controlled resource base, distancing farming families from the market for inputs. In this way they conserve and reproduce peasant autonomy. Based on qualitative research, of the case study type, it identifies novelties produced in the context of beekeeping; demonstrates that male and female farmers construct knowledge within a holistic cognitive model and brings to light contradictions in the relationship between beekeeping in the Jequitinhonha Valley and the honey markets.