Esse Rio é Minha Rua: Um Estudo sobre Territorialidade e Identidade na Rua de Baixo no Sertão do São Francisco

Abstract

This is a study on the ―Rua de Baixo‖, a community located on the shores of São Francisco River, in the periphery of the city of Januária, North of Minas Gerais. This work is dedicated to the analysis and description of this community, such as the sociability experienced by its residents, the social relations, the struggles for recognition, the conflicts , the strategies of resistance and its singular importance to the construction and consolidation of the cultural identity of that city. At from the narratives of the residents, we tried to understand how the community lives its status and how it is socially referenced in the local culture. We analyzed how the identity of the residents was built, being influenced by their past resistance and by the presence of the São Francisco River in their territory. Ethnography was used to carry out the empirical work through observation, photographic registration and depth interviews which made it possible to verify that the ―Rua de Baixo‖ is recognized for its residents as a site of life, of destiny; as a territory of work, party and faith. The resistance is within the community materialized in several cultural and social practices as a strategy of residents to maintain their traditions, which confirm them as a riverside community facing changing processes. The community is a stronghold of black fishermen, with a low-income population. Marginalized, this population found in the culture and in the ritual of ―Terno dos Temerosos‖, a way to change its status, to reaffirm and ensure the preservation of its knowledge and way of life.